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Reading Comprehension

1. Technology has scrambled the lines between public and private. Cellphones make our most intimate conversations available to anyone within earshot, while headphones create zones of pure solitude even in the midst of the liveliest crowd. Smartphones and tablets allow us to spend time with art without ever leaving the office, while sophisticated new robots enable people who are house-bound to participate in live events remotely.

Which of the following would be most similar to the examples the author provides in the passage?

(A)  A person’s confidential information is compromised because that person left some papers in a public place.

(B)  A person enjoys numerous television programs, so that person buys a sophisticated new television on which to watch them.

(C)  A person’s unfiltered first reaction to a major event becomes widely known because that person posts it online.

(D)  A person wants to keep a record of his or her private thoughts, so that person secretly starts keeping a daily journal.

2. Construction management is ideal for someone who has a general interest in building and design. Working as a construction manager affords the chance to learn a construction project from the planning stage with architects and engineers, to the budgeting stage with cost estimators, to the production stage with laborers. And that’s just a small taste of the job’s duties: Construction managers also obtain work permits, hire contractors, troubleshoot emergencies, schedule walkthroughs and keep clients informed on work timetables and progress.

The passage most strongly emphasizes which aspect of the job of construction management?

(A)  The variety of its responsibilities

(B)  The educational background it requires

(C)  The kind of person for whom it is suitable

(D)  The amount of stress it inflicts

Sentence Skills

(1) Of her poetry, Lucille Clifton once said, “I write out of what I know and understand or what I wonder about.” (2) From her very first volume, Good Times, she gave tribute to the people she knew best: those who had grown up in blue-collar neighborhoods where children pondered whether Daddy could pay the rent and Mama could afford to make bread but where “good times” prevailed when they could.

(3) Family, injustice, being African American and female were Clifton’s enduring themes. (4) Clifton was born in Depew, New York, in 1936. (5) In her collection Quilting, the speaker in the title poem draws a parallel between a woman teaching her daughter how to quilt and the transformative powers of alchemy. (6) “Remember / this will keep us warm,” she says to the girl. (7) The speaker wonders, however, whether the skills of keeping warm will one day be forgotten and people will lose sight of lessons their ancestors had taught: “do the daughters’ daughters quilt?” she asks; “do the worlds continue spinning away from each other forever?”

(8) Concerned about those who are frequently excluded from the historical record, Clifton said that through poetry “I offer my presence for people who have not been able to speak until they are able to speak for themselves.” (9) Her poems often bore witness to what she called “the bond of live things everywhere,” a bond she evoked through seemingly simple but precisely chosen words.

(10) Clifton’s powerful and innovative poems have been widely recognized and appreciated. (11) Poet Remica Bingham called Clifton a “master of economy and minimalism.” (12) Of Clifton’s ambitious lines, poet Kevin Young said, “There is a kind of quietude in that lowercase, but also a boldness of speech” that achieves a “powerful intimacy.” (13) One of her former students, poet Elisabeth Whitehead, recalls fondly Clifton’s college classroom as a place of quiet where poetry was loved and celebrated. (14) A fellow student hosted dinner for their final class, and before everyone had left that evening, Clifton had them gather and join hands. (15) “Then we went around the circle,” Whitehead recounts, “sharing an idea or a quote or passage from a poem in our last moments together.”

1. Which is the best version of the underlined portion of sentence 9 (reproduced below)?

Her poems often bore witness to what she called “the bond of live things everywhere,” a bond she evoked through seemingly simple but precisely chosen words.

(A)  (as it is now)

(B)  called:

(C)  called—

(D)  called,

2. In sentence 12 (reproduced below), the writer wants to echo Bingham’s observation from sentence 11. Which version of the underlined portion best accomplishes that goal?

Of Clifton’s ambitious lines, poet Kevin Young said, “There is a kind of quietude in that lowercase, but also a boldness of speech” that achieves a “powerful intimacy.”

(A)  (as it is now)

(B)  spare

(C)  nuanced

(D)  vivid

Arithmetic

1. If Manuel deposits 25% of $130 into a savings account, what is the amount of his deposit?

(A)  $5.20

(B)  $25.00

(C)  $32.50

(D) $97.50

2. Xiaoming is making cookies. Each batch of cookies uses 3 eggs. If Xiaoming has 20 eggs, and assuming he has enough of the other ingredients to make the cookies, what is the greatest number of batches that he can make?

(A)  3

(B)  6

(C)  7

(D)  17

Quantitative Reasoning, Algebra, and Statistics

1. Which of the following expressions is 5 times as much as the sum of r and s?

(A)  5 × r + s

(B)  5 + r + s

(C)  r + s × 5

(D)  (r + s) × 5

2. The volume of a right rectangular prism is found by multiplying the length of the base by the width of the base by the height of the prism. A right rectangular prism has a volume of 30 cubic inches. If the height of the prism is 6 inches, what is the area of the base of the prism?

(A)  5 square inches

(B)  24 square inches

(C)  36 square inches

(D)  180 square inches

Advanced Algebra and Functions

1. x² + 5x – 9 = 5
Which of the following values of x satisfies the equation above?

(A)  7

(B)  3

(C)  –2

(D)  –7

2. Which of the following expressions is equivalent to (x + 7)(x² – 3x + 2)?

(A)  x³ – 3x² + 2x + 14

(B)  x³ + 4x² – 19x + 14

(C)  x³ – 3x + 14

(D)  x² – 2x + 9

Answers to the Sample Questions

Reading

1. C
2. A

Writing

1. A
2. B

Arithmetic

1. C
2. B

Quantitative Reasoning, Algebra & Statistics (QAS)

1. D
2. A

Advanced Algebra & Functions (AAF)

1. D
2. B