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RLA (Language) Practice Test
This test includes 44 questions; correct answers are on pages 11-14.
QUESTIONS
1. Read the passage below and answer the question that follows it.
Anastasia sat by the fountain in the park with her head in her palms. She was weeping
mournfully and wearing all black. In between gasps and sobs, Anastasia cried out, “Oh…
John…” And then her cell phone beepeD.Her hand dived into her purse and her heart
skipped a beat. It was a text message from John! She opened up the message and read
the few stark words, “I need to get my jacket back from you.” Anastasia threw her head
onto her arms and resumed sobbing.
1. Why is Anastasia crying?
A. John has died.
B. John hasn’t called her for a long time.
C. She’s broken up with John.
D. John’s broken up with her.
2. What’s the most important aspect of planning a composition?
A. taking notes
B. outlining
C. getting something (anything) on paper
D. free writing
3. Fill in the correct form of the adjective for each blank.
Selena is (pretty) ________ than me. In fact, she’s the (beautiful) ___________ girl in our
whole school. However, even though I’m (attractive) __________ than Selena, I don’t
look any (baD. ___________ than anyone else.
Unequal Comparison Adjectives [see rules given in the video]
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4. Look at the cartoon below. Then answer the question that follows.
What is the cartoonist saying about the state of the jury’s deliberation?
A. The jury will reach its decision after lunch.
B. The jury has been deliberating for a long time.
C. The jury is not going to agree on a verdict.
D. The jury has almost reached its decision.
5. You need to choose a topic that is …
A. the right size for the intended length of the paper
B. broad and general
C. very specific
D. familiar to you
6. Which of the following sentence uses comparative adjectives incorrectly?
A. That is the most ugly cat I’ve ever seen.
B. The Rolls Royce is classiest of the other two cars.
C. Of all the people here, he is the less friendly.
D. A, B, and C.
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7. Students should be allowed to look at their textbooks during examinations. After all,
surgeons have X-rays to guide them during an operation; lawyers have briefs to guide
them during a trial; carpenters have blueprints to guide them when they are building a
house. Why, then, shouldn’t students be allowed to look at their textbooks during an
examination?”
Which of the following best explains the problem with the analogy above?
A. Students need to prove that they’ve acquired knowledge, but the professionals have
already proven they have the knowledge and are just following a plan to apply it.
B. Students, surgeons, and carpenters have nothing in common, so comparing them
doesn’t make sense.
C. The students haven’t created the textbooks, but the surgeons, lawyers, and
carpenters have created what they’re using.
D. There’s no problem with this analogy.
8. Henry felt terrible about the lies he had told to his mother. If she ever found out the
truth, she’d never trust him again.
Which of the verbs in the passage above is a linking verb?
A. felt
B. had told
C. found
D. Trust
9. Efforts to ban chlordane assailed
WASHINGTON (AP)–The only exterminator in Congress told his colleagues Wednesday
that it would be a short- sighted move to ban use of chlordane and related termiticides
that cause cancer in laboratory animals.
Supporters of the bill, however, claimed that the Environmental Protection Agency was
‘dragging its feet’ on a chemical that could cause 300,000 cancers in the American
population in 70 years.
‘This bill reminds me of legislation that ought to be introduced to outlaw automobiles’
on the grounds that cars kill people, said Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who owns an
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exterminating business.
EPA banned use of the chemicals on crops in 1974, but permitted use against termites
because the agency did not believe humans were exposeD.Chlordane does not kill
termites but rather drives them away.
Representative DeLay is comparing banning the use of the pesticide chlordane to
banning the use of automobiles.
Which of the following differences makes this a weak or false analogy?
A. Banning automobiles would disrupt both the economy and people’s lives in a way
that banning one pesticide would not.
B. There are alternatives to chlordane available, but there’s not much available to
replace automobiles
C. Both of the above.
D. Neither of the above. The analogy is solid.
10. Which sentence below uses a linking verb?
A. He used the worn felt from the old hat to make a new one.
B. After eight centuries, the vampire was growing weary of his continued existence.
C. She touched the live wire and received a terrible shock.
D. The chef grew his own fresh herbs in small pots on the windowsills.
11. Choose the best thesis statement:
A. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.
B. In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and
life on the shore.
C. By contrasting the river scenes with the shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn
suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave
“civilized” society and go back to nature.
12. Choose the sentence that needs to have one or more commas added:
A. Why did he wear a bright red hat?
B. There were books on the desk, posters on the wall, and clothing on the floor.
C. Albert ordered salad, juice, macaroni and cheese, and fruit.
D. After we eat the dishes must be washed and put away.
13. Choose the best thesis statement:
A. Due to the advent of the Internet and other electronic resources, the research
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process used by today’s college students for writing research papers is significantly
different from that of students in the 1960s.
B. Because of advances in technology, today’s college student has many more resources
for writing research papers than students did in the 1960s.
C. The process for a college student working on a research paper in the 1960s was very
different from the process used by most university students today.
14. Choose the version of the sentence that uses commas correctly:
A. Since that evening’s schedule offered boring silly worthless programs, we turned off
the television.
B. Since that evening’s schedule offered boring, silly, worthless programs, we turned off
the television.
C. Since that evening’s schedule offered boring, silly worthless programs, we turned off
the television.
D. Since that evening’s schedule offered boring, silly, worthless programs we turned off
the television.
15. Choose the sentence that should be ended with an exclamation point:
A. What a wonderful idea
B. Do you know when the first match starts
C. We went to the mall and the movies
D. Susan asked if you wanted to go out for dinner tomorrow
16. Which sentence uses an exclamation point correctly?
A. Jocelyn was crying pitifully while the thunder boomed overhead!
B. Stalled in a traffic jam, Carl and Lou were impatient to get home from work!
C. The scrawny kitten had grown into a beautiful cat!
D. If I’d wanted to go, I would have said so!
17. Which sentence uses a semicolon correctly?
A. Because I have spent so many happy times there; I love to visit my grandmother’s
house.
B. I finally went to see the doctor about my cold; I got a flat tire in the parking lot.
C. Read all the choices; don’t just write the first answer that seems correct.
D. Our European tour included Paris and London however; we did not go to Madrid.
18. Look at the parts of the following words; then choose the best definition.
1. Immobile
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A. without cellular phone reception
B. ruled by mob mentality
C. unable to move
D. Hibernating
19. Which is NOT true about a 5-part essay:
A. the body paragraphs can present different facets of the thesis
B. it begins with an introduction and ends with a conclusion
C. there are 2 different ways to organize the information
D. each part should be a paragraph
20. Which of the following sentences presents a false dichotomy?
A. Should I cook the steak or the lobster tonight?
B. Either the eyewitness saw a ghost, or he’s a liar.
C. I’ve decided I’ll either vacation in Hawaii or Thailand this year.
D. Is the car new or not?
21. The center part of an essay can be arranged as Body 1, Body 2, Body 3 or …
A. introduction, argument, conclusion
B. narration, affirmation, negation
C. compare, contrast, persuasion
D. argument, opinion, conclusion
22. Which answer shows the correct use of a question mark?
A. Could I say, “I just don’t like the book”?
B. Do you know if the first race has started?
C. “What time is it?” Harold asked.
D. all of the above
23. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because
steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men
were rushing to the NorthlanD. [Jack London]
Use the context clues to determine when this story is happening.
A. the California Gold Rush
B. the expedition to the North Pole
C. the Alaska Gold Rush
D. the Viking era
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24. Which of the sentences below does NOT use italics correctly?
a. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a popular play because it involves a ghost, murder, and
romance.
b. A friend of mine appeared on television playing Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag.
c. Since her trip to Europe last summer, Lydia constantly uses words like ciao.
d. Did you know that the British spell and pronounce aluminum differently than
Americans do?
25. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions that follow.
[1] In the depths of the Arctic Ocean, buried deep in the sediment, an ancient creature
waited for over a million years to be discovereD. [2] Paul Valentich-Scott, from the Santa
Barbara Museum of Natural History (CaliforniA., and three scientists from the United
States Geological Survey (USGS, Menlo Park, CaliforniA., Charles L. Powell, Brian
D.Edwards, and Thomas D.Lorenson were up to the challenge. [3] Each with different
expertise, they were able to collect, analyze, and identify a new genus and new species
of bivalve mollusk.
[4] The path to discovery is seldom simple or easy. [5] This discovery is no exception. [6]
Brian Edwards was the chief scientist on a joint US-Canadian icebreaker expedition
aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy in the summer of 2010. [7] The primary purpose
of the expedition was to map the Arctic seafloor and the sediments beneath. [8] Dr.
Edwards took deep sediment core samples to further understand the geology of the
region including the unusual seafloor mound where these samples were collecteD. [9] In
several of these cores he uncovered bivalve seashells buried nearly 15 feet (4.5 m) below
the seafloor surface.
[10] When examining these ancient shell specimens, Valentich-Scott was fairly certain
that they were new to science. [11] The hunt to validate the potential new species was
on. [12] Paul contacted a number of thyasirid bivalve specialists around the world and all
gave it a ‘thumbs up’ as a new species.
Which sentences provide descriptive support for the text?
A. sentences 1-3
B. sentences 6-9
C. sentences 10-12
D. the article doesn’t have any descriptive support
26. Read the following student essay. Then answer the questions that follow it.
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[1] Not all thieves lurk in dark alleys and parks. Some sit with their faces lit by the glow
of their computer monitors, copying, pasting, and printing.
[2] It may seem like just another helpful source of information, but the Internet has
taken the theft of “intellectual property” to a new level. Part of the problem is that most
students don’t really know the exact definition of plagiarism or its consequences. Some
say that using someone else’s ideas without attributing them is a form of theft, but most
people don’t think of it as a serious crime.
[3] For teachers, Internet plagiarism has been especially problematic compared to
“theft” from other sources. This is because it is so easy to copy and paste from the
Internet. To counter student plagiarism, services designed to detect copied material have
emerged to aid teachers. One company, TurnItIn.com, has developed a system for
detecting material plagiarized from the Internet. Teachers can upload student works
onto the site, which searches for similarities to material from all over the WeB.The
teachers receive an “originality report” within a few days.
[4] “The threat of using [these programs] will stop a lot of students. They will be afraid
they’ll be caught. Unfortunately, fear is what works,” English teacher Judy Grear said.
[5] A main concern is not only the use of a few plagiarized sentences, but of entire
papers. “Paper mills” like SchoolSucks.com and Evil House of Cheat are some of the most
popular sources for pirated papers.
[6] In addition to such blatant “cut and paste” plagiarism, most teachers agree that
students must be wary of the theft of ideas. One plagiarism-detection program, Word
Check, asserts through their Web site, “Whether you agree or disagree on how
information should be used or reused in digital form, one thing is clear: protecting
intellectual property from theft and infringement is the number one security issue.”
[7] By some definitions, it seems like everyone plagiarizes. But for many students who
feel that they might unknowingly plagiarize, programs like TurnItIn.com are intimidating.
The detection system on TurnItIn.com, which is a part of plagiarism.org, claims to detect
plagiarism down to the eight-word level, which many fear could include accidental lifting
of words.
[8] The thieves are out there, and they aren’t wearing stocking caps. They’re not robbing
banks; they’re stealing words.
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Where is the best location to add this quotation?
“I think that the idea is good,” Chris M., a senior, saiD.“But it might be a little extreme
because some phrases are common enough that they might be in more than one essay.”
A. between paragraphs 2 and 3
B. between paragraphs 4 and 5
C. between paragraphs 7 and 8
D. Nowhere
27. Which paragraph would benefit from the details given in the following sentence?
Sites like these, which have achieved fame and notoriety among slackers everywhere,
were the motivation for TurnItIn.com and similar sites.
A. none
B. paragraph 2
C. paragraph 5
D. paragraph 7
28. How many words are in the complete predicate?
Adult cougars hunt deer and other animals.
A. 1
B. 2
C. 4
D. 5
29. Which of the following passages contains one or more fragments?
A. I have never known anyone who was a better student than Paula. Who always did
her homework in half the time I took.
B. The city’s water supply has been threatened. Very little rain having fallen during the
past months.
C. Kipling’s poems have always appealed to me. Because of their strong rhythm. And
their rhyme.
a. a and b only
b. b and c only
c. a and c only
d. all of them
30. Which of the following sentences does NOT use parallel construction?
A. The coach told the players that they should get a lot of sleep, that they should not
eat too much, and to do some warm-up exercises before the game.
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B. Ellen likes hiking in the mountains, riding horses on the beach, and eating fresh
mangoes.
C. The detective was told to complete his report accurately, thoroughly, and quickly.
D. Dogs are great pets for the following reasons: they are loyal, they are loving, and
they are obedient.
31. To interpret expository text, you need to..
A. describe and elaborate
B. focus on only one aspect
C. outline and evaluate
D. Paraphrase
32. Choose the sentence which correctly expresses the meaning.
1.meaning: Marta still lives in Brazil
A. Marta has lived in Brazil for three years.
B. Marta had lived in Brazil for three years.
33. Spatial organization is used to describe …
A. the reasons that something happened
B. how something is different from other things
C. the physical layout of something
D. how events are related to each other
34. Outlines are …
A. a common (and sometimes requireD. way to structure your paper
B. organized in stair steps from general ideas to specific details
C. good for helping prevent writer’s block
D. all of the above
35. Revising and editing involves …
A. adding, deleting, rearranging, and dividing text in the whole draft
B. checking formatting like margins
C. correcting spelling errors
D. making your paper the required length
36. Which word(s) should be eliminated from the sentence?
Peregrine falcons soar gracefully inside of the air currents.
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37. Choose the correct pronoun for the sentence.
My father and ______ always go fishing on Saturday mornings.
A. me
B. I
C. myself
D. none of the above
38. Are the underlined words verbals in these sentences? Yes or no?
I love to go skiing.
Y (yes)
N (no)
39. Identify the infinitive in this sentence:
When I got home from school I wanted to run straight to my computer.
40. What’s the difference between comparative and superlative?
A. a comparative uses –er and –est and a superlative uses more and most
B. a comparative is about two things; a superlative is about three or more things
C. a comparative shows how things are alike; a superlative shows how they’re different
D. there’s no difference between them
41. Choose the best word to complete the sentence.
Of all the guys he hung out with, Bob found Tommy to be his _______ friend when he
needed to talk about a problem.
A. good
B. goodest
C. better
D. Best
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42. What roles are the underlined nouns filling in the following sentence?
His mother gave Billy’s hat to his sister’s friend.
A. subject
B. possessive
C. object
D. all above
43. Choose less or fewer for the following sentences.
2. I got ________ than 50% of the answers correct on my science test.
44. Choose from drop down menu the correct article [a, an, the] or NO if no article
should be used.
Jake took out ______ Pepsi out of the refrigerator.
ANSWERS
1. Answer D: John’s broken up with her.
2. Answer C: getting something (anything) on paper
3. Answer B: prettier; most beautiful; less attractive; worse
4. Answer C: The jury is not going to agree on a verdict.
5. Answer A: the right size for the intended length of the paper
6. Answer D: All of the above
7. Answer A: Students need to prove that they’ve acquired knowledge, but the
professionals have already proven they have the knowledge and are just following a plan
to apply it.
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8. Answer A: felt
9. Answer C: Both of the above.
Both A and B are valid and logical differences between the two things that are being
compared.
10. Answer B: After eight centuries, the vampire was growing weary of his continued
existence.
11. Answer C: By contrasting the river scenes with the shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry
Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must
leave “civilized” society and go back to nature.
12. Answer D: After we eat the dishes must be washed and put away.
13. Answer A: Due to the advent of the Internet and other electronic resources, the
research process used by today’s college students for writing research papers is
significantly different from that of students in the 1960s.
14. Answer B: Since that evening’s schedule offered boring, silly, worthless programs, we
turned off the television.
15. Answer A: What a wonderful idea
16. Answer D: If I’d wanted to go, I would have said so!
17. Answer C: Read all the choices; don’t just write the first answer that seems correct.
18. Answer C: unable to move
19. Answer D: each part should be a paragraph
20. Answer B: Either the eyewitness saw a ghost, or he’s a liar.
21. Answer B: narration, affirmation, negation
22. Answer D: all of the above
23. Answer C: the Alaska Gold Rush
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24. Answer B: A friend of mine appeared on television playing Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf
Rag.
25. Answer A: sentences 1-3
26. Answer B: between paragraphs 7 and 8
27. Answer C: paragraph 5
28. Answer D: 5 [everything except the subject ‘adult cougars’]
29. Answer D: all of them
30. Answer A: The coach told the players that they should get a lot of sleep, that they
should not eat too much, and to do some warm-up exercises before the game.
31. Answer C: outline and evaluate
32. Answer A: Marta has lived in Brazil for three years.
33. Answer C: the physical layout of something
34. Answer D: all of the above
35. Answer A: adding, deleting, rearranging, and dividing text in the whole draft
36. Answer: of [‘inside the air currents’]
37. Answer B: I [‘I’ is the subject form]
38. Answer: Y, yes [infinitive & gerund]
39. Answer: to run [ ‘to my computer’ is a prepositional phrase]
40. ANSWER B: a comparative is about two things; a superlative is about three or more
things
41. ANSWER D: best
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42. ANSWER A: subject
43. ANSWER: less
44. ANSWER: A
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