ACCUPLACER ESL (LOEP)

Sample Questions for Students

 According to the passage, which of these statements
is true?
ACCUPLACER ESL A. Janet bought a pickup truck and a sports car.
B. The pickup truck was faster than the sports
Reading Skills Test car.
C. The high school student traded cars with
The ESL Reading Skills test measures your Janet.
ability to read English. Specifically, it D. The pickup truck was older than the sports
assesses your comprehension of short car.
passages. It contains brief passages of 50
words or less and moderate length passages 3. Some of Edward Weston’s black-and-white
of 50 to 90 words. Half of this test contains photographs of American nature scenes are
straightforward comprehension items considered superb examples of visual art. Indeed,
some of his photographs have commanded top
(paraphrase, locating information, prices at art galleries.
vocabulary on a phrase level, and pronoun
reference). The other half assesses inference Which of the following best characterizes Weston’s
photographs?
skills (main idea, fact versus opinion,
A. They belong to famous collectors.
cause/effect logic, identifying irrelevant B. They have been sold in art galleries for large
information, author’s point of view, and sums of money.
applying the author’s logic to another C. They introduced many Americans to visual
situation). art.
D. They contrast American cities with natural
settings.
Sample Questions 4. Speaking to a group of people can be a frightening
experience. Some speakers cope by looking
1. Television has been introduced to almost every above the heads of the audience. Others try to
country in the world, reaching a large number of imagine that they are talking to a friend. A few
viewers on every continent. About 600 million try picturing the audience in some non-
people saw the first person walk on the moon, threatening way, such as in their pajamas.
and a billion people watched the twentieth The author of the passage assumes that speakers
Olympic Games. Television has in many ways should
promoted understanding and cooperation among
A. feel comfortable when addressing an
people. It does this by showing educational and
audience.
cultural programs.
B. scare the audience.
According to the passage, which of the following is C. encourage people to talk during the speech.
true? D. speak only to familiar people.
A. Television is watched in nearly every 5. People have different ways of learning. Some are
country. better at making mental pictures of new ideas.
B. Not everybody who had a television set could Others are more comfortable with writing lists of
watch the 1998 World Cup finals. things to memorize. Certain people can learn best
C. Watching television makes people when listening to music, while others need
dissatisfied with their own lives. silence to concentrate.
D. Television was invented in 1980.
Which of the following is the main idea of the
2. Janet’s parents bought her a new sports car as a passage?
birthday present. It was blue. Janet sold her 7-
A. Mental pictures help many to learn.
year-old blue pickup truck to a high school
B. Some people prefer lists to making mental
student. The truck could not go very fast, but the
pictures.
student was happy with it.
C. To learn well you need to be comfortable.
 D. Different individuals have different ways of getting increased wages and improved living
acquiring information. situations for farmworkers.
6. Before giving first aid to an accident victim, you Chavez changed lives because he
should obtain his or her consent. Asking for A. helped the farmers get more workers.
consent takes a simple question. Say to the B. worked for the farmers.
victim, “I know first aid, and I can help you until C. helped work on the farms every day.
an ambulance arrives. Is that okay?” D. changed the conditions for the farmworkers.
“Asking for consent” means asking for
A. permission to help the victim.
B. thanks from the victim.
C. help from onlookers. ACCUPLACER ESL
D. information about the victim’s injuries.
Sentence Meaning Test
7. Jane and Paul are busy for 15 hours a day, 5 days a
week going to college and working in a
restaurant. They go to sleep at 11 p.m. every day,
The ESL Sentence Meaning test measures
but on Sunday they take part in dance lessons. how well you understand the meaning of
sentences in English. It assesses the
According to the passage, Jane and Paul spend most
of their time
understanding of word meanings in one- or
A. at home. two-sentence contexts. The sentences are
B. going to college and working. drawn from the subject areas of natural
C. taking part in dance lessons. science, history/social studies,
D. sleeping. arts/humanities, psychology/human
relations, and practical situations. There are
8. If you hold a piece of copper wire over the flame four content areas measured: (a) Particle,
of a match, heat will be conducted by the copper Phrasal Verbs, Prepositions of Direction; (b)
wire to your fingers, and you will be forced to Adverbs, Adjectives, Connectives Sequence;
drop the wire. You will, however, still be able to
hold the match because the match is a poor
(c) Basic Nouns and Verbs; and (d) Basic
conductor of heat. Anyone, child or adult, can try and Important Idioms.
this simple experiment.
Which of the following is implied in the passage
above?
Sample Questions
A. Copper is a good conductor of heat.
B. A match and copper conduct heat equally. The sentence below has a blank space.
C. A match is an excellent conductor of heat. Choose the word or phrase that makes the
D. Matches should be kept out of the reach of sentence meaningful and correct.
small children.
1. Shikibu Murasaki, who wrote almost a thousand
9. Many people own different pets. Dogs, cats, birds, years ago, was one of the world’s ____ novelists.
and fish are common household pets. Others pets A. most early
are considered to be exotic animals. These B. too early
include snakes, lizards, and hedgehogs. C. more early
Snakes are D. earliest
A. uncommon pets. 2. The Chang children ____ their parents by making
B. likely to be found in a household with dogs. sandwiches for the whole family.
C. found only in zoos. A. helped out
D. not allowed in people’s homes. B. helped with
10. Cesar Chavez was an influential leader for C. helps for
farmworkers. He fought for their rights and better D. helps to
working conditions. Chavez led many strikes that
angered farm owners. Eventually he succeeded in
3. As demonstrated by his last album, which was What did Judy do at 9 p.m.?
released after his death, Ibrahim Ferrer ____ one A. Leave work
of the most beautiful voices in Latin music. B. Come home from the airport
A. had C. Lose her enthusiasm
B. have D. Go to bed
C. have had
10. This semester many students are enrolled in a
D. having
new course, African Dance, which is being taught
4. After we saw the play, we had different opinions by a first-time instructor, Sheila Duncan.
____ Jane’s performance.
How long has the university offered the African
A. about dance class?
B. at
A. For a short time
C. for
B. For many years
D. towards
C. For an entire school year
Each problem contains one or two sentences D. On and off for a while
followed by a question. Choose the correct
answer to the question.
5. Elena found a tomato that was much bigger than ACCUPLACER ESL
all the others in the garden. Language Use Test
How did the tomato compare to the others in the
garden? The ESL Language Use test measures your
A. It was the smallest. proficiency in using correct grammar in
B. It was not very large.
English sentences. There are five content
C. It was larger than some.
D. It was the largest. areas measured on this test: (a) Nouns,
Pronouns, Pronoun Case Structure; (b)
6. When the popular entertainer canceled her
appearance, the Latin American festival was
Subject–Verb Agreement; (c) Comparatives,
postponed indefinitely. Adverbs, Adjectives; (d) Verbs; and (e)
Subordination/Coordination.
When will the festival likely take place?
A. Tonight
B. Tomorrow
C. Next week
Sample Questions
D. Many weeks later
The sentence below has a blank space.
7. Janet is never late to meet her friends, and
sometimes arrives early.
Choose the word or phrase that makes a
grammatically correct sentence.
Which best describes Janet?
A. Lonely 1. _____ washing her sweater, Mary hung it up to
B. Punctual dry.
C. Talkative A. After
D. Tardy B. Before
C. By
8. Bram Stoker is best known for his classic horror D. Until
novel Dracula, which was published in 1897.
2. Some day men and women _____ to Mars.
What did Bram Stoker do?
A. will travel
A. He was a doctor. B. will travels
B. He was a merchant. C. will traveling
C. He was a writer. D. will traveled
D. He was an engineer.
3. Water _____ at a temperature of zero degrees
9. Exhausted from her transatlantic flight, Judy could Celsius.
not stay up past 9 p.m.
A. having frozen
B. freezing
 C. freeze C. When her puppy ran into the street after a cat,
D. freezes the owner quickly went to retrieve the
puppy.
4. _____ get a new haircut?
D. Quickly retrieving it, the owner went quickly
A. Have you after her puppy that ran out into the street
B. Does you after a cat.
C. Are you
D. Did you 8. Lisa plays the piano. Her sister Kelly plays the
piano, too.
5. Jacques Cousteau will be remembered for his
A. Lisa and her sister Kelly plays the piano.
inventions and for _____ to marine science.
B. Both Lisa and her sister Kelly play the piano.
A. dedication C. Lisa plays the piano and Kelly plays the
B. his dedication piano.
C. being dedicated D. Lisa and Kelly too play the piano.
D. his being dedicated
9. The road was slippery. We put chains on the tires.
6. Since my parents always insist that I get a good
A. Although the road was slippery, we put
night’s sleep, they were _____ when I stayed out
chains on the tires.
last night past my curfew.
B. The road became slippery when we put
A. very happy chains on the tires.
B. very relieved C. We put chains on the tires because the road
C. very tired was slippery.
D. very angry D. Putting chains on the tires, the road we were
Read the two sentences below and choose on was slippery.
the best way of combining them. 10. Kazuko took her dog for a walk. They went to the
7. Her puppy ran out into the street chasing a cat. The park.
owner quickly went to retrieve it. A. Kazuko, going to the park, took her dog for a
A. The owner quickly went to retrieve it after a walk.
cat was chased into the street by her puppy. B. Kazuko took her dog for a walk in the park.
B. The owner quickly retrieved it after her C. Kazuko took her dog for a walk because they
puppy chased a cat into the street. went to the park.
D. Kazuko and her dog went to the park, where
they walked.
 ACCUPLACER ESL ANSWER KEY:

ESL READING SKILLS:

1. A
2. D
3. B
4. A
5. D
6. A
7. B
8. A
9. A
10. D

ESL SENTENCE MEANING

1. D
2. A
3. A
4. A
5. D
6. D
7. B
8. C
9. D
10. A

ESL LANGUAGE USE

1. A
2. A
3. D
4. D
5. B
6. D
7. C
8. B
9. C
10. B