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Practice Questions: English Math Reading Science Writing
Passage 1 Passage 2 Passage 3 Passage 4 Passage 5
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SAMPLE ENGLISH TEST QUESTIONS
Click on the letter choices to determine if you have the correct answer and for question explanations.An actual ACT English Test contains 75 questions to be answered in 45 minutes.
DIRECTIONS: In the passage that follows, certainwords and phrases are underlined and numbered. Inthe right-hand column, you will find alternatives forthe underlined part. In most cases, you are tochoose the one that best expresses the idea, makesthe statement appropriate for standard writtenEnglish, or is worded most consistently with thestyle and tone of the passage as a whole. If youthink the original version is best, choose "NOCHANGE." In some cases, you will find in the right-hand column a question about the underlined part.You are to choose the best answer to the question.
You will also find questions about a section of thepassage, or about the passage as a whole. Thesequestions do not refer to an underlined portion of thepassage, but rather are identified by a number ornumbers in a box.
For each question, choose the alternative youconsider best and fill in the corresponding oval onyour answer document. Read the passage throughonce before you begin to answer the questions thataccompany it. For many of the questions, you mustread several sentences beyond the question todetermine the answer. Be sure that you have readfar enough ahead each time you choose analternative.
Passage II
The following paragraphs may or may not be in themost logical order. Each paragraph is numbered inbrackets, and question 14 will ask you to choosewhere Paragraph 2 should most logically be placed.
My Father’s Garden
[1]
When I was a boy growing up in Delhi, India,
DIRECTIONS
A.B.C.D.
1.
F.G.H.J.
2.
A.
B.
C.D.
3.
F.G.H.J.
4.
A.B.C.
D.
5.
F.G.H.J.
6.
A.B.C.D.
7.
8.
we had a kitchen garden behind our downstairs
apartment. My father was an avid gardener, he still is:
and every Saturday morning he would put on his work
NO CHANGEgardener—he still is—gardener, he still is—gardener and he still is
clothes, pick up his hoe and trowel, and would head NO CHANGEpicked up his hoe and trowel, and headedpick up his hoe and trowel, and headpicking up his hoe and trowel, andheaded
out the back door. 3
[2]
As a ten-year-old, I was supremely unenthusiastic
about swinging a hoe in the garden when I could be out
If the word Saturday were deleted from thepreceding sentence, the essay would primarilylose:
evidence that the father was an avidgardener.a detail that changes the meaning of thesentence.support for a point made earlier.a crucial link to the following paragraph.
playing with my friends. Having tried and failed,
my father was unable to make a gardener of me.
Which of the choices best emphasizes how muchthe father wanted his son to share his avid interestin gardening?
NO CHANGEBecause of my indifference to his hobby,Contrary to this thinking,Despite his repeated attempts,
I had no qualms, of course, about enjoying the
results of his labor: the potatoes, squash, cucumbers,
NO CHANGEMore important, I had no qualmsIt stands to reason, then, that I certainlywould have no qualmsI had no qualms, as a consequence of it,
and cauliflower that he pursued out of the earth. I would
even help him dig out the potatoes or cut a cucumber from
NO CHANGEcoaxedsurrenderedenlisted
its vine. To me, it was much more fun to reap than sowing.
[3]
Many years later, living in an upstairs apartment,
NO CHANGEthe most fun to reap than to sow.much more fun to reap than to sow.the most fun reaping than if I’d had tosow.
The best placement for the underlined portion
F.G.H.J.
8.
A.B.C.D.
9.
F.G.H.J.
10.
A.B.C.D.
11.
F.
G.
H.
J.
12.
A.B.
13.
I am more often sorry I didn’t follow my father out to the
garden. I have several indoor plants, but the experience is
not the same. The few times that I’ve helped a friend with
The best placement for the underlined portionwould be:
where it is now.after the word sorry.after the word follow.after the word garden (ending thesentence with a period).
yard work has given me the joy of touching the soil NO CHANGEhave givenhas gavehave gave
with an open palm, to get the earth under my fingernails,
of patting down the berm around a newly transplanted
sapling. Now that I live far from my father (I live in Iowa
NO CHANGEwith gettingof gettinggot
on the other side of the world), I wish I’d spend more time
with him in the garden.
[4]
My favorite photograph of my father shows him
squatting on his heels, trowel in hand, behind a golden
NO CHANGEwished I had spentwish I had spentwish to have spent
heap of onions freshly pulled from the ground. 12 At this point, the writer is considering adding thefollowing true statement:I have many photo albums, and each one includespictures of my father in various poses.Should the writer make this addition here?
Yes, because it informs the reader thatthe photograph he describes in thepreceding sentence is not the only one hehas of his father.Yes, because it informs the reader thatthe writer is more than an amateurphotographer.No, because it contradicts the writer’sclaim that the photograph he describes inthe preceding sentence is one he alsotreasures.No, because it distracts the reader fromthe main focus of the paragraph and doesnot logically fit at this point in the essay.
His glowing smile are evidence of his pride in the NO CHANGEis
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B.C.D.
F.G.H.J.
14.
A.
B.
C.
D.
15.
onions—the proof of his labor and love—and in me, the
photographer, his son. In that photo, his love of the land
and his love for me are somehow intertwined, indivisible.
It is that same love—love of kin, love of land—that
pushes under my fingernails, pushes against my skin,
when I thrust my hand into the yielding earth and think
that on its far side my father might be doing the same.
iswereOMIT the underlined portion.
Questions 14 and 15 ask about the preceding passage as a whole.
For the sake of the logic and coherence of theessay, Paragraph 2 should be placed:
where it is now.before Paragraph 1.after Paragraph 3.after Paragraph 4.
Suppose the writer had intended to write a briefessay showing how a value he holds as an adult isvery different from what he felt as a child. Wouldthis essay successfully fulfill the writer’s goal?
Yes, because the essay shows how thewriter came to value gardening when thiswas something he had not appreciated asa child.Yes, because the essay shows that as anadult the writer finally learned to valuehis father’s ability to be a good parent,when as a child he had not done so.No, because the focus of the essay is onthe writer’s father’s values and not on thevalues of the writer himself.No, because the essay is not aboutvalues; rather, it is about one man’s avidinterest in backyard gardening.
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