Main Idea

1. What is the topic of this passage?

A. The intelligence of john Dewey
B. Distinctions made by John Dewey
C. Dewey’s ideas on the ability to reason
D. How intelligence differs from reasoning in Dewey’s works

2. Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?
A. The Process of Nitrogen Fixation
B. Two Nitrogen Processes
C. The Return of Nitrogen to the Air
D. The Effect of Nitrogen on Plant Life

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3. Which of the following best describes the main idea of the passage?
A. American history is often depicted in poetry.
B. Longfellow described American history even though people really did not enjoy it.
C. The popularity of Longfellow's poems results from his stress on the values of the people.
D. Longfellow wrote long narrative poems that were not always popular with the critics.
4. The best title of the passage is
A. Longfellow's Popular Appeal
B. Historical Narrative Poems
C. The Lyric, Dramatic, and Narrative Poems of Longfellow
D. Longfellow and the Critics
5. The subject of the fourth paragraph is
A. nobility and honor in the poems of Longfellow
B. the love triangle involving Miles Standish
C. the popular appeal of The Courtship of Miles Standish
D. the period of the early settlement of New England

6. Which of the following best states the subject of this passage?

A. The hardness of diamonds
B. Identifying minerals by means of a scratch test
C. Feldspar on the Mohs' scale
D. Recognizing minerals in their natural state

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 7. The main idea of this passage is that
A. the hardness of a mineral can be determined by its ability to make a mark on other
minerals
B. diamonds, with a hardness of 10 on the Mohs' scale, can scratch all other minerals
C. a softer mineral cannot be scratched by a harder mineral
D. talc is the first mineral listed on the Mohs' scale

The passage:
1 In west-central New York there is a group of eleven long narrow, glacial lakes known as the
Finger Lakes. From east to west these lakes are Otisco, Skaneateles, Owasco, Cayuga, Seneca, Keuka,
Canandaigua, Honeoye, Canadice, Hemlock, 5 and Conesus.
These lakes have been aptly named because of their resemblance to the fingers of a hand.
Two of the largest of the finger Lakes, Seneca, and Caguya, exemplify the selection of the name:
Seneca is thirty-seven miles long and four miles
10 across at its widest point, and Cayuga is forty miles long and two miles across.
Although scientists are not completely certain as to how these lakes were formed, most
believe that successive sheets of glacial ice carved out the long, narrow valleys. The glaciers
15 most probably moved along the paths of preexisting stream valleys and further deepened these
valleys to depths well below sea level. With the melting of the glaciers at the end of The Ice Age, the
lakes were filled.

8. The topic of this passage is

A. west-central New York State
B. Seneca and Caguya
C. the description and origin of the Finger Lakes
D. the scientific findings about the Finger Lakes

The passage:
Another myth of the oceans concerns Davy Jones, who in folklore is mean-spirited sovereign of the ocean’s
depths. The name “Jones” is thought by some etymologists to have been derived from the name “Jonah”
the Hebrew prophet who spent three days in a whale’s belly.
According to tradition, any object that goes overboard and sinks to the bottom of the ocean is said to have
gone to Davy Jones’s locker, the ocean-sized, mythical receptacle for anything that falls into the water.
Needless to say, any sailor on the sea is not so eager to take a tour of Davy Jones’s locker, although it might
be a rather interesting trip considering all the treasures located there.
9. The Paragraph preceding this passage most probably discusses:
A. The youth of Davy Jones
B. Davy Jones’s career as a sailor
C. A different traditional story from the sea
D. Preparing to travel on the ocean
10. The topic of the paragraph following the passage most likely is
A. Valuable items located at the bottom of the ocean
B. Where Davy Jones is found today
C. Jonah and the Whale
D. Preventing objects from falling overboard.
The passage:

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 The institution of the Medal of Honor in 1861 was a source of great discussion and concern. From
the Civil War until World War I, the Medal of Honor was the only military award given by the
United States government, and today it is awarded only in the most extreme cases of heroism.
Although the United States is still somewhat wary of granting military awards, several awards
have been instituted since World War I.
The question:
11. The tone of this passage is
A. angered
B. humorous
C. outraged
D. informational

The passage:
Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (1966) is a well-known example of the “nonfiction novel,” a
popular type of writing based upon factual events in which the author attempts to describe the
underlying forces, thoughts and emotions that lead to actual events. In Capote’s book, the author
describes the sadistic murder of a family on a Kansas farm, often showing the point of view of the
killers. To research the book, Capote interviewed the murderers, and he maintains that his book
presents a faithful reconstruction of the incident.

12. Which of the following best describes the tone of the passage?
A. Cold
B. Sadistic
C. Emotional
D. Descriptive

The passage:
Up to now, confessions that have been obtained from defendants in a hypnotic state have not
been admitted into evidence by courts in the United States. Experts in the field of hypnosis have
found that such confessions are not completely reliable. Subjects in a hypnotic state may
confess to crimes they did not commit for one or two reasons. Either they fantasize that they
committed crimes, or they believe that others want them to confess.

A landmark case concerning a confession obtained under hypnosis went all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court. In the case of Layra v. Denno, a suspect was hypnotized by a psychiatrist for the
district attorney; in a posthypnotic state the suspect signed three separate confessions to a
murder. The Supreme Court ruled that the confessions were invalid because the confessions had
been the only evidence against him.

13. The tone of this passage could best described as

A. Outraged
B. Judicial
C. Hypnotic
D. Informative

The passage:

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 The full moon that occurs nearest the equinox of the Sun has become known as the
HarvestMoon. It is a bright moon which allows farmers to work late into the night for several
nights;they can work when the moon is at its brightest to bring in the fall harvest. The Harvest
Moon of course occurs at different times of the year in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the Harvest Moon occurs in September at the time of the
autumnalequinox. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Harvest Moon occurs in March at the time
of thevernal equinox.
The questions:
14. The pronoun “It” in line 2 refers to
A. the equinox
B. the Sun
C. the Harvest Moon
D. the Night
15. The pronoun “they” in line 2 refers to
A. Farmers
B. Nights
C. Times of the year

Mardi Gras, which means “FatTuesday” in French, was introduced to America by French
colonists in the early eighteenth century. Fromthat time it has grown in popularity, particularly
in New Orleans, and today it is actually a legalholiday in several southern states. The Mardi Gras
celebration in New Orleans begins well before the actual Mardi Gras Day. Parades, parties, balls,
and numerous festivities take placethroughout the world flock to New Orleans for the
celebration, where they take part in a week of nonstop activities before returning home for
some much-needed rest.
16. The pronoun “it” in line 2 refers to
A. Mardi Gras
B. French
C. That time
D. New Orleans
17. The pronoun “they” in line 6 refers to
A. Numerous festivities
B. Tourists
C. Various countrie
D. Nonstop activities

The financial firm Dow Jones and Company computes business statistics every hour onthe hour
of each of the business days on the year, and these statistics are known as the DowJones
averages. They are based on a select group of stocks and bonds that are traded on the
NewYork Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones averages are composed of four different types of
averages: the average price of the common stock of thirty industrial firms, the average price of
the common stock price of twenty transportation companies, the average price of the
commonstock price of fifteen utility companies, and an overall average of all the sixty-five
stocks used tocompute the first three averages. Probably the average that is the most

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 commonly used is theindustrial average; it is often used by an investor interested in checking
the state of the stock market before making an investment an industrial stock

18. The pronoun “They” in line 3 refers to

A. the business days
B. these statistics
C. stocks and bonds
D. four different types
19. the pronoun “it” in line 8 referes to
A. the industrial average
B. an investor
C. the satate of the stock market
D. an investment

When a strong earthquake occurs on the ocean floor rather than on land, a tremendous force
useexerted on the sweater and one or larger, destructive waves called tsunamis can be formed.
Tsunamis arecommonly called tidal waves in the United States, but this is really an inappropriate
name in that the cause of the tsunami is an underground earthquake rather than the ocean’s
tides.Far from land, a tsunami can move through the wide-open vastness of the ocean at a speed
of 600 miles(900 kilometers) per hour and often can travel tremendous distances without losing
height and strength. Whena tsunami reaches shallow coastal water, it can reach a height of 100
feet (30 meters) or more and can cause tremendous flooding and damage to coastal areas.

20. The paragraph preceding the passage most probably discuss

A. Tsunamis in various parts of the world
B. The negative effects of tsunamis
C. Land based earthquakes
D. The effect of tides on tsunamis
21. Which of the following is most likely the topic of the paragraph following the passage?
A. The causes of tsunamis
B. The destructive effects of tsunamis on the coast
C. The differences between tsunamis and tidal waves
D. The distances covered by tsunamis