p27 29 test prep for leanning english

SAT/ACT/
PSAT>>

Demonstrating Comprehension

The ACT
Reading Test

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A CLOSE COUSIN TO SAT READING
COMPREHENSION, THE ACT READING
TEST MEASURES ALL THE SAME SKILLS
AS THE SAT, WITH A FEW VARIATIONS.
LC SHOWS YOU HOW TO TACKLE THE
NEW TERRITORY.
By Sarah Montante

T
ILLUSTRATIONS BY TERRY COLON

he ACT Reading Test is made up of 4 different passages, each with 10 questions
after it. Students are given 35 minutes to
complete the entire section, which
makes timing a crucial aspect of scoring
well on this test. One of the best ways to
ensure efficient use of time on test day is to memorize
the directions for this section of the test. Do not waste a
second even glancing at the directions on test day; jump
straight into the passages.
Every ACT includes four different kinds of passages:
Prose Fiction, Social Science, Humanities, and Science.
Prose Fiction passages are excerpts from novels or stories. Humanities passages cover cultural topics, such as
art and literature, and can be written in the first person.
Neither of these types of passages appears on the SAT,
and they each require a slightly different approach than
the straightforward Science and Social Science passages.
The
Questions
> THE
QUESTIONS
The ACT Reading Test gauges your ability to:
Identify the main idea of a section or passage
Identify details and facts
Identify the author’s point of view and/or tone
Draw inferences from given information
Determine the meaning of words through context
Make comparisons and analogies
Identify cause-effect relationships
Understand character development and
motivation (Prose Fiction only)

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Unlike the SAT, the questions are not arranged in

order of difficulty. If you find yourself up against a tough
question at the very beginning and are taking too much
time to answer, skip it. If you have extra time at the end
of the section, you can come back.

> THE
STRATEGY
THE
STRATEGY
Test-prep gurus have suggested all sorts of complicated
ways to approach the reading test, but a simple, commonsense approach works best.

1

Read the passage first. Then, answer the questions.
The most popular advice for reading comprehension
recommends reading the questions first. It’s a bad idea.
You end up reading the questions twice, which wastes

time. It’s also confusing to digest an unfamiliar passage
while simultaneously trying to hold 10 questions in your
mind and look for their answers.

2

Mark the passage. As you read, keep your pencil at
the ready to underline significant details and facts.
Doing so keeps your mind alert and active while you read,
so you retain more information. Your marks will also act
as a map for you when you refer to the passage.

3

Keep moving. The time constraints on the ACT
Reading Test are tight, so every second counts. You
will need to balance time spent reading the passage with
time spent answering the questions. But beware of
reading too quickly—
you won’t retain enough
GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE
information to answer
the questions.
Literary Cavalcade APRIL 2004

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ACT >>

ACT READING TEST PRACTICE
WE’VE SAID IT BEFORE AND WE’LL SAY IT AGAIN: PRACTICE MAKES
PERFECT. TEST YOUR READING COMPREHENSION ON OUR SAMPLE
PASSAGE BELOW.
Directions: Read the passage and then answer the questions, selecting the best answer
from among those offered. You will have eight minutes to complete the exercise.

Prose Fiction

For forty-seven years they had been married. How deep back the stubborn, gnarled roots of
the quarrel reached, no one could say—but only now, when tending to the needs of others no
longer shackled them together, the roots swelled up visible, split the earth between them, and
the tearing shook even to the children, long since grown.
Why now, why now? wailed Hannah.
Lennie wrote to Clara: They’ve lived over so much together; what could possibly tear
them apart?
Something tangible enough.
Arthritic hands, and such work as he got, occasional. Poverty all his life, and there was little
breath left for running. He could not, could not turn away from this desire: to have the troubling
of responsibility, the fretting with money, over and done with; to be free, to be carefree where
success was not measured by accumulation, and there was use for the vitality still in him.
There was a way. They could sell the house, and with the money join his lodge’s Haven,
cooperative for the aged. Happy communal life, and was he not already an official; had he not
helped organize it, raised funds, served as a trustee?
But she—would not consider it.
“What do we need all this for?” he would ask loudly, for her hearing aid was turned down
and the vacuum was shrilling. “Five rooms” (pushing the sofa so she could get into the corner)
“furniture” (smoothing down the rug) “floors and surfaces to make work. Tell me, why do we
need it?” And he was glad he could ask in a scream.
Over the dishes, coaxingly: “For once in your life, to be free, to have everything done for

you, like a queen.”
“I never liked queens.”
“No dishes, no garbage, no towel to sop, no worry what to buy, what to eat.”
“And what else would I do with my empty hands? Better to eat at my own table when I
want, and to cook and eat how I want.”
“In the cottages they buy what you ask, and cook it how you like. You are the one who
always used to say: better mankind born without mouths and stomachs than always to worry
for money to buy, to shop, to fix, to cook, to wash, to clean.”
“How cleverly you hid that you heard. I said it then because eighteen hours a day I
ran. And you never scraped a carrot or knew a dish towel sops. Now—for you and
me—who cares? A herring out of a jar is enough. But when I want, and nobody to
bother.” And she turned off her ear button, so she
would not have to hear.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

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APRIL 2004 Literary Cavalcade

FROM TELL ME A RIDDLE BY TILLIE OLSEN. COPYRIGHT © 1956, 1957, 1960, 1961
BY TILLIE OLSEN. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF RANDOM HOUSE INC.

The following sample is excerpted from Tillie Olsen’s short story “Tell Me a Riddle.”


>>

Note: The passage and questions are exactly like the ones that appear on the real ACT.
Practice will help you get used to the dry writing and the odd way questions are posed.

Practice Questions
1. The opening paragraph suggests that
the couple’s marriage is characterized
primarily by:
A. love
B. animosity
C. sadness
D. poverty
2. How many children does the couple have?
A. 1
B. 4
C. 3
D. at least 3
3. The line, “Something tangible enough” serves
mainly as:
A. a pause in the narrative
B. foreshadowing
C. a transition sentence
D. a topic sentence
4. The passage suggests that the husband’s
desire to move to the Haven is at least
partially motivated by:
A. his arthritis
B. wanting to relieve his wife of housework
C. fear of bills
D. his love of fishing
5. The narrator’s point of view is that of:
A. a detached observer
B. the wife

C. the husband
D. a biased observer
6. It can be reasonably inferred from the
passage that the wife resents the husband
because:
A. he didn’t earn enough money
B. his tastes are too fancy
C. he did not help with the work of raising
children
D. he was unfaithful

7. The woman’s attitude toward her
house could best be characterized as:
A. affectionate
B. stubborn
C. proprietary
D. cozy
8. The husband’s primary desire is:
A. to be free from work and worry
B. to play cards with his friends
C. to claim his position as a trustee of the lodge
D. to escape his wife and children
9. The woman in the passage turns off her
hearing aid because:
A. she has made up her mind
B. her husband is talking too loudly
C. she doesn’t want to hear him argue anymore
D. her husband has stopped talking
10. The passage implies that the outcome of this
disagreement between husband and wife will

lead to:
A. reconciliation
B. counseling
C. an intervention by their children
D. a separation

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10

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D

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D

Next Month: Sneak peek at the
new SAT.

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