8719 PLAN Sample Test Questions - ACT

1 plan Test Content andSample Test QuestionsENGLISH TEST(30 minutes)30 Questions Usage/Mechanics20 Questions Rhetorical Skills50 questionsThis test measures your understanding ofstandard written English with regard to punc-tuation, grammar and usage, and sentencestructure (Usage/Mechanics) as well asyour understanding of the appropriate useof strategy, organization, and style in writing(Rhetorical Skills). Rather than emphasizingmemorization of rules of grammar, the teststresses the analysis of the kinds of prose thatstudents read and write in most high schooland college programs. The test consists offour prose passages, each accompanied bya number of multiple-choice TEST(40 minutes)22 Questions Pre-Algebra/Algebra18 Questions Geometry40 questionsThis test measures your achievement insolving practical quantitative problems.

2 Theskills learned in many first- and second-yearhigh school courses (pre-algebra, first-yearalgebra, and plane geometry) are tested, butmost of the Questions (including those ingeometry) emphasize content presentedbefore the second year of high school. Thetest focuses on your ability to reason quanti-tatively rather than on memorized formulas orinvolved computations. All the Questions aremultiple choice. Use of calculators is permit-ted on the Mathematics TEST(20 minutes)25 questionsThis test measures your reading compre-hension by focusing on skills you use instudying written materials from a range ofsubject areas. These skills include referring todetails in the passage, drawing conclusions,and making comparisons and general-izations.

3 Knowledge of information outside thepassages, vocabulary taken out of context,and rules of formal logic are not test consists of three prose passagestypical of those encountered in high schoolcourses: one passage in the social sciences,one in the humanities, and one in prose fic-tion. Each passage is followed by severalmultiple-choice TEST (25 minutes)30 questionsThis test measures your scientific reason-ing skills, based on material that is typicallycovered in first- and second-year high schoolgeneral science courses, including topics inbiology, chemistry, physics, geology, astron-omy, and test presents five sets of scientificinformation: two in the data representationformat (graphs, tables, and other schematicforms), two in the research summaries format(descriptions of several related experiments),and one in the conflicting viewpoints format(two or more hypotheses that are inconsistentwith one another).

4 The multiple-choicequestions that follow each set require you tounderstand the information provided, toexamine critically the relationships betweenthe information and the hypotheses devel-oped, and to generalize from the informationin order to draw conclusions or make predic-tions. The use of calculators is notpermittedon the Science Test QuestionsThe following pages provide several sam-ple test Questions from each of the four plan tests . They are intended to illustrate the gen-eral types of Questions included in the plan tests . An answer key is provided at the end ofeach section. 2006 by ACT, Inc. All rights TestD. W. Griffith and the Art of the Close-Up[1]In the late 1890s, thousands of peoplecrowded into penny arcades across the countryto see a remarkable new invention: the longer than one minute, the first movieswere simply recordings of everyday events.

5 Adistantly speeding traintoward the camera or aman watering his garden these were typical subjects.[2]Within ten years, the movies were tellingten-minute stories. But they were stillprimitive, because moviemakers were stillrecording the story from only one viewpoint,just as their predecessors recorded the speedingtrain. For example, supposingthe story calledfor a young man to propose marriage. The moviemakerwould place the camera far from the stage, recordingthe entire scene from this single position.[3][1] It took the genius of D. W. Griffith tochange this method of filming. [2] When we watchthis proposal scene, he argued, our eyes speeding train , distantly speeding2. suppose3. the camera and record the entire scene,placing it far , place the camera far away, and turn , start, and recording123 Directions:In the passage that follows, certain wordsand phrases are underlined and numbered.

6 In the right-hand column, you will find alternatives for the underlinedpart. In most cases, you are to choose the one that bestexpresses the idea, makes the statement appropriate forstandard written English, or is worded most consistentlywith the style and tone of the passage as a whole. If youthink the original version is best, choose NO CHANGE. In some cases, you will find in the right-hand column aquestion about the underlined part. You are to choosethe best answer to the will also find Questions about a section of the pas-sage, or about the passage as a whole. These questionsdo not refer to an underlined portion of the passage, butrather are identified by a number or numbers in a each question , choose the alternative you considerbest and fill in the corresponding oval on your answerfolder.

7 Read the passage through once before you beginto answer the Questions that accompany it. For many ofthe Questions , you must read several sentences beyondthe question to determine the answer. Be sure that youhave read far enough ahead each time you choose [3] We watch the expressions on the faces ofthe characters; we look at the hands as the manpresentedthe engagement ring to the woman.[4] Why Griffith asked, can tthe camera be our eyes?[5] Why can t we have close-ups of the faces ofthe man and woman, or of the hands as the mangives his fianc e the ring? [4]Some said it wouldn t go over so be confused if the screen were suddenlyfilled by a face, let alone a pair of hands anda ring!

8 But Griffith proved the skeptics wrong. Bycarefully placing close-ups into his scenes,audiences could feelthe actors emotions andthe story s suspense. By 1917, Griffith was soconfident of his style that, he boldlyfilledthe screen with a close-up of a woman s nervoushands to convey it sanguish at the injustice inthe world. That close-up, in the film Intolerance,became presented5. Griffith asked, can Griffith asked. Can , Griffith asked, can of the following sequences of sentences will makeParagraph 3 flow most logically? , 1, 3, 5, , 5, 1, 2, , 5, 1, 2, 37. t be a big t go too never began a feeling made audiences , he felt, would experience9. he he bold, he10.

9 That the writer wanted to add the following sentence to the essay:Film director Martin Scorsese, greatly influencedby the work of Griffith, labeled Intoleranceoneof the ten greatest films sentence would most logically fit beginning of Paragraph end of Paragraph 11 asks about the precedingpassage as a : Solve each problem, choose the correctanswer, and then fill in the corresponding oval on youranswer not linger over problems that take too much time. Solveas many as you can; then return to the others in the timeyou have left for this are permitted to use a calculator on this test. You mayuse your calculator for any problems you choose, but someof the problems may best be done without using : Unless otherwise stated, all of the following should Illustrative figures are NOT necessarily drawn to Geometric figures lie in a The word line indicates a straight The word average indicates arithmetic certain school s enrollment increased 5% this year overlast year s enrollment.

10 If the school now has 1,260 students enrolled, how many students were enrolled lastyear? , , , , , the figure below, A, B, C, and D are collinear;AD___is 35 units long;AC___is 22 units long; andBD___is 29 unitslong. How many units long isBC___? is the slope of the line determined by the equation 3x+ y= 4 ?A. TestEnglish Answer Key1. C5. D9. C2. H6. F10. J3. A7. D11. D4. G8. the figure below,AB___is parallel toDE___, andAE___intersectsBD___at C. If the measure of ABCis 40 and themeasure of CEDis 60 , what is the measure of BCE? bought 3 shirts at a clothing store. Two of the shirtswere priced at 2 for $ If the average cost of the3 shirts was $ , how much did Mark pay for the thirdshirt?