Pre-ACT Reading Practice Test

1. Question

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The main theme of this passage concerns the:

difficulty of first starting and then maintaining a friendship.
process of making a new friend and how the friendship changes the narrator.
problems the narrator has dealing with the loss of her former neighbors.
differences in the lives led by two pairs of adults who at different times lived in the same house.

2. Question

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Which of the following questions is NOT answered by information in the passage?

Has the narrator ever walked around inside Eugene’s house?
What hobby or interest do Eugene and the narrator share?
What makes Eugene’s house different from other houses on the block?
What careers other than teaching has the narrator considered pursuing?

3. Question

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The narrator draws which of the following comparisons between the old couple and Eugene’s parents?

The old couple were more socially outgoing and had many more friends than Eugene’s parents.
Eugene’s parents are just as interested in tending the lawn and flowers as the old couple were.
Eugene’s parents are less nurturing of each other and spend less time together than the old couple did.
Just like the old man and old woman, both of Eugene’s parents appear to have jobs outside the home.

4. Question

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In terms of developing the narrative, the last two paragraphs (lines 67–87) primarily serve to:

provide background details about the narrator and her family in order to highlight the narrator’s unique and shifting perspective.
describe the narrator’s family in order to establish a contrast between her parents and Eugene’s parents.
portray the narrator’s family in order to show how her friendship with Eugene affected the various members of her family.
depict the hopes and dreams of the narrator’s parents in order to show how her parents’ aspirations changed over time.

5. Question

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It can most reasonably be inferred from the passage that when the narrator says, “I didn’t see the red, yellow, and purple clusters that meant flowers to me” (lines 30–31), she is most nearly indicating that:

from her current position, she couldn’t see the old woman’s flowers, which were still growing near the house.
the flowers grown by the old woman had died because the narrator had stopped watering them.
the flowers grown by the old woman had been cut down when Eugene’s father mowed the lawn
the weeds that had grown up in the old couple’s lawn had intertwined with the flowers, making the flowers hard to see.

6. Question

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According to the narrator, which of the following statements was true about Eugene at the moment when she first talked to him?

Due to the size of the school, he had not even noticed the narrator until she started talking to him
He had searched unsuccessfully for the narrator’s locker several different times and had been too shy to ask someone where it was.
He had first noticed the narrator in study hall but had been uninterested in her until she introduced herself.
He had apparently taken notice of the narrator at school and had come to like her but felt nervous about introducing himself.

7. Question

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When the narrator says, “I began to think of the present more than of the future” (lines 80–81), she most likely means that meeting Eugene led her to:

shift some of her attention away from her career plans and onto the developing friendship.
think more about her own work interests than about the career her parents thought she should pursue.
put off her plans of returning to Puerto Rico for a visit in favor of continuing to prepare for college.
want to spend more time with him instead of helping her parents plan a vacation to Puerto Rico.

8. Question

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The narrator most nearly portrays her parents’ dreams as:

close to being realized because of her father’s good job.
somewhat uncommon among the other residents of the family’s building.
ones she has heard about many times but that seem far off and remote to her.
ones she shares with her parents and longs to fulfill.

9. Question

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The narrator claims that she felt close to the old couple because she had:

listened in on so many of their conversations over the years.
helped take care of the old woman’s flowers after the woman’s husband had died.
been able to watch them as they moved through their entire house.
regularly observed them during their mealtimes.

10. Question

The author most nearly characterizes the role of climate change in the course of history as one that:

is neither all important nor safely disregarded.
is rightly ignored by archaeologists and scientists.
was greater in medieval Europe than it is today.
will eventually be seen as direct and causative.

11. Question

The main idea of the first paragraph is that the Little Ice Age:

was a period defined by prolonged global cooling.
occurred during the era of Cro-Magnon mammoth hunters.
was marked by frequent and short-term climate shifts.
resulted from interactions between the atmosphere and ocean.

12. Question

The author uses the remark “the worst rain storm in memory” (line 28) primarily as an example of:

the kind of well-meaning but ultimately useless records of unusual weather that Evelyn kept.
how people in the eighteenth century were deeply impressed by unusual weather.
people’s preoccupation with carefully rating and comparing unusual weather events.
how notes people in the past kept about unusual weather are of limited meteorological value today.

13. Question

The author indicates that the common factor in the events and periods listed in lines 50–54 is that they:

took place during the Little Ice Age.
were the result of the Little Ice Age.
were unaffected by the Little Ice Age.
occurred after the Little Ice Age.

14. Question

By his statement in lines 71–75, the author most nearly means that during the Little Ice Age:

food or the lack thereof could have far-reaching and long-lasting effects.
the difference between hunger and plenty was a very small one.
food shortages were relatively rare at the national or continental level.
the insufficiency of food motivated peasant farmers to work harder.

15. Question

The author uses the events listed in lines 77–79 primarily to:

show how weather-related disasters threatened the survival of Western civilization.
criticize subsistence-level agriculture as being too dependent on the weather.
illustrate how environmental determinism operated in the Little Ice Age.
suggest the part that climate shifts may have had in producing modern Europe.

16. Question

The author cites all of the following as causes of the European food crises during the Little Ice Age
EXCEPT:

human ineptitude.
bad economic policy.
poor political policy.
bankrupt intellectualism.

17. Question

When Bradbury claims, “Thus I fell into surprise” (line 46), he’s most nearly referring to the:

discovery that for him the secret to a creative out- pouring was to use a word-association method to write fiction.
long-forgotten experiences he would remember when he would talk with his childhood friends in person.
realization that he wrote more effectively about his current experiences than about his past.
several methods other writers taught him to help him write honest, authentic stories.

18. Question

The author calls the interactions that produced the Little Ice Age climate shifts:

powerful and relatively straightforward.
complex and not yet well understood.
frequent and not often studied today.
intricate and generally beneficial to humans.

19. Question

Passage A indicates that Bradbury believes all beginning writers think that they can:

learn the nature of surprises.
force an idea into creation.
use one word as a catalyst for a story.
become a good writer through experiment.

20. Question

Bradbury’s claim “I would then take arms against the word, or for it” (line 12) most strongly suggests that during his writing sessions, Bradbury would:

attempt to find the one word that for him was the key to understanding John Huff.
often reject a word as not being a catalyst for meaningful writing.
deliberately choose to write only about a word that inspired his fears.
feel as though he were struggling to find a word’s significance to him.

21. Question

In the first paragraph of Passage B (lines 52–63), the narrator describes John Huff in a manner that:

emphasizes John’s physical strength and intelligence, to indicate John’s view of himself.
exaggerates John’s characteristics and actions, to reflect Douglas’s idolization of John.
highlights John’s reckless behavior, to show that Douglas was most fond of John’s rebelliousness.
showcases John’s talents, to make clear why both children and adults admired John.

22. Question

Within Passage B, the image in lines 74–76 functions figuratively to suggest that:

John’s leaving on a stormy night was fitting, given Douglas’s sadness.
John’s disappointment about moving was reflected in his mood all day.
the mood of the day changed dramatically and irreversibly once John shared his news.
the sky in Green Town became cloudy at the moment John told Douglas he was moving.

23. Question

Both Passage A and Passage B highlight Bradbury’s use of:

a first person omniscient narrator to tell a story.
satire and irony to develop characters.
allegory to present a complex philosophical question.
sensory details and imaginative description to convey ideas.

24. Question

Based on Bradbury’s description in Passage A of his writing process, which of the following methods hypothetically depicts a way Bradbury might have begun to
Write the story in Passage B?

Taking notes while interviewing old friends after first deciding to write a story about two boys
Forming two characters, determining that he would like to tell a story about loss, and then beginning to write a scene
Writing down the words train ticket and then spending an hour writing whatever those words brought to his mind
Outlining the plot of a story about two boys that would end with one boy leaving on a train

25. Question

Elsewhere in the essay from which Passage A isadapted, Bradbury writes: Was there a real boy named John Huff? There was. And that was truly his name. But he didn’t go away from me, I went away from him. How do these statements apply to both the information about Bradbury’s approach as a storyteller provided in Passage A and the story of John Huff provided in Pas- sage B?

They reveal that Bradbury believed that to surprise readers is a fiction writer’s most important task.
They reinforce that Bradbury used his life experiences to create fiction but also altered those experiences as he pleased.
They prove that Bradbury felt such pain over leaving John that he had to reverse events to be able to write the story.
They indicate that Bradbury rarely used his life experiences to create fiction.

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Pre-ACT Reading Practice Test

Pre-ACT Reading Practice Test

Pre-ACT Reading Practice Test

Quiz Summary

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1. Question

The main theme of this passage concerns the:

2. Question

Which of the following questions is NOT answered by information in the passage?

3. Question

The narrator draws which of the following comparisons between the old couple and Eugene’s parents?

4. Question

In terms of developing the narrative, the last two paragraphs (lines 67–87) primarily serve to:

5. Question

It can most reasonably be inferred from the passage that when the narrator says, “I didn’t see the red, yellow, and purple clusters that meant flowers to me” (lines 30–31), she is most nearly indicating that:

6. Question

According to the narrator, which of the following statements was true about Eugene at the moment when she first talked to him?

7. Question

When the narrator says, “I began to think of the present more than of the future” (lines 80–81), she most likely means that meeting Eugene led her to:

8. Question

The narrator most nearly portrays her parents’ dreams as:

9. Question

The narrator claims that she felt close to the old couple because she had:

10. Question

The author most nearly characterizes the role of climate change in the course of history as one that:

11. Question

The main idea of the first paragraph is that the Little Ice Age:

12. Question

The author uses the remark “the worst rain storm in memory” (line 28) primarily as an example of:

13. Question

The author indicates that the common factor in the events and periods listed in lines 50–54 is that they:

14. Question

By his statement in lines 71–75, the author most nearly means that during the Little Ice Age:

15. Question

The author uses the events listed in lines 77–79 primarily to:

16. Question

The author cites all of the following as causes of the European food crises during the Little Ice Age EXCEPT:

17. Question

When Bradbury claims, “Thus I fell into surprise” (line 46), he’s most nearly referring to the:

18. Question

The author calls the interactions that produced the Little Ice Age climate shifts:

19. Question

Passage A indicates that Bradbury believes all beginning writers think that they can:

20. Question

Bradbury’s claim “I would then take arms against the word, or for it” (line 12) most strongly suggests that during his writing sessions, Bradbury would:

21. Question

In the first paragraph of Passage B (lines 52–63), the narrator describes John Huff in a manner that:

22. Question

Within Passage B, the image in lines 74–76 functions figuratively to suggest that:

23. Question

Both Passage A and Passage B highlight Bradbury’s use of:

24. Question

Based on Bradbury’s description in Passage A of his writing process, which of the following methods hypothetically depicts a way Bradbury might have begun to Write the story in Passage B?

25. Question

The author cites all of the following as causes of the European food crises during the Little Ice Age
EXCEPT:

Based on Bradbury’s description in Passage A of his writing process, which of the following methods hypothetically depicts a way Bradbury might have begun to
Write the story in Passage B?