Two Part Multiple Choice Question Examples
Question Examples
Text: The Validation of Continental Drift (Stephen Jay Gould)
1. Part A) What is the author’s viewpoint of the scientific method?
a. The scientific method keeps scientists from developing ideas that cannot be true.
b. The scientific method by itself is not likely to lead to new scientific advances.
c. The scientific method helps scientists record data that do not change over time.
d. The scientific method must be supported by careful scientific research.
Part B) Which excerpt from the text best supports the answer to Part 1?
a. “Direct evidence for continental drift – that is, the data gathered from rocks exposed on our continents – was
every bit as good as it is today.”
b. “New facts, collected in old ways under the guidance of old theories, rarely lead to any substantial revision of
thought. Facts do not “speak for themselves’; they are read in the light of theory. “
c. “Impossible” is usually defined by our theories, not given by nature.
d. The only common property shared by all these land bridges was their utterly hypothetical status; not an iota of
direct evidence supported any of them.
Text: Is it a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to Vote? (Susan B. Anthony)
2. Part A: What is the meaning of the word unalienable in the fourth paragraph of the speech?
a. cannot be defined
b. cannot be taken away
c. cannot be seen or touched
d. cannot be given to all
Part B: Which two phrases from the text best help the reader understand the meaning of unalienable?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
“God-given
“Endowed by their Creator”
“deriving their just powers”
“the consent of the governed”
“the right of all men”
“as the Quaker preacher said”
“by those declarations”
Examples from Student Achievement Partner’s www.achievethecore.org mini-assessments.
Text: The Manhattan Project Texts (documents by multiple authors)
3. Part A: According to Text 1, what are two reasons President Roosevelt initially hesitated to commit the United States
to researching atomic power?
a. He did not want to upset the relationship between the United States and the USSR.
b. He thought such a project would be expensive.
c. He feared it would take years to develop an atomic weapon.
d. He was focused on the war in Europe.
e. He was reluctant to create such a destructive weapon.
f. He felt the United States was already well equipped for war.
Part B: According to Text 1, what ultimately convinced Roosevelt of the value of atomic research?
a. Meeting with his friend and advisor Alexander Sachs
b. Receiving a letter from esteemed scientist Albert Einstein
c. Doing his own reading on recent findings in nuclear physics
d. Realizing that Germany possessed more weapons than the U.S.
4. Part A: Which statement best describes the author’s main purpose in Text 1?
a. To provide little-known details about the Manhattan Project
b. To show appreciation of those who ensured America’s victory in World War II
c. To analyze the events and thought processes behind a historic decision
d. To suggest that the presidential choices can have unforeseen consequences
Part B: How does paragraph 2 best help develop and refine the author’s ideas?
a. Paragraph 2 further explains to the reader the role Sach played in getting Einstein’s letter to Roosevelt,
discussed in paragraph 1.
b. Paragraph 2 helps the reader understand the events that led to the meeting between Sach and
Roosevelt, discussed in paragraph 1.
c. Paragraph 2 reveals to the reader that the letter discussed in paragraph 1 was actually the work of a
scientist other than Einstein.
d. Paragraph 2 describes the many scientists who worked together to bring the threat of nuclear warfare
to Roosevelt’s attention, as discussed in paragraph 1.
Examples from Student Achievement Partner’s www.achievethecore.org mini-assessments.
Text: The Long Night of the Little Boats (Basil Heatter)
5. Part A: What was the main purpose for using the small boats in the rescue operation?
a. The small boats were piloted by regular citizens and therefore allowed the British soldiers to do their job of
fighting the German army.
b. The small boats were harder to see at night and thus could more easily avoid the German attacks from the
ground and the air.
c. The small boats, as a group, could hold a greater number of soldiers than the bigger boats belonging to the
British navy.
d. The small boats could get close to the beach and transfer the soldiers to the bigger boats that had to stay in
deep water.
Part B: Which two quotations from paragraphs 10-12 best support the answer to Part A?
a. “Boats that had never carried more than a dozen people at a time were now carrying sixty or seventy.”
b. “Somehow they backed off the beach, remained afloat, and ferried their loads out to the larger ships waiting
offshore and then returned to the beach for more men.”
c. “The rain of bombs, shells, and bullets grew ever greater until the little boats seemed to be moving through
a sea of flame.”
d. “The strip of beach, from Bergues on the left to Nieuwpoort on the right, was growing smaller under the
barrage, and even the gallant rear guard was no being pressed down onto the beaches.”
e. “The little boards still went about their business, moving steadily through the water.”
f. “As the situation became even more desperate, the big ships moved in the right alongside the little ones,
some grounding on the sand and hoping somehow to get off again despite the falling tide.”
6. Part A: Which statement below best summarizes the central idea of this excerpt?
a. Military boats and civilian ships struggled to navigate during a nighttime rescue mission.
b. Civilian sacrifice and good fortune played important roles in a daring rescue of British troops.
c. The sailors of the little boats were part of the largest rescue operation during World War II.
d. Each group of rescuers had different motivations for saving British troops.
Part B: Which sentence from the excerpt provides the best support for the correct answer in Part A?
a. “Down they came, clogging the estuaries, going off to war.”
b. “Coming up behind them, bent on missions of their own, were the warships, destroyers, cruisers, and
gunboats, racketing full tilt across toward the coast of France.”
c. “It was a miracle that so many had been able to assemble at one place at one time, and even more
miraculous that crews had been found for them.”
d. “It was like being on a black highway with fast-moving traffic and no lights showing.”
Examples from Student Achievement Partner’s www.achievethecore.org mini-assessments.