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Question-and-Answer Service Student Guide

riting and anguage Test

5 M I NU TES, QUESTIONS

Turn to Section 2 of your answer sheet to answer the questions in this section.

Each passage below is accompanied by a number of questions. For some questions, you
will consider how the passage might be revised to improve the expression of ideas. For
other questions, you will consider how the passage might be edited to correct errors in
sentence structure, usage, or punctuation. A passage or a question may be accompanied by
one or more graphics (such as a table or graph) that you will consider as you make revising
and editing decisions.

Some questions will direct you to an underlined portion of a passage. Other questions will
direct you to a location in a passage or ask you to think about the passage as a whole.

After reading each passage, choose the answer to each question that most effectively
improves the quality of writing in the passage or that makes the passage conform to the
conventions of standard written English. Many questions include a “NO CHANGE” option.
Choose that option if you think the best choice is to leave the relevant portion of the
passage as it is.

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

...................................................................................................................................

A) NO CHANGE
Benjamin Banneker: Marking Time B) their
Benjamin Banneker gained local fame for making a C) it’s
D) its
working clock in 1753, a time when few people owned
clocks, let alone understood 1 they’re mechanics. A
twenty-two-year-old free black man living in Maryland,
Banneker learned how to make the clock by examining
the insides of a watch a merchant friend had lent him.
His sharp skills in measuring the passage of time would
eventually lead Banneker to the job of determining the
official borders of the new United States capital.

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Studious from an early age, Banneker completed his 2

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formal education only up through algebra, at which point A) NO CHANGE
his father pulled him out of school to help on the family B) sky. Charting
C) sky, charting
farm. A former teacher, however, encouraged Banneker
D) sky, he also charted
to pursue his education independently and lent him the
books to do so. Banneker also studied the night 2 sky,
3
he charted how the migration of the stars relates to the Which choice most effectively establishes the main
passage of time. topic of the paragraph?

3 When the wealthy Ellicott family built a A) In the 1770s, Banneker made a fortuitous
friendship.
flour mill not far from his farm, Banneker befriended B) The 1770s were filled with social and political
George 4 Ellicott. Ellicott’s knowledge about science upheaval.
C) Banneker’s life was significantly influenced by
and astronomy impressed him. They met regularly at the several people.
flour mill and 5 Banneker’s home, where they met to D) Banneker continued his studies in science
and math.
discuss debates in astronomy. From Ellicott, Banneker
borrowed books by authors such as James Ferguson, a
4
leading astronomer of the time.
Which choice most effectively combines the
sentences at the underlined portion?
A) Ellicott of whom
B) Ellicott, from whom his
C) Ellicott, while Ellicott’s
D) Ellicott, whose

5
A) NO CHANGE
B) at Banneker’s home, meeting
C) Banneker’s home
D) Banneker’s home, meeting

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[1] In that same decade, the United States became a 6

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fledgling nation with no permanent capital. [2] Federal A) NO CHANGE
legislators met in eight different northern cities before B) will be
C) have been
they decided that, as part of a broader compromise, a
D) was
capital should be built farther south. [3] His cousin
George likely recommended Banneker for the job. [4] In
7
1791 President Washington issued a directive: the capital
A) NO CHANGE
would be situated on the Potomac River and encompass a B) particular about
ten-mile square that included the booming ports of C) particularly
D) in particularly
Georgetown, then a part of Maryland, and Alexandria,
Virginia. [5] Leading the team to determine the capital’s
8
boundaries 6 were Major Andrew Ellicott, a
To make this paragraph most logical, sentence 3
well-known land surveyor who needed a capable should be placed
assistant. [6] Land surveying, the art of measuring A) where it is now.
horizontal and vertical distances between objects, B) after sentence 4.
C) after sentence 5.
demands a strong command of trigonometry and
D) after sentence 6.
astronomy, 7 particularly to the ability to chart
mathematically the course of celestial bodies in relation
to the curvature of the rotating Earth—skills Banneker
possessed. 8

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Banneker and the rest of Major Ellicott’s crew set up 9

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camp on Jones Point in early March 1791. A peninsula A) NO CHANGE
extending into the Potomac River, the point offered an B) Not surprisingly,
C) After some time,
expansive view of the territory. 9 Additionally, a
D) Today,
National Park Service plaque at Jones Point
10 commemorates the men’s contributions in shaping
10
the capital. On a clear day, looking north across the
A) NO CHANGE
water, visitors can see the domed Capitol Building rising B) memorizes
toward the sky. 11 C) magnifies
D) fossilizes

11
At this point, the writer is considering adding the
following sentence.
Visitors to Jones Point can also enjoy activities
such as fishing and kayaking.
Should the writer make this addition here?
A) Yes, because it contributes to the description of
Jones Point as it is in the present.
B) Yes, because it encourages readers to visit a place
of historical importance.
C) No, because it strays from the paragraph’s focus
on Banneker’s publications.
D) No, because it tacks on irrelevant information at
the end of the passage.

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Questions 12-22 are based on the following passage. 12

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The writer is considering revising the underlined
Energy Storage Under Pressure portion to the following.

Renewable energy 12 sources pose a challenge for sources, such as hydropower, wind power, and
solar power,
the businesses and utilities that use them: the need to
Should the writer make this revision here?
store surplus energy to use later, during times 13 of peak
A) Yes, because it sets up how the information in
demand. For example, wind fluctuates and generally the passage will be structured.

produces more energy during the night, when demand is B) Yes, because it offers examples that clarify a key
term in the passage.
lower. Conversely, solar power generates most of its C) No, because it groups together examples that are
electricity during the day and provides little power at too different to be of use to the passage.
D) No, because it conflicts with information
night. A method of storage called Compressed Air
presented later in the sentence.
Energy Storage (CAES) 14 is one method that may be
one of the best solutions to this problem. 13
A) NO CHANGE
B) for peak
C) of peeked
D) for peaked

14
A) NO CHANGE
B) is a particular means of storage that
C) constitutes a form of storage that
D) DELETE the underlined portion.

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[1] Power plants with CAES systems use surplus 15

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energy produced during off-peak hours to pump air into To make this paragraph most logical, sentence 2
should be placed
large underground cavities, such as naturally occurring or
A) where it is now.
human-made salt or rock caverns. [2] The expanding air
B) after sentence 3.
drives a turbine, generating electricity. [3] The walls of C) after sentence 4.
these spaces have been specially fortified to handle the D) after sentence 5.

high pressure and density of pressurized air. [4] As air is

pumped into the inflexible cavern, the pressure increases
to 1,100 pounds per square inch. [5] When energy is
needed later, the power plant releases pressurized air
from the cavity, causing the air to expand. 15

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Currently, only two power plants use 16 CAES; one 16

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in McIntosh, Alabama, and another in Huntorf, A) NO CHANGE
Germany. The McIntosh power plant can produce up to B) CAES. One
C) CAES: one
110 megawatts of electrical 17 power, the German plant
D) CAES, one:
can produce 321 megawatts. 18 Combined, that’s
enough energy to service approximately 431,000 homes.
17
There are a few other CAES projects in progress across
A) NO CHANGE
the United States, including pilot projects in Ohio, B) power, as well as
California, and New Jersey. C) power, and
D) power; while

18
The writer is considering deleting the underlined
sentence. Should the sentence be kept or deleted?
A) Kept, because it shows the impact of the
two CAES plants currently in use.
B) Kept, because it provides a transition to another
point about how to provide electricity to homes.
C) Deleted, because it ignores differences in the
levels of energy usage of individual homes.
D) Deleted, because it interrupts the paragraph’s
description of the McIntosh facility.

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There are a number of reasons that so few CAES 19

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units have been built, despite the fact that CAES is one of A) NO CHANGE
only a few reliable ways to store energy from renewable B) CAES;
C) CAES
energy sources. First, huge underground cavities are
D) CAES—
possible only in certain types of land. Second, even where
these formations exist, reinforcing them and building the
20
infrastructure for 19 CAES, can cost upwards of
A) NO CHANGE
$100 million. Finally, traditional methods of CAES B) had required
20 requires heat to compress the air, which can lower C) does require
D) require
the energy efficiency of the process.
Though the system is initially expensive and involves
21
an expenditure of energy, CAES has proven to be reliable
A) NO CHANGE
and economically viable in the long term. Furthermore,
B) capturing
researchers have developed methods of CAES that reach C) arresting
much better efficiency levels by 21 apprehending the D) seizing
heat required to compress the air and reusing it to heat
the decompressing air. These methods can be used in 22

CAES units built in the future. Given the growing shift to The writer wants a conclusion that restates the main
idea of the passage. Which choice most effectively
renewable energy, 22 the only stumbling blocks to accomplishes this goal?
additional innovations may be national energy policies A) NO CHANGE
B) CAES is a promising solution to one of
that make potential investors hesitate.
alternative energy’s biggest challenges.
C) it is dismaying that CAES technology is not yet
as efficient as it could be.
D) residential applications of CAES technology—in
addition to large operations—are likely to
become feasible soon.

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Questions 2 - are based on the following passage. 23

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Which choice best combines the sentences at the
A Man of Many Words underlined portion?

In 1747 the author Samuel 23 Johnson announced A) Johnson announced an ambitious plan for a new
English-language dictionary and was encouraged
an ambitious plan for a new English-language dictionary. by a group of London booksellers.
He did so with the encouragement of a group of London B) Johnson, announcing an ambitious plan for a
new English-language dictionary, was
booksellers. Johnson’s goal was to produce an encouraged by a group of London booksellers.
authoritative guide to the language “by which its purity C) Johnson announced an ambitious plan for a new
English-language dictionary; he was encouraged
may be preserved.” The completed Dictionary of the in this by a group of London booksellers.
English Language finally appeared in 24 1755, its release D) Johnson, encouraged by a group of London
booksellers, announced an ambitious plan for a
was every bit the publishing event that the writer and his new English-language dictionary.
backers had imagined. Along 25 one’s laborious journey
from planning to publication, however, Johnson’s 24

Dictionary had become a book with more humble A) NO CHANGE

B) 1755, and
ambitions—one that no longer aspired to preserve the
C) 1755, as
purity of the language. Johnson had come to realize that, D) 1755 with
like all languages, the English language was a living,
changing thing that could not be preserved, only 25
described. A) NO CHANGE
B) each one’s
C) it’s
D) its

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Johnson had begun his work in 1746, furnishing his 26

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house with several large tables and massive heaps of A) NO CHANGE
books. To provide examples of proper word use for his B) foremost
C) big-name
Dictionary, Johnson looked to those he considered the
D) primo
26 hotshot experts on the English language: the leading
English writers of the past and present. Johnson read
27
through the works of hundreds of 27 writers, his
A) NO CHANGE
marking the passages he viewed as exemplary. He then B) writers,
handed the books off to six scribes he had hired to copy C) writers, and
D) writers by
out his chosen excerpts.
28 Johnson was extremely selective in the passages
28
he used to illustrate his words. No earlier English
Which choice best introduces the topic of this
lexicographer, or dictionary writer, had attempted to paragraph?
define words as precisely as Johnson did. However, A) NO CHANGE
Johnson’s careful analysis of his sources revealed subtle B) It is unknown precisely how much work
Johnson’s scribes did beyond copying down
but inexorable changes in the ways words were used by passages.
different writers at different times. When the Dictionary C) Johnson was not the first writer to create a
dictionary of the English language.
was published in 1755, Johnson’s preface D) Next, Johnson undertook the more difficult task
29 acknowledged this inherent mutability of language, of composing definitions.

noting that no lexicographer “shall imagine that his

dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from 29
Which choice best sets up the quotation from
corruption and decay.” Johnson later in the sentence?
A) NO CHANGE
B) bemoaned the low status of dictionary writers,
C) explained how the writer determined which
words to include,
D) stated that the quotations were carefully chosen
for their style or subject matter,

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This recognition did not mean that Johnson had no 30

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opinions about how words should be used. On the A) NO CHANGE
contrary, Johnson 30 used the Dictionary to promote B) had used
C) will use
words he favored and to protest words he disliked. 31
D) uses
In the definition for “pictorial,” a term coined by Sir
Thomas Browne, Johnson described the word as one “not
31
adopted by other writers, but elegant and useful.” 32 By At this point, the writer is considering adding the
the same token, the word “writative,” which Johnson had following sentence.

found in the letters of Alexander Pope, was not even When it was finished, Johnson’s Dictionary
contained 42,773 words, which made it neither
granted a definition; Johnson simply wrote “A word of the longest nor the shortest dictionary of the
eighteenth century.
Pope’s coining: not to be imitated.” Johnson understood
Should the writer make this addition here?
that he could not preserve his language—but he
A) Yes, because it provides relevant contextual
33 could—at the very least, try to shape its future use. In information about eighteenth-century
that more modest goal he appears to have succeeded: dictionaries.
B) Yes, because it puts in perspective just how many
Johnson’s work stood as the definitive English dictionary
words Johnson had influence over.
for well over a century, influencing generations of C) No, because it interrupts the discussion of how
Johnson used his Dictionary to affect the English
English writers and readers.
language.
D) No, because it merely repeats information about
Johnson’s Dictionary that appears earlier in the
passage.

32
A) NO CHANGE
B) On the other hand,
C) For example,
D) Nevertheless,

33
A) NO CHANGE
B) could, at the very least—
C) could, at the very least,
D) could; at the very least,

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Questions - are based on the following passage 34

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and supple entary aterial.
A) NO CHANGE
B) habitual
Retailers Profit from Paying Well
C) routine
Many retailers rely on discount prices to attract D) accustomed
customers, and these companies’ executives and
managers often assume that they must maintain low 35
employee costs to preserve these discounts. However, in A) NO CHANGE
B) benefits—and they have done so
recent years, several retailers have challenged this
C) benefits: and they have done so,
34 conventional wisdom, offering better-than-average
D) benefits and they have done so,
wages and 35 benefits, and they have done so, while
keeping costs down and performing well financially. 36
The cost of better compensation for employees is Which choice most effectively combines the
sentences at the underlined portion?
lower than many employers may realize. A 2012 study by
A) If stores increased their prices to make up for
Demos, a public policy research and advocacy
this expenditure, the additional cost to
organization, noted that if retail workers’ annual earnings consumers
B) Increasing their prices to make up for this
were increased so that on average the lowest-paid
expenditure, stores could make an additional
workers received a 27 percent raise, the additional cost to cost to consumers that
C) The additional cost to consumers to make up for
employers would amount to only 0.5 percent of total
this expenditure would be increased store prices
retail sales. 36 Stores could increase their prices to make so that they
D) If the additional cost to consumers made up for
up for this expenditure. The additional cost to consumers
this expenditure by increasing store prices, it
if they did so would average 30 cents per shopping
trip—hardly enough to keep most customers away.

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Yet this modest price increase would probably be 37

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unnecessary because increasing pay at retail businesses A) NO CHANGE
increases sales performance. When Professor Zeynep Ton B) stores,
C) stores:
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology compared
D) stores;
two chains of warehouse club 37 stores—one with
better-than-average pay and benefits and another with
38
lower employee wages, she found that the average
A) NO CHANGE
number of sales per employee at the higher-wage club B) the ones
store was double 38 the employees at the lower-wage C) the number
D) DELETE the underlined portion.
club store. According to Ton’s study, well-paid workers
were friendlier and more helpful to customers, and they
were more knowledgeable about the company’s products.
As a result of their experiences with these employees,
customers were more likely to make purchases.

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By contrast, many employees at retail stores that pay 39

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average or below-average wages quit each year, a A) NO CHANGE
phenomenon known as employee turnover, forcing these B) An examination of
C) When they examined
businesses to rely on inexperienced workers and to
D) Examining
devote resources to finding, hiring, and training new
workers. 39 When examined, the same pair of club
40
stores that Ton studied, Professor Wayne F. Cascio of the Which choice provides accurate information from
University of Colorado found that 40 full-time the table to support the writer’s argument?

employees at the lower-paying club store make an A) NO CHANGE

B) 44 percent of full-time employees at the
average of $17 per hour, which costs the firm an lower-paying club store leave their jobs each
estimated $5,274 per full-time employee. He found that year,
C) 110,200 full-time employees at the lower-paying
the turnover rate at the higher-paying club store, club store leave their jobs each year,
however, was lower— 41 the firm’s 67,600 full-time D) full-time employees at the lower-paying club
store make an average of $5,274 each year,
employees made an average of $17 per hour.

Comparison of Two Warehouse Club Store Chains 41

Annual
The writer wants to include relevant information
Annual estimated
Estimated from the table to illustrate the point made in the first
Total full-time cost of
average part of the sentence. Which choice best accomplishes
full-time employee turnover this goal?
hourly
employees turnover per
wage
rate full-time A) NO CHANGE
employee B) and its staff, at 67,600 full-time employees, was
Company A 110,200 $10 44% $5,274 significantly smaller.
Company B 67,600 $17 17% $3,628 C) 17 percent, at a lesser cost of $3,628 per full-time
Source: Data from Wayne F. Cascio, “The High Cost of Low Wages.”
employee.
©2006 by Harvard Business School Publishing. D) and it paid its full-time employees $17 per hour
compared with its competitor’s $10 per hour.

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The club store chains that Ton and Cascio studied 42

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42 are both successful. Grocery stores, convenience Which choice best introduces the information that
follows?
stores, and numerous other businesses have been able to
A) NO CHANGE
thrive in their respective industries while paying
B) have large workforces.
significantly higher employee wages than their rivals. The C) are not unique.
success of these businesses 43 highlight that paying D) are managed differently.
workers well 44 can be a profitable strategy for retailers.
43
A) NO CHANGE
B) have highlighted
C) would highlight
D) highlights

44
Which choice provides the most logical conclusion to
the passage?
A) NO CHANGE
B) may be surprisingly difficult to implement.
C) is one of several ways to boost employee morale.
D) is still the subject of much debate among
employers.

STO
If you finish before ti e is called, you ay chec your wor on this section only.
o not turn to any other section.

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