Praxis Core Reading (5713) Practice Tests

Question 1

Lake-effect snow forms when cold, dry air moves across a large expanse of relatively warm lake water. The air picks up heat and moisture from the lake’s surface, rises, and cools, and the moisture condenses into clouds that release snow on the downwind shore. Because the process depends on open water, the heaviest lake-effect storms tend to occur in late autumn and early winter, before the lakes freeze over.

1. It can be inferred from the passage that lake-effect snowfall in a region would most likely decrease when (A) the air temperature drops well below freezing (B) the lake water is warmer than usual for the season (C) most of the lake’s surface has frozen over (D) late autumn gives way to early winter (E) cold winds blow steadily across the open lake

Questions 2–4

Questions 2–4 refer to the following passage.

Nora had promised herself she would not look at the clock again, and she kept the promise for almost a full minute. The piano tuner worked with his back to her, striking the same key over and over, listening for something she could not hear. “It’s the damp,” he said at last, without turning around. “Old instruments hold on to every wet summer they’ve ever had.” Nora nodded, though he could not see her. Her mother had played this piano every evening for thirty years, and in the eight months since the funeral no one had touched it. Now the house would be sold, and a stranger was coaxing the old notes back into line so that other strangers could admire them.

2. It can be inferred from the passage that the piano is being tuned mainly because (A) the tuner offered to repair damage caused by a flood (B) the house it belongs to is being prepared for sale (C) the piano is going to be moved to Nora’s new home (D) Nora intends to begin playing the instrument herself (E) Nora’s mother asked that it be tuned before she died
3. As used in the passage, “coaxing” most nearly means (A) forcing roughly (B) patiently urging (C) secretly removing (D) loudly testing (E) quickly tricking
4. The detail in the first sentence that Nora “kept the promise for almost a full minute” mainly serves to (A) show that Nora has forgotten her mother’s daily routine (B) indicate that Nora is late for an appointment elsewhere (C) convey Nora’s uneasy restlessness while the tuner works (D) suggest that the tuner is working more slowly than he should (E) establish that the scene takes place late in the evening

Question 5

When teachers ask a question in class, they typically wait only about a second before calling on a student or rephrasing the question. Researchers who have studied classroom talk report that extending this pause to three seconds or more tends to produce longer student answers, more volunteered responses, and more questions from students themselves. The pause, in other words, costs little and appears to change who does the thinking in the room.

5. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the claim in the passage about the effects of a longer pause? (A) Some students say that they would much rather be called on immediately than sit and wait in silence for an answer. (B) After teachers were trained to pause longer, their students gave longer answers to the very same questions. (C) Many teachers report that a long silence during a lesson makes them feel uncomfortable and unprepared. (D) In some classrooms, students answer the teacher’s questions in writing rather than aloud. (E) Teachers who pause longer after asking questions also tend to ask fewer questions in each lesson overall.

Questions 6–7

Questions 6–7 refer to the following graph.

A county agricultural extension office tested four ways of watering tomato plants in two trial plots, one with sandy soil and one with clay soil, over a single growing season.

6. According to the graph, which watering method produced the highest average yield in the sandy-soil plot? (A) Overhead sprinkler (B) Hand watering (C) Soaker hose (D) Drip irrigation (E) All four methods produced the same yield.
7. Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the data in the graph? (A) Overhead sprinklers use more water per plant than any of the other three methods. (B) Hand watering had the lowest yield in both plots. (C) Drip irrigation produced the highest average yield in both of the trial plots. (D) Tomato plants grown in clay soil produce larger individual fruits than those in sandy soil. (E) Watering method mattered more for yield in sandy soil than in clay soil.

Question 8

In the decades before the Civil War, thousands of American towns organized lyceums—local associations that sponsored lectures, debates, and demonstrations for adult audiences. A farmer or shopkeeper might spend a winter evening hearing a talk on chemistry, an account of foreign travel, or an argument about temperance. Speakers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson traveled the lyceum circuit for years, and for many listeners these gatherings were the nearest thing to a college education they would ever have.

8. The primary purpose of the passage is to (A) argue that lyceums taught their audiences more than colleges did (B) explain why Ralph Waldo Emerson became a popular public speaker (C) describe an institution that brought learning to many adults (D) compare the lecture topics favored by farmers and by shopkeepers (E) trace the decline of the lyceum in the years after the Civil War

Questions 9–13

Questions 9–13 refer to the following passage.

Scattered across the fields of New England and the upper Midwest are boulders that seem to have no business being there. Many are made of granite or other rock quite unlike the bedrock beneath them, and some sit alone in open pasture, as though dropped from the sky. Geologists call such stones erratics, and for much of the early nineteenth century their origin was a genuine puzzle.

The most popular explanation held that the boulders had been carried by a great flood, perhaps frozen inside drifting icebergs. The Swiss-born naturalist Louis Agassiz proposed a bolder idea. Having studied the glaciers of the Alps, he noticed that moving ice left distinctive traces: rock surfaces polished smooth and scored with parallel scratches, and ridges of jumbled debris along a glacier’s edges. When he found the same traces far from any existing glacier, he argued that vast sheets of ice had once covered much of the Northern Hemisphere and had carried the boulders with them.

Many of Agassiz’s contemporaries found the theory absurd. Yet as geologists examined more landscapes, the evidence accumulated in its favor, and today the ice ages are a central chapter in the history of the Earth. The erratics, once an embarrassment to science, turned out to be witnesses.

9. The passage is primarily concerned with (A) criticizing the geologists who rejected Louis Agassiz’s theory (B) comparing Alpine and North American glaciers (C) explaining how a puzzle about certain boulders was solved (D) arguing that a great flood shaped the landscape of the upper Midwest (E) describing the types of rock found in the fields of New England
10. According to the passage, which of the following did Agassiz observe in connection with the glaciers of the Alps? (A) Bedrock composed almost entirely of granite (B) Deposits left behind by an ancient flood (C) Erratics resting alone in open pasture (D) Rock surfaces marked with parallel scratches (E) Boulders frozen inside large drifting icebergs
11. Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage? (A) A theory is stated and then refuted by a series of counterexamples drawn from several regions. (B) The careers of two scientists are compared point by point, and one is judged more successful. (C) A natural process is described in chronological steps, and then a prediction about its future is offered. (D) A puzzle is posed, two explanations are offered, and the eventual acceptance of one is noted. (E) A personal experience leads to a general claim, which is then qualified by expert opinion.
12. The final sentence of the passage (“The erratics … witnesses”) serves primarily to (A) stress that the boulders became evidence for the ice-age theory (B) concede that the flood explanation contained a measure of truth (C) suggest that the true origin of the boulders is still being debated (D) indicate that scientists were embarrassed to have accepted Agassiz’s theory (E) introduce a new question about how the ages of erratics are measured
13. Based on the passage, which of the following can be inferred about the flood explanation? Select ALL that apply. Select ALL that apply. (A) It was supported by the scratched rock surfaces later found far from existing glaciers. (B) It attempted to account for the fact that the boulders differ from the bedrock beneath them. (C) It was more widely accepted than the ice-sheet theory in the early nineteenth century.

Question 14

Many parents assume that the more homework children bring home, the more they learn. Large reviews of the research, however, have found little connection between the amount of homework and academic achievement in the elementary grades, even though a clearer positive link appears among high school students. For young children, an evening spent reading for pleasure may do as much good as a stack of worksheets.

14. The word “however” in the second sentence signals that (A) the research findings confirm what many parents already believe (B) the research findings run counter to the assumption described in the first sentence (C) the author is changing to a topic unrelated to the first sentence (D) the research was conducted before homework became common (E) the findings apply only to students in high school

Questions 15–16

Questions 15–16 refer to the following passage.

Many old paintings look darker and more yellow today than they did when they left the artist’s studio. Often the culprit is not the paint but the varnish, a clear protective coating that painters brushed over finished works. Natural resin varnishes yellow as they age, casting a brownish veil over every color beneath them. Removing such varnish is delicate work, because the solvents that dissolve it can also harm the paint if they are applied carelessly. Conservators therefore test a solvent on tiny areas near the edge of a canvas before proceeding. When the job is done well, viewers are often startled to discover that a gloomy scene was once full of bright blues and clear skies.

15. As used in the passage, “culprit” most nearly means (A) oldest layer (B) person accused of a crime (C) hidden ingredient (D) careless worker (E) cause of a problem
16. Select the sentence in the passage that explains why removing old varnish must be done with great care. (select a sentence in the passage)

Question 17

In Washington State, the western slopes of the Cascade Range receive abundant rain and snow each year, while the land just east of the mountains is dry enough for sagebrush. The contrast has a single cause. Moist air from the Pacific cools as it is forced up the western slopes, and most of its moisture falls as rain or snow. By the time the air descends the eastern side, it has little moisture left to give.

17. Which of the following best describes the relationship between the heavy rainfall on the western slopes and the dryness east of the mountains, as presented in the passage? (A) The process that produces the heavy rainfall also leaves the air dry by the time it reaches the east side. (B) The two conditions have separate causes that happen to occur in the same state. (C) The heavy rainfall in the west is gradually spreading eastward across the mountains. (D) Both conditions result from air that warms as it rises up the western slopes. (E) The dryness in the east is the reason that so much rain falls on the western slopes.

Questions 18–19

Questions 18–19 refer to the following passage.

In a study at a community college in Oregon, 90 students were given a list of 30 unfamiliar vocabulary words with their definitions. For half of the words, students spent forty seconds writing the definition over and over; for the other half, they spent the same forty seconds drawing a picture that showed the word’s meaning. The next day, students remembered far more of the words they had drawn, even those who described themselves as poor artists. The researchers concluded that drawing works because it forces learners to think about what a word means and to translate it into an image, so the word is stored in memory in more than one form.

18. Which of the following situations best applies the researchers’ conclusion? (A) A biology student learning the parts of a cell sketches each part and labels it from memory. (B) A biology student learning the parts of a cell studies with music playing in the background. (C) A biology student learning the parts of a cell underlines each term every time it appears in the chapter. (D) A biology student learning the parts of a cell copies the textbook’s definitions five times each. (E) A biology student learning the parts of a cell reads the chapter aloud to a classmate.
19. The researchers’ conclusion depends on which of the following assumptions? (A) Forty seconds is the ideal amount of time to spend studying a single new word. (B) Most students prefer drawing pictures to writing definitions when they study. (C) Students who are skilled artists learn vocabulary more quickly than other students do. (D) The words that students drew were not easier to remember than the words whose definitions they wrote. (E) Writing a definition repeatedly does nothing to help a student remember a word.

Question 20

A sourdough starter is a simple mixture of flour and water, yet it teems with life. Wild yeasts and bacteria from the flour and the surrounding air feed on the mixture’s starches, producing carbon dioxide that makes bread rise and acids that give it a tangy flavor. Bakers who “feed” a starter with fresh flour and water every day can keep the same culture alive for years. A loaf made from a well-tended starter is, to my mind, far superior to any bread made with packaged yeast.

20. Which of the following statements from the passage is presented as opinion rather than fact? (A) “A loaf made from a well-tended starter is, to my mind, far superior to any bread made with packaged yeast.” (B) “producing carbon dioxide that makes bread rise and acids that give it a tangy flavor” (C) “Bakers who ‘feed’ a starter with fresh flour and water every day can keep the same culture alive for years.” (D) “A sourdough starter is a simple mixture of flour and water” (E) “Wild yeasts and bacteria from the flour and the surrounding air feed on the mixture’s starches”

Question 21

Question 21 refers to the following map.

The map shows the six fields of Willow Creek Farm and the crop planted in each field this season.

Willow Creek Farm — Field Map: Map of a farm divided into six rectangular fields in two rows of three, with north at the top. North row, from west to east: Field 1: Corn, Field 2: Soybeans, Field 3: Hay. South row, from west to east: Field 4: Wheat, Field 5: Pasture, Field 6: Orchard. Willow Creek runs north to south along the entire west edge of the farm, bordering Field 1 and Field 4 only. County Road 9 runs east to west along the entire south edge of the farm, bordering Field 4, Field 5, and Field 6 only. A farmhouse and barn stand beside the road just south of Field 6. The east edge borders a neighboring farm, and the north edge borders woods.

21. According to the map, which field borders Willow Creek but does NOT border County Road 9? (A) Field 5: Pasture (B) Field 6: Orchard (C) Field 2: Soybeans (D) Field 4: Wheat (E) Field 1: Corn

Question 22

In the year after the Harwood Museum of Art stopped charging an admission fee, its attendance rose by about 40 percent. Advocates of free admission at other museums have seized on the figure as proof that the old fee had been keeping many residents from ever setting foot in the building. Removing the fee, they argue, is the surest way for a museum to reach a wider public.

22. The advocates’ argument assumes which of the following? (A) The rise in attendance was not mainly the result of people who already visited the museum coming more often. (B) The Harwood Museum made up for the lost admission fees by raising money from other sources. (C) Most of the residents near the Harwood Museum are more interested in art than people elsewhere. (D) Museums that charge admission fees attract fewer visitors from out of town than free museums. (E) The Harwood Museum’s attendance would have fallen during that year if the fee had remained.

Questions 23–28

Questions 23–28 refer to the following pair of passages.

Passage 1

In January 1848, a carpenter building a sawmill on the American River in northern California noticed flakes of gold in the water. The news spread slowly at first, but by 1849 the rush was on. Over the next several years, some 300,000 fortune seekers arrived from the eastern states, Latin America, Europe, and China. San Francisco grew from a village of perhaps a thousand people into a crowded city almost overnight, and California, which had only recently passed from Mexican to American control, was admitted as a state in 1850, less than three years after the discovery. Few events in American history have remade a region so quickly.

Passage 2

The usual picture of the Gold Rush—a lone miner striking it rich—leaves a great deal out. Most of those who poured into California found little gold and went home poorer than they came; the more reliable path to wealth lay in selling miners food, tools, and clothing at inflated prices. Merchants such as Levi Strauss, who arrived in San Francisco in 1853 to sell dry goods, built businesses that outlasted the rush by generations. For the Native peoples of California, the rush was a catastrophe. Settlers seized their lands, and disease, starvation, and deliberate violence reduced their numbers from roughly 150,000 before the rush to about 30,000 by 1870.

23. The primary purpose of Passage 2 is to (A) praise the merchants who supplied miners with food, tools, and clothing (B) argue that the discovery of gold slowed California’s progress toward statehood (C) explain the methods that miners used to separate gold from river gravel (D) describe the rapid growth of San Francisco from a village into a city (E) challenge a familiar story of the Gold Rush by pointing to who actually profited and who suffered
24. According to Passage 1, which of the following was a result of the Gold Rush? (A) Merchants in the East refused to ship goods to California. (B) Most of the miners who came to California became wealthy. (C) California became a state less than three years after gold was found. (D) The Native population of California grew rapidly after 1848. (E) San Francisco lost residents to the mining camps in the hills.
25. As used in Passage 2, “reliable” most nearly means (A) popular (B) well-known (C) honest (D) dependable (E) genuine
26. The authors of both passages would most likely agree that (A) the Gold Rush brought a very large number of newcomers to California (B) merchants in California earned less than the average gold miner (C) most of the people who searched for gold ended their lives wealthy (D) the Gold Rush had little effect on the Native peoples of California (E) California’s admission as a state was delayed by the rush for gold
27. Which of the following topics is discussed in BOTH passages? Select ALL that apply. Select ALL that apply. (A) The fate of Native Californians during the Gold Rush (B) The growth of San Francisco during the Gold Rush (C) The arrival of large numbers of people in California
28. The author of Passage 2 would most likely respond to the last sentence of Passage 1 by (A) denying that the Gold Rush had any lasting effect on the economy of California (B) agreeing with it completely and adding more examples of the miners’ success (C) arguing that California would have become a state sooner without the Gold Rush (D) pointing out that San Francisco declined after the gold ran out in the 1850s (E) noting that the transformation came at a devastating cost to the people already living there

Question 29

Many bronze sculptures are made by the lost-wax method, a technique thousands of years old. The artist first creates a model in wax, which is then encased in a heat-resistant mold. When the mold is heated, the wax melts and drains away—it is “lost”—leaving a hollow space in the exact shape of the model. Molten bronze is poured into that space, and once the metal cools, the mold is broken open to reveal the sculpture.

29. Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage? (A) It traces the history of a technique across several ancient cultures. (B) It compares two methods of casting and recommends one of them. (C) It describes the steps of a process in the order in which they occur. (D) It presents a problem that sculptors often face and then offers a solution to it. (E) It states a claim about bronze and supports it with expert opinion.

Questions 30–32

Questions 30–32 refer to the following passage.

On a clear, calm night, the ground loses heat rapidly by radiating it toward the sky. The air just above the surface cools along with it, and if that air holds enough moisture, it can reach its dew point, the temperature at which water vapor condenses into tiny droplets. The result is radiation fog, which often settles in valleys because cool air is denser than warm air and drains downhill. Clouds tend to prevent such fog by acting like a blanket that holds in the escaping heat. Wind prevents it in a different way, by mixing the chilled surface air with warmer air above. Once the morning sun warms the ground, radiation fog usually disappears within a few hours.

30. According to the passage, radiation fog often collects in valleys because (A) cool air is denser than warm air and flows downhill (B) valleys are shaded from the morning sun for longer (C) rivers in valleys add moisture to the surrounding air (D) winds in valleys are stronger than those on hillsides (E) clouds seldom form in the skies above low-lying areas
31. Select the sentence in the passage that explains how moving air interferes with the formation of radiation fog. (select a sentence in the passage)
32. Based on the passage, radiation fog would be LEAST likely to form on which of the following nights? (A) An overcast, windy night on an exposed hilltop (B) A cloudless, windless autumn night beside a lake (C) A clear night with still air soon after a rainstorm (D) A calm, starry night along a damp river bottom (E) A clear, calm night after a humid day in a low valley

Question 33

Many American cities require that a small share of the budget for new public buildings, often about 1 percent, be spent on art. Critics dismiss such programs as frivolous. But a sculpture in a courthouse plaza or a mosaic in a subway station is seen by thousands of people every day, most of whom may never enter a museum. At a tiny fraction of a building’s cost, these programs bring art into ordinary life, and they deserve to be expanded rather than trimmed.

33. The author’s attitude toward percent-for-art programs can best be described as (A) detached neutrality (B) firm support (C) mild impatience (D) reluctant acceptance (E) guarded doubt

Questions 34–38

Questions 34–38 refer to the following passage.

For generations, many farmers in the American Midwest left their fields bare between the autumn harvest and spring planting. Bare soil, however, is vulnerable. Winter rains and melting snow wash topsoil into streams, and nitrogen fertilizer that the previous crop did not use seeps away into groundwater.

Cover crops offer a remedy. Plants such as cereal rye, clover, and radishes are sown after the harvest not to be sold but to protect the ground. Their roots hold the soil in place and soak up leftover nutrients; when the plants die back, they return organic matter to the soil. Clover and other legumes go further, working with bacteria in their roots to add nitrogen that the next crop can use.

Why, then, do cover crops still grow on only a small share of Midwestern cropland? Part of the answer is cost. Seed and planting require money and labor at the busiest time of the farming year, and the benefits—richer soil, lower fertilizer bills—may take several seasons to appear. A farmer who rents land on a one-year lease may never collect them at all. Programs that share the up-front costs with farmers have increased planting in some states, suggesting that the practice’s slow spread reflects economics more than doubts about whether it works.

34. Which of the following best states the main idea of the passage? (A) Cover crops protect farmland in several ways, but cost has slowed their spread. (B) Cover crops reduce the yield of the following season’s main crop on most farms. (C) State governments should require farmers to plant cover crops after each harvest. (D) Most Midwestern farmers no longer leave fields bare. (E) Legumes such as clover are the most effective of all the plants used as cover crops.
35. In the first sentence of the third paragraph, the word “then” mainly serves to (A) signal that the author is summarizing the passage’s argument (B) introduce an example that illustrates the previous paragraph (C) mark a contrast between two different groups of farmers (D) indicate that the events described happened at a later time (E) introduce a question raised by the benefits just described
36. It can be inferred from the passage that a farmer renting land on a one-year lease might not plant cover crops because (A) landowners generally forbid tenants to plant anything after the harvest (B) rented land is usually richer in nitrogen than land owned by farmers (C) the farmer would pay the costs, but others might reap the benefits (D) leases of that length prohibit the use of nitrogen fertilizer (E) cover crop seed is not sold to farmers who do not own their land
37. According to the passage, which of the following are benefits of cover crops? Select ALL that apply. Select ALL that apply. (A) Reducing the loss of topsoil (B) Providing an extra crop that can be sold after the harvest (C) Taking up nutrients left behind by the previous crop
38. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the author’s conclusion in the last sentence of the passage? (A) Some states that offer no cost-sharing programs have higher rates of cover crop planting than states that do. (B) Surveyed farmers who skip cover crops mostly say the crops would help their soil but cost too much. (C) In several recent dry autumns, cover crops on some farms failed to sprout and provided little protection to the soil. (D) The price of clover seed has risen faster in recent years than the price of most other farm supplies. (E) Farmers who plant cover crops report fewer weeds in their fields the following spring.

Question 39

Students who stay up all night before an exam may be undermining their own efforts. Research on sleep suggests that the brain uses the hours of rest after learning to consolidate new memories, replaying and strengthening the patterns formed during the day. Deprived of that sleep, a student may walk into the exam having studied a great deal but remembering surprisingly little of it.

39. Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the passage? (A) Students should do all of their studying in the morning, soon after they wake up. (B) Studying through the night has no effect on how much a student remembers. (C) A student who studies and then sleeps is likely to remember more than one who studies all night. (D) Getting a full night’s sleep is more important for success on an exam than studying the material. (E) Memories formed while a person sleeps are stronger than memories formed during the day.

Questions 40–41

Questions 40–41 refer to the following passage.

In April 1860, the Pony Express began carrying mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. Relays of riders, changing horses at stations spaced along the route, could cover nearly 2,000 miles in about ten days—far faster than stagecoaches. The service captured the public imagination, and its young riders became figures of legend. Yet it lasted only about eighteen months. In October 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph line was completed, and messages that had taken days to deliver could now cross the continent almost instantly. The Pony Express, built for speed, was undone by something faster.

40. The author mentions the completion of the transcontinental telegraph line primarily in order to (A) show that many Pony Express riders became telegraph operators (B) explain why the Pony Express came to an end so soon (C) compare the cost of sending a letter with the cost of a telegram (D) illustrate how the Pony Express captured the public imagination (E) identify where the Pony Express stations were located
41. The tone of the last sentence of the passage can best be described as (A) strictly technical (B) anxiously urgent (C) bitterly critical (D) wryly ironic (E) deeply sentimental

Question 42

Security experts often recommend using a different long, random password for every online account. Few people can memorize dozens of such passwords, which is why many end up reusing a single easy one. Password-manager programs resolve this conflict by generating and storing strong passwords, so that the user needs to remember only one master password. Critics note, though, that this arrangement concentrates risk: anyone who obtains the master password gains access to everything.

42. Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage? (A) A claim about security is stated and then supported with statistical evidence. (B) A technical term is defined, and several examples of it are then listed. (C) A problem is described, a solution is offered, and a drawback is noted. (D) The history of passwords is traced. (E) Two password-manager programs are compared, and the better one is recommended.

Question 43

Question 43 refers to the following graph.

The graph shows average daily high temperatures in selected months for two cities at about the same latitude, one on the ocean coast and one about 200 miles inland.

43. Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the data in the graph? (A) Both cities reach their highest average temperature of the year in July. (B) The inland city receives more hours of sunshine each year than the coastal city. (C) The two cities have nearly identical average high temperatures in January. (D) The coastal city is warmer than the inland city in every one of the months shown on the graph. (E) The inland city’s average highs vary more over the year than the coastal city’s do.

Question 44

By the 1840s, much of Ireland’s rural population depended on the potato for most of its food, and a large share of the crop came from a single high-yielding variety, the Lumper. Because potatoes are grown from pieces of the parent plant rather than from seed, the Lumper plants were essentially identical copies of one another. When a blight arrived in 1845, a weakness in one plant was a weakness in all of them, and the disease swept through field after field.

44. Which of the following situations is most similar to the one described in the passage? (A) A farmer who plants several different crops earns less in a good year than a neighbor who plants only corn. (B) A gardener saves seeds from her healthiest tomato plants each fall in order to plant them the following spring. (C) A drought reduces harvests of every crop in a region, whether the farmers planted one variety or many. (D) Every computer in a company runs identical software, so a single virus is able to disable the entire network at once. (E) A town’s only bakery closes for a week, so residents buy their bread from grocery stores in a nearby town instead.

Questions 45–46

Questions 45–46 refer to the following passage.

Every Saturday morning of my childhood, my father and I walked the four blocks to Pruitt’s Hardware on Main Street. The store smelled of machine oil and sawdust, and its wooden floors sagged in the places where customers had stood for sixty years. Mr. Pruitt never seemed to need to look anything up. Tell him you had a dripping faucet, and he would disappear down an aisle and return with the exact washer, along with instructions nobody had asked for. My father claimed he went to buy nails. I came to understand, much later, that he went for the conversation—and that the nails were simply the price of admission.

45. It can be inferred from the passage that the narrator’s father valued the weekly trips to the hardware store mainly because (A) his household needed a new supply of nails every week (B) they gave him a chance to talk with Mr. Pruitt and others (C) he wanted to teach the narrator how to make home repairs (D) Pruitt’s was the only store in town that sold hardware (E) Pruitt’s Hardware charged less for nails than other stores
46. As used in the passage, the phrase “the price of admission” refers to (A) the weekly budget the family set aside for repairs (B) the unusually high cost of the nails sold at Pruitt’s store (C) an entrance fee that Mr. Pruitt charged his customers (D) a small purchase that served as an excuse for the visit (E) the money the father paid for Mr. Pruitt’s advice

Question 47

Printmaking techniques fall into several families. In relief printing, such as woodcut, the artist carves away the areas meant to stay blank, and ink is rolled onto the raised surface that remains. Intaglio methods, such as engraving and etching, work the opposite way: lines are cut or etched into a metal plate, ink is pressed into those grooves, and the plate’s surface is wiped clean before printing.

47. According to the passage, relief printing and intaglio printing differ chiefly in (A) whether the artist makes a drawing before starting to cut (B) whether the finished prints are made on paper or on fabric instead (C) whether ink is held by raised surfaces or by recessed lines (D) whether the artist uses a single color or several colors (E) how many copies can be printed before the plate wears out

Questions 48–51

Questions 48–51 refer to the following passage.

In 1862, in the middle of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act, one of the most consequential education laws in American history. The act granted each state tracts of federal land—30,000 acres for each of its members of Congress—which the states could sell to fund colleges. These institutions were to teach agriculture and the “mechanic arts,” without excluding classical studies, so that working people could obtain what the law called a “liberal and practical education.”

The idea was bold for its time. Most American colleges then enrolled small numbers of students, many of them preparing for the ministry or the law, and taught a curriculum built on Latin and Greek. The land-grant colleges, by contrast, were meant to serve the children of farmers and mechanics and to apply science to the problems of everyday work. Many of today’s large public universities, including Cornell, Purdue, and the University of Wisconsin, owe their founding or their growth to the act.

The law’s legacy is not without shadows. Much of the land the states sold had been taken from Native American nations, often through coercive treaties or through no treaty at all. A full account of the land-grant universities, many historians now argue, must include both the opportunity they created and the dispossession that paid for it.

48. The primary purpose of the passage is to (A) explain why the study of Latin and Greek declined in American colleges (B) criticize President Lincoln for signing a law during the Civil War (C) argue that the Morrill Act should be replaced by a more modern law (D) describe a major education law and a troubling part of its history (E) compare the early histories of Cornell, Purdue, and the University of Wisconsin
49. The description of most American colleges of the period, in the second paragraph, serves primarily to (A) identify the colleges that received land under the Morrill Act (B) show that more ministers and lawyers were needed at the time (C) explain why the land-grant colleges failed to attract students (D) highlight how different the land-grant colleges were meant to be (E) suggest that a classical education was superior to a practical one
50. The author’s attitude toward the Morrill Act can best be described as (A) harshly condemning of its purposes and its results (B) indifferent to its lasting effects on American education (C) doubtful that it had much historical importance (D) wholly admiring of it, without any reservation at all (E) appreciative of its gains but aware of its costs
51. Which of the following situations is most similar to the “shadows” described in the third paragraph? (A) A new law is passed during wartime, when the attention of the public is focused on other matters. (B) A city builds a popular park on land it took by evicting residents with little or no compensation. (C) A museum closes an old wing of its building because the number of visitors has declined. (D) A state university raises its tuition in order to pay for new science laboratories and hire more faculty. (E) A public school replaces a course in Latin with a course in computer programming and engineering.

Question 52

In 1824, Louis Braille, a fifteen-year-old student at a school for blind children in Paris, began adapting a system of raised dots that an army officer, Charles Barbier, had devised for reading in the dark. Barbier’s symbols used as many as twelve dots and stood for sounds rather than letters. Braille reduced each symbol to a cell of no more than six dots—small enough to be felt with a single touch of the fingertip—and assigned the cells to letters, numbers, and punctuation marks.

52. It can be inferred from the passage that one advantage of Braille’s system over Barbier’s was that (A) it represented the sounds of spoken French more accurately (B) it could be read in the dark by soldiers as well as by the blind (C) it used more dots in each symbol to allow more combinations (D) its symbols were raised higher so that they could be felt more easily (E) a reader could feel an entire symbol without moving the fingertip

Questions 53–54

Questions 53–54 refer to the following passage.

Between the early 1840s and the late 1860s, several hundred thousand Americans set out on the Oregon Trail, a route of roughly 2,000 miles from towns along the Missouri River to the valleys of Oregon and beyond. Popular images show families riding in covered wagons, but most emigrants walked beside them, since the wagons were packed with food, tools, and household goods and the oxen pulling them tired easily. A typical crossing took four to six months, and a party that started too late risked meeting snow in the western mountains. The greatest danger was not attack, as later films would suggest, but disease; cholera alone killed thousands along the route.

53. The passage is primarily concerned with (A) describing the construction of the wagons used on the Oregon Trail (B) comparing the Oregon Trail with other routes to the western territories (C) tracing the history of cholera outbreaks in the nineteenth-century United States (D) explaining why so many Americans chose to settle in Oregon in the 1840s (E) correcting some popular images of travel on a nineteenth-century emigrant route
54. Based on the passage, which of the following can be concluded about travel on the Oregon Trail? Select ALL that apply. Select ALL that apply. (A) The timing of a party’s departure could affect its safety. (B) Many emigrants covered most of the distance on foot. (C) Illness was a more serious threat than armed conflict.

Question 55

In April 1815, Mount Tambora in present-day Indonesia erupted with enormous force, hurling vast amounts of ash and sulfur gases high into the atmosphere. The following year, New England saw snow in June and killing frosts in July and August, and crops failed across much of the Northern Hemisphere. Many people called 1816 “the year without a summer,” unaware that its cause lay on the other side of the world.

55. Which of the following best describes the relationship between the eruption of Mount Tambora and the weather of 1816, as presented in the passage? (A) The two events are presented as an unrelated coincidence. (B) The eruption is presented as the cause of the unusual weather. (C) The weather is presented as a milder echo of the eruption itself. (D) Both events are traced to a common cause in New England. (E) The unusual weather is presented as the cause of the eruption.

Question 56

For centuries, admirers of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture praised the pure white marble of the statues as the essence of classical beauty. Yet many of those statues were originally painted in vivid colors. Traces of pigment, detectable today with ultraviolet light and other techniques, show that eyes, lips, hair, and clothing were once richly colored. The gleaming white that inspired generations of later sculptors was largely the result of time and weather, not the ancient artists’ intentions.

56. Which of the following best expresses the main point of the passage? (A) Ancient statues admired for their white marble were in fact originally colored. (B) Ancient painted statues are more beautiful than the white marble statues of later centuries. (C) Ultraviolet light is the only reliable way to study ancient Greek and Roman art. (D) Later sculptors deliberately removed the paint from ancient Greek and Roman statues. (E) Greek sculptors used marble more skillfully than the Roman sculptors who followed them.