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Identify the evidence for each answer and the specific flaw in its nearest competitor. Complete the six written drills in the lesson before this practice set. Question numbers follow the shuffled order; Guide question labels match the lesson references.
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The drill
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Question 7
Guide question 2.07
Transfer
Weather logs kept by harbor workers include more than daily temperatures. Notes such as "fog cleared before the second boat" connect conditions to ordinary activities. Such entries can help historians study how weather shaped working routines, even when the logs contain too few numerical measurements to support a detailed climate reconstruction.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
Correct choice: To explain how records with limited numerical detail can still serve a particular historical purpose
The text explains a use for the logs, studying weather's influence on working routines, while acknowledging that they contain too few numerical measurements for a detailed climate reconstruction. That relationship is the main purpose.
A: The passage distinguishes uses rather than ranking measurement accuracy.
C: No replacement process or reason for changing record-keeping is described.
D: The text mentions no completed reconstructions to compare.
If you missed it: Ask which use or interpretation the paragraph explains, rather than choosing a claim about its topic.
A photograph of a crowded platform initially seemed to show people waiting for a train. A second photograph, taken moments later, showed several of the same people carrying chairs away from the tracks. An event notice then revealed that the station had hosted a public concert that afternoon. Together, these sources suggest that the first photograph captured an audience after the performance.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
Why this answer
Preserve sequence and revision | Review lesson 2.2
Correct choice: It presents an initial interpretation, adds contextual evidence, and offers a revised interpretation.
The initial train-waiting interpretation changes when another photograph and an event notice supply context. The ending proposes a concert-audience interpretation rather than abandoning interpretation altogether.
A: The final sentence offers a supported interpretation instead of declaring both photographs unusable.
B: The concert provides context for the photograph; transportation changes are not discussed.
C: The opening interpretation is tentative and later revised, not simply illustrated.
If you missed it: Check whether later details confirm the opening interpretation or change it.
An essay praises a new translation for preserving the original novel's rapid dialogue. Underlined: It also notes that several jokes depend on regional expressions for which the translation supplies no explanation. End underlined. The essay concludes that the translation conveys the conversations' pace more consistently than their full social texture.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?
Why this answer
Identify a detail's limiting function | Review lesson 2.3
Correct choice: It identifies a limitation that helps explain the essay's qualified evaluation of the translation.
The unexplained regional jokes account for the limitation in preserving social texture. The sentence helps qualify the praise without withdrawing the claim about rapid dialogue.
B: The sentence describes missing explanation, not an instance of fast-paced dialogue.
C: No general recommendation to remove expressions appears.
D: The sentence depends on the original having socially meaningful regional language; it does not deny that detail.
If you missed it: Connect the focal criticism to the exact part of the final evaluation it supports.
For decades, two villages used nearly identical designs for their woven baskets, although the villages spoke different languages. Underlined: A footpath connecting them was regularly used by traders. End underlined. This connection led a researcher to investigate whether basket-making techniques had traveled along with goods, rather than developing independently in the two places.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?
Why this answer
Recognize context that motivates inquiry | Review lesson 2.4
Correct choice: It provides contextual information that motivates a proposed explanation for an observed similarity.
The path supplies a possible means of contact, which motivates the researcher's question about transmitted techniques. It does not settle whether transmission occurred.
A: A connecting route supplies no chronology of invention.
B: The investigation is introduced as a response to the connection; no completed findings are reported.
D: The text says the villages spoke different languages, and the path is not an exception to that fact.
If you missed it: Distinguish information that makes a hypothesis worth investigating from evidence that establishes it.
A low-cost keyboard cannot reproduce every change in tone that a skilled pianist can produce on an acoustic piano. That limitation matters for advanced performance. For a beginner learning note locations and basic rhythms, however, a keyboard can still provide a useful way to practice. Its suitability depends partly on the learner's immediate task.
Which choice best describes how the text develops its position?
Why this answer
Identify a concession and response | Review lesson 2.5
Correct choice: It accepts a limitation while distinguishing a use for which the instrument may still be suitable.
The opening accepts a tonal limitation. The text then distinguishes advanced performance from beginner practice, preserving a narrower claim of suitability.
A: No equivalent acoustic-piano limitation is claimed.
C: The text changes the task under consideration; it does not remove the tonal limitation.
D: The conclusion makes suitability task-dependent instead of selecting an always-superior instrument.
If you missed it: Check whether the response changes the object, the task, or the truth of the original criticism.
A reviewer once described a poet's short lines as "an effort to make ordinary observations look profound." A later analysis shows that the line endings repeatedly interrupt expected phrases, making readers reconsider familiar associations. The apparent simplicity of the observations thus need not explain the line breaks; their placement may serve a distinct purpose.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
Why this answer
Identify purpose while tracking a reported interpretation | Review lesson 2.6
Correct choice: To reconsider an earlier interpretation of a poet's line breaks by offering another possible function for them
The quoted reviewer attributes the short lines to an effort to disguise ordinary observations. The later analysis offers another possible function: interrupting familiar phrases to prompt reconsideration.
B: The later analysis changes the explanation of the line breaks rather than supporting the reviewer's judgment.
C: No compositional statement by the poet is reported. The text compares a reviewer's judgment with a later analysis.
D: The later analysis gives the specific placement of the breaks a role in meaning; it does not claim that shortness alone creates profundity.
If you missed it: Label the quotation's speaker and compare its claim with the ending before describing the text's main action.
Researchers wondered whether a striped surface would make moving objects harder to track. They showed participants short animations with either striped or plain backgrounds and asked them to follow one moving dot. Underlined: Participants lost track of the dot more often against the striped background. End underlined. The result is consistent with the idea that background patterns can interfere with this tracking task.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?
Why this answer
Distinguish result from method and prediction | Review lesson 2.7
Correct choice: It reports an observation that supports a tentative interpretation of the tested effect.
The focal sentence gives the observed outcome after the method. The final sentence interprets that result cautiously as consistent with interference from background patterns.
A: The original question comes before the test; the focal sentence reports what occurred.
B: The procedure is described in the previous sentence.
C: The result supports an interpretation of the question rather than causing its rejection.
If you missed it: Use the event sequence to distinguish a question, a procedure, an observation, and its interpretation.
I had called the vacant lot empty. Then, waiting for the bus, I watched a finch bend a weed beneath its weight. Rain glittered in a bottle's broken neck; an ant climbed the gray wall of a stone. The bus arrived, and I rose from a place that no longer seemed vacant.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
Why this answer
Recognize a poetic change in perception | Review lesson 2.8
Correct choice: It presents an initial judgment and then uses observations to show a change in the speaker's perception.
The speaker initially labels the lot empty, then notices small forms of life and detail. The final sentence revises the opening judgment without changing the physical setting.
A: The observations concern one setting; no preference between places develops.
B: The scene is presented as an unfolding experience, not as a disputed memory.
D: The bottle is a detail in the scene, but no restoration plan appears.
If you missed it: Compare the speaker's description of the same place at the beginning and end.
A pronunciation guide cannot anticipate every accent a traveler will encounter. Its role resembles that of a sketch map: the map does not reproduce every tree or doorway, but it marks enough landmarks to help someone begin finding a route. Likewise, a guide can provide an initial orientation without representing every spoken variation.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
Why this answer
Recognize the purpose served by an explanatory analogy | Review lesson 2.9
Correct choice: To explain why a pronunciation guide's incompleteness need not prevent it from providing useful initial direction
The shared feature is selective representation that still helps someone begin. The analogy explains usefulness despite incompleteness, not superiority in accuracy.
B: The comparison explains a shared function; it does not compare the two kinds of resource by accuracy.
C: The text supports an introductory use for a guide without recommending that it replace more detailed resources.
D: The text explains usefulness despite variation, not a stage at which a guide should be abandoned.
If you missed it: State the single relevant shared feature before interpreting an analogy more broadly.
A small publisher prints some books with unusually wide margins. Readers sometimes assume that the extra space is decorative, but the publisher invites readers to write questions and comments there. Whether buyers actually do so remains unknown. The design therefore has an intended practical function whose use has not yet been established.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
Why this answer
Check a multi-part structure answer | Review lesson 2.10
Correct choice: It introduces a design choice, contrasts a common interpretation with its stated intent, and notes an unanswered question about use.
The paragraph moves from the wide margins to a decorative interpretation, the publisher's practical intention, and uncertainty about actual use. B preserves all four elements.
A: Effectiveness and actual use remain unestablished, and there is no adoption recommendation.
C: The publisher states an intention, while use remains unknown; neither interpretation is eliminated by a test.
D: The reader assumption is not treated as criticism, and no reversal is planned.
If you missed it: Verify the ending of a long answer as carefully as its opening.
One survey found more individual birds in recently planted parks than in mature parks. Another found more bird species in mature parks than in recently planted parks. These findings need not conflict. A large flock of a single species can produce a high individual count, whereas a smaller collection of birds can include more species. What appears to be disagreement about park age may instead reflect the different features of bird populations being measured.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
Why this answer
Identify reconciliation through a precise distinction | Review lesson 2.1
Correct choice: To explain why two findings about park age can differ without contradicting each other
The passage distinguishes numbers of individuals from numbers of species. That distinction allows both findings to be true, so the purpose is to explain compatibility rather than rank parks or measures.
A: Neither a preservation decision nor an overall judgment about effectiveness follows from the two different measures.
B: The passage explains what the measures capture but does not rank their reliability or define ecological value.
C: The difference is between valid measures of different features, not an identified counting error.
If you missed it: For apparent-conflict passages, test whether the author rejects a finding or changes how the findings relate.
In early payrolls, workers were often listed only by common first names, a practice that seems to make individual careers difficult to trace. Yet some clerks paired each name with a distinctive mark, such as a small triangle or crossed lines. Where a clerk used the same mark consistently, historians can sometimes connect entries across several years. The records' sparse naming system therefore creates a difficulty without making individual histories wholly inaccessible.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
Why this answer
Identify a problem that becomes a qualified resource | Review lesson 2.2
Correct choice: It introduces an apparent obstacle, describes a feature that can partly overcome it, and states a limited conclusion about the records' usefulness.
The common names create an obstacle; consistently used marks can partly address it. The ending preserves both the difficulty and the possibility of tracing some careers, making the conclusion explicitly limited.
A: The distinctive marks operated within the sparse system; no official replacement is described.
B: The passage offers a qualification, not a contest resolved through statistical support.
D: The sparse names create a real difficulty. Distinctive marks can sometimes help, but the text does not explain the original obstacle away as a reading mistake.
If you missed it: Keep both the surviving limitation and the conditional success in a structure map.
After shade cloth was installed over a plaza, observers counted more people present there at midday than they had before installation. Underlined: The rate at which new visitors entered the plaza, however, remained about the same. End underlined. Researchers therefore suggested that the increased number present reflected longer visits rather than a larger stream of arrivals, while noting that other changes during the period might also have affected how long visitors stayed.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?
Why this answer
Explain a detail that tests an alternative account | Review lesson 2.3
Correct choice: It helps favor one explanation of the higher occupancy while leaving its underlying cause unsettled.
Stable arrivals favor longer stays as an account of the increased number present. They do not establish that shade caused the longer visits; the final qualification preserves that uncertainty.
A: The initial observation is increased midday occupancy, stated before the underlined sentence. The focal detail helps interpret that observation.
C: Unchanged arrival rates do not rule out other changes affecting visit length, which the ending explicitly acknowledges.
D: The arrival rate was stable; the passage does not report inconsistent counting or withdraw the occupancy finding.
If you missed it: Separate evidence about what changed from evidence about why it changed.
A critic argues that a story conveys a household's social history through traces of repeated use rather than through a list of past events. The critic points to this description: Underlined: "The latch shone where generations of visitors had pressed it, while the unused bell retained its dark crust." End underlined. The contrast makes habitual entry visible in the objects themselves, suggesting a home where callers were accustomed to opening the door.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined quotation?
Why this answer
Connect quoted description to a critical claim | Review lesson 2.4
Correct choice: It provides a concrete instance of the descriptive method identified in the critic's claim.
The worn latch and unused bell embody repeated habits, illustrating the claim that physical traces convey social history. The quotation does not narrate a chronological sequence of events.
B: The quoted details support the critic's account rather than propose a competing account.
C: The critic explicitly contrasts this method with listing past events; the quotation supplies no event chronology.
D: The contrast is between two objects with different use histories, not between past sociability and established present isolation.
If you missed it: Identify what is being contrasted before assigning a larger historical or emotional meaning to it.
A game awards points for answering arithmetic questions quickly. Rapid retrieval of familiar facts is useful in many calculations, and the game can reward that ability. But solving an unfamiliar problem may require testing an approach, noticing that it fails, and trying another. A score based only on response speed can therefore measure something valuable without providing an adequate measure of mathematical problem-solving as a whole.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
Why this answer
Identify a purpose that qualifies a measure's interpretation | Review lesson 2.5
Correct choice: To qualify the interpretation of a speed score by distinguishing the ability it measures from broader problem-solving
The passage accepts the usefulness of rapid retrieval while explaining that unfamiliar problem-solving involves additional processes. It limits the interpretation of speed scores rather than denying the measured ability's value.
A: The text limits the coverage of a speed score; it does not claim that rapid retrieval has no role within unfamiliar problem-solving.
B: The passage specifically denies that speed alone adequately measures problem-solving as a whole. It raises no concern about players' motivation.
C: The passage does not compare rankings from two measures or claim that their results coincide.
If you missed it: A critique of a measure's coverage is not necessarily a critique of everything it measures.
Historian Vale described a harbor fire as "the event that created the town's interest in building regulations." Historian Sen accepts that the fire accelerated regulation, but cites petitions for safer construction written several years before it. The fire may thus explain the urgency of the eventual measures without explaining the first appearance of the concern that produced them.
Which choice best describes the role of Vale's quotation in the text?
Why this answer
Track partial agreement with an earlier explanation | Review lesson 2.6
Correct choice: It states an account that the text narrows by distinguishing the origin of a concern from its later urgency.
The petitions establish that concern preceded the fire, challenging "created." The text nevertheless retains the fire's accelerating role. C captures this partial revision without turning it into total rejection.
A: The prior petitions challenge the origin chronology implied by Vale's statement.
B: Sen explicitly accepts that the fire accelerated regulation, so its influence is preserved.
D: The petitions are placed several years before the fire; uncertainty about dating is not raised.
If you missed it: Identify exactly which part of a reported explanation is revised and which part survives.
Researchers planned to test whether a drink's aroma affected ratings of its sweetness. They would give participants drinks with identical sweetener concentrations but different aromas. Underlined: All samples would be served in identical opaque cups, and participants would not be told which aroma each contained. End underlined. Participants would smell and taste each sample before rating it. Differences in their prior experiences with particular aromas would remain relevant when interpreting the results.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?
Why this answer
Identify what a method controls without claiming a result | Review lesson 2.7
Correct choice: It describes features of a planned method intended to limit some competing influences on the judgments.
Identical opaque cups and withheld labels limit visual and explicit-label influences. Participants still smell the samples, and their prior experiences remain relevant. B preserves this partial control without claiming that all expectations are removed.
A: Aroma remains a sensory feature participants can perceive, so the procedure does not eliminate every possible basis for expectation.
C: The passage explicitly preserves prior experience as a relevant consideration; identical presentation does not erase it.
D: The drinks have identical sweetener concentrations. The focal procedure controls presentation rather than measuring differences in sweetener content.
If you missed it: Ask what a design feature limits, then stop short of claiming the planned study has produced an answer.
I had promised my sister that I would clear the workbench before she arrived. The cracked ruler could go; I set it beside the bin. Then I noticed the pencil notch my brother had cut into it, badly, when he first learned to measure. I put the ruler in a drawer. By noon the bench was almost bare, and every drawer was full.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
Why this answer
Identify tension between intention and action | Review lesson 2.8
Correct choice: To reveal, through a small decision and its repetition, a tension between the narrator's intention to discard objects and attachment to them
The ruler moves toward the bin, then into a drawer after a memory intervenes. The full drawers extend that pattern: the surface is cleared while the objects remain, exposing the tension between discarding and preserving.
B: The cracked ruler is kept after a family memory, not after a usefulness comparison.
C: The sister supplies the occasion for cleaning but expresses no recollection to compare.
D: Clearing the surface does not establish resolution of the attachment; the full drawers show continued preservation.
If you missed it: Distinguish the outward completion of an action from a supported change in the character's attachment.
A catalog groups dishes according to their principal ingredient. This is useful for locating recipes, but it can hide important culinary differences. Two rice dishes may rely on different preparation methods and occupy different places in a meal. Underlined: If one is eaten as a small ceremonial offering and another as an everyday main course, does their shared grain tell us everything important about their relationship? End underlined. An ingredient index organizes a collection without fully interpreting it.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined question?
Why this answer
Identify the limited claim supported by a rhetorical question | Review lesson 2.9
Correct choice: It emphasizes a limitation of ingredient-based grouping while supporting a distinction between organization and interpretation.
The question supplies a contrast in cultural use that a shared-ingredient category does not explain. The conclusion keeps the index's organizational value while limiting its interpretive completeness.
A: The question shows that different social roles can exist within the same ingredient category; that category does not itself establish the roles.
B: The text accepts the index's usefulness for locating recipes. The question targets the completeness of its interpretation of the dishes' relationship.
C: The passage identifies preparation and social role as relevant differences but does not rank them universally.
If you missed it: Check whether the rhetorical question attacks a tool's accuracy, its usefulness, or the completeness of its interpretation.
One historian describes a town's nineteenth-century clothing production as expanding, citing the growth of workshops that employed paid tailors. Another describes it as contracting, citing fewer households making clothing for their own use. These accounts sound opposed only if "clothing production" names the same activity in both. The first concerns commercial work; the second concerns household work. Both patterns could accompany a shift in where clothing was made rather than a simple rise or fall in all production.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
Why this answer
Recognize reconciliation through boundaries of measurement | Review lesson 2.10
Correct choice: It presents an apparent disagreement, distinguishes the activities being described, and explains how the accounts could be compatible.
The distinction between commercial and household production permits expansion in one and contraction in the other. The final suggestion reconciles the accounts without choosing one, calculating a total, or claiming certainty about the shift.
A: Neither account is favored as the sole correct one; their different coverage is the key.
B: No total change is calculated, and neither account is said to establish its size.
D: The terminology is clarified to retain both accounts as potentially compatible, not to reject them.
If you missed it: When two accounts differ, check their objects and boundaries before deciding they contradict each other.