ETS English Test II
The following excerpt is from a draft of a student's narrative. "wow what just happened I, I turned into a—" "beep beep beep" My alarm went off I turned over to my side and saw that it was 10:27 in the morning. I got up, and I started to saunter down my pristine stairs to get breakfast. When I got downstairs I realized it wasn't a normal day. It was mom's birthday! I ran down the stairs and I jumped into the hallway, my brown hair flying behind me, to go make a card. When I finished the card, I went upstairs and gave it to mom. Not to brag or anything, but it was fabulous. Before I could even get downstairs dad stopped me and said "get your gloves on since mom likes lettuce. you've got to pick it so we can make an awesome salad with it." Then I went outside to pick some lettuce. Finally it was 6:30 and for my family that's dinner time! Answer the question below by clicking on the correct response. Question: Which of the following is a compound sentence?
"I got up, and I started to saunter down my pristine stairs to get breakfast."
In the passage below, main character Charlie Gordon records his thoughts in a journal entry. Dr Strauss says I shud rite down what I think and evrey thing that happins to me from now on. I dont know why but he says its importint so they will see if they will use me. I hope they use me. Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. I want to be smart. My name is Charlie Gordon. I am 37 years old and 2 weeks ago was my birthday. I have nuthing more to rite now so I will close for today. —Daniel Keyes, from "Flowers for Algernon" Which of the following details from the passage best supports the inference that Charlie Gordon is being considered for medical treatment designed to improve his intelligence?
"Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart."
The Hare was once boasting of his speed before the other animals. "I've never been beaten in a race," said he. "I challenge anyone here to race with me." The Tortoise said quietly, "I accept your challenge." "That is a good joke," said the Hare. "I could dance round you all the way." "Keep your boasting till you've beaten me," answered the Tortoise. "Shall we race?" So a course was fixed and a start was made. The Hare darted almost out of sight at once, but soon stopped. "I should stop for a rest," he said to himself. "That would make tortoise's loss even more embarrassing." And so he lay down to have a nap. The Tortoise plodded on and plodded on, and when the Hare awoke from his nap, he saw the Tortoise just near the winning-post and could not run up in time to save the race. Then said the Tortoise: "Plodding wins the race." —Aesop, adapted from The Hare and the Tortoise After reading the story, a student remarks in the discussion that the Hare is spiteful. Which of the following lines of Hare's dialogue best supports the student's statement?
"That would make tortoise's loss even more embarrassing."
Which of the following pairs of words contain a consonant sound that cannot be represented by any single letter?
"garage" and "vision" (The words "garage" and "vision" are unique in that no single letter represents the consonant sound that can be heard in these words.)
Phonological awareness primarily affects literacy skills through its impact on students' ability to
decode multisyllable words in a text
Which of the following is best described as a primary source?
A diary entry by a historical figure
Which of the following multisyllabic words is correctly segmented into its phonemes?
C-are-f-u-ll-y
A student has created a document with many specialty fonts and images in the school's computer lab. In which of the following formats should the student save the file to best ensure the integrity of the document when opened on a personal laptop?
Students in a language arts class have completed short informational essays and are now working on turning them into oral presentations. The following excerpt is from one student's essay. A volcano is a mountain with an opening that leads down below Earth's surface to the molten rock below. The mountain is usually made of layers of ash and cooled lava. When magma builds up in the chamber at the bottom, the pressure pushes it up the main vent, and then gas, rocks, and lava shoot out through the crater. This is known as an eruption. Which of the following visual aids will best support the excerpt?
A diagram showing the parts of a volcano
Which of the following is best classified as persuasive writing?
A letter to the editor entitled "Our Town Needs More Stop Signs"
Which of the following visual aids is most beneficial for understanding California's growth during the years of the gold rush?
A line or bar graph showing the population from 1848 to 1858
Which of the following online sources is the most reliable tool for academic research?
A peer-reviewed journal article containing a complete bibliography
Which of the following digital tools will best help a small group of students engage in an online discussion of symbolism in a literary text?
A teacher-moderated forum
The following passage is from the World Health Organization's Web site. Environmental health addresses all the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person and all the related factors impacting behaviors. It encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect health. It is targeted toward preventing disease and creating health-supportive environments. Which of the following examples best incorporates the source language while avoiding plagiarism?
According the World Health Organization, "Environmental health addresses all the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person . . ."
In most cases, different terms are used to identify male and female animals of the same species. In a zoo, male and female animals are grouped together in exhibits. Male elephants are called bulls, while female elephants are cows. Chickens are known as roosters if they are male and hens if they are female. Sheep are either rams or ewes, and pigs are boars or sows. Antelope and deer are bucks or does. There are also different names for specific breeds of animals. Which of the following statements best summarizes the central idea of the excerpt?
Animals of the same species but different sexes are often known by different names.
Students in a language arts class are working on essays about a special day in their lives. The following is one student's draft. (1) The afternoon with my grandfather could not have been more enjoyable. (2) We ate pizza. (3) After that we went out for ice cream. (4) After that we walked to the park to feed the ducks and ride the paddleboats. (5) I will remember that day for as long as I live. (6) We had a super time! Which of the following revisions will most improve the student's essay?
Combining sentences 2 and 3.
Question: The following is a student writing sample. The day started like any other sunny Friday morning. I got out of bed and made my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth. But as the day continued, it got worse. Oh boy, what a mess I got myself into! The passage is best described as which of the following types of writing?
Narrative
Which of the following parts of a citation is unique to online sources, rather than print-based sources?
Date the site was accessed
The following excerpt is from a draft of a student's narrative. "wow what just happened I, I turned into a—" "beep beep beep" My alarm went off I turned over to my side and saw that it was 10:27 in the morning. I got up, and I started to saunter down my pristine stairs to get breakfast. When I got downstairs I realized it wasn't a normal day. It was mom's birthday! I ran down the stairs and I jumped into the hallway, my brown hair flying behind me, to go make a card. When I finished the card, I went upstairs and gave it to mom. Not to brag or anything, but it was fabulous. Before I could even get downstairs dad stopped me and said "get your gloves on since mom likes lettuce. you've got to pick it so we can make an awesome salad with it." Then I went outside to pick some lettuce. Finally it was 6:30 and for my family that's dinner time! The student's draft contains errors in which of the following areas of writing mechanics?
Dialogue punctuation
The following excerpt is from a draft of a student's narrative. "wow what just happened I, I turned into a—" "beep beep beep" My alarm went off I turned over to my side and saw that it was 10:27 in the morning. I got up, and I started to saunter down my pristine stairs to get breakfast. When I got downstairs I realized it wasn't a normal day. It was mom's birthday! I ran down the stairs and I jumped into the hallway, my brown hair flying behind me, to go make a card. When I finished the card, I went upstairs and gave it to mom. Not to brag or anything, but it was fabulous. Before I could even get downstairs dad stopped me and said "get your gloves on since mom likes lettuce. you've got to pick it so we can make an awesome salad with it." Then I went outside to pick some lettuce. Finally it was 6:30 and for my family that's dinner time! The student writer would most benefit from a minilesson focusing on which of the following?
Following the rules of capitalization
The following passages are excerpts from a government Web site about astronauts. Passage A Astronauts living and working in space have the same hygiene needs as people on Earth. They wash their hair, brush their teeth, shave, and wash their hands. However, because of the microgravity environment, astronauts take care of themselves in different ways. Astronauts wash their hair with a rinseless shampoo that was originally developed for hospital patients who were unable to take a shower. Many astronauts have a personal-hygiene kit. The kit contains the personal hygiene items each astronaut has chosen to take. Passage B Imagine going camping for more than a week with several of your close friends. Because you'll be away from home so long, you would make sure you have plenty of food and the gear to cook and eat it with. The food would have to be stored properly and be nonperishable to avoid spoilage. . . . Astronauts basically do the same thing when they go to space, but since they'll be away from the planet, preparations are a lot more intense. Preparation varies with the food type. Some foods can be eaten in their natural forms, such as brownies and fruit. Other foods require adding water, such as macaroni and cheese or spaghetti. Which of the following text headings would best assist a reader in determining the subject matter of Passage B?
Eating in Space
The following is an excerpt from a student's draft of a book review. In a book, setting is incredibly important. It tells you where the characters are and it's usually an important detail. In my opinion setting is a very important part of a story. Throughout the book Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, I felt like the setting was a huge part of the book. The main character is Melody, and her moods changed wherever she went. She could go from mad to happy, then happy to sad all in the change of the setting. It's all about the setting that changes the character's mood. In my opinion, when settings change people change too. When revising the excerpt of the draft, it is most important for the student to apply which TWO of the following revision strategies?
Eliminating repetitious language Using textual evidence to support ideas
A teacher created the following model text for a language arts class. I stepped onto the train and knew my adventure had finally begun. The buildings and bustling streets of the city turned into endless green fields dotted with wildflowers and steep mountains. The further into the country we got, the more I felt like I was entering a new world. The text can best be used to demonstrate which of the following aspects of narrative writing?
Establishing a setting with descriptive details
Which of the following is the most appropriate strategy for assessing a text's complexity based on quantitative measures?
Evaluating the sentence length and word frequency of the text
As a teacher shares several poems with the class, the students complete a graphic organizer that asks them to identify words or phrases that go beyond the literal meaning and appeal to the senses of the readers. The students are most likely looking for which of the following?
Figurative language
In which of the following cooperative learning strategies are students assigned to be either observers or facilitators in a discussion on a particular topic?
Fishbowl In the fishbowl strategy, facilitators or experts are given the opportunity to speak and lead a discussion, while the other students listen and observe from the outer circle.
Star light, star bright, First star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have this wish I wish tonight. Which of the following words in the poem is a sight word that cannot be decoded using conventional rules?
Have
Which of the following is a feature within an online text that is designed to help students learn more information about a particular word or example within the text?
Hyperlink OR site map
Which of the following is a major challenge of teaching the decoding of /s/ to students in kindergarten?
It is not possible to assign just one sound to the grapheme of "s."
Which of the following best defines the function of an adverb as a part of speech?
It modifies an adjective or a verb.
A language arts class reads Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and watches a stage production of the story. In which THREE of the following ways does viewing the stage production support students' comprehension of the story?
It provides a visual context for potentially unfamiliar words and phrases. It supports the visualization of fantasy elements It reinforces understanding of major plot points
An elementary teacher groups students with differing reading abilities into core groups of three. Each member also belongs to another group that is assigned to read specific content to become experts on a chosen topic. After the specific-content groups take time to read and discuss their information, members return to their core groups where they share and exchange the knowledge gained in their specific-content groups. Which of the following collaborative strategies is the teacher implementing in the scenario?
Jigsaw
Which of the following collaborative reading strategies involves delegating specific roles to students during group discussion, such as director, researcher, and vocabulary enricher?
Literature circles
Deserts encompass almost one fifth of the Earth's land surface. Vast stretches of empty sand stretch over a barren landscape. The endless sea of sand shifts constantly with the wind over the solitary scene. Scarce foliage inhabits the stark environment. Which of the following best describes the tone of the passage?
Lonely
The following is an excerpt from a student's original short story. Mark thinks that it's really unfair that they cannot use a calculator on the final exam, especially since they use them in class all the time. The student will benefit from further instruction in which of the following elements of grammar?
Making sure nouns and pronouns agree
Star light, star bright, First star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have this wish I wish tonight. Answer the question below by clicking on the correct response. Question: A first-grade teacher reads the poem to the students. Then the students do a choral reading of the poem with the teacher, and the teacher points to each word as the students say it. Which of the following best describes the objective of the choral reading activity?
Modeling automaticity and prosody
"I was led past the sphinx of white marble, which had seemed to watch me all the while with a smile at my astonishment, toward a vast grey edifice of fretted stone." —H. G. Wells, from The Time Machine Which of the following best describes the type of figurative language used in the excerpt?
Personification
Click on a choice and drag it to a box. Keyboard Instructions To select an item for drag and drop press the space bar an you will be given a list of drop zones. Use the Tab to move to the item you want to move. Select the item you want to move with the Spacebar. Use the Up and Down cursor keys to select a target in the context menu. Press Enter to move the item to the target list. Question: A teacher is practicing aspects of phonological awareness with her students using the word "sun." Place each example with the aspect of phonological awareness it best exemplifies.
Phoneme segmentation - s-u-n Onset - /s/ Rime - /un/ Syllable segmentation - sun, sun-shine, sun-ny
Which of the following statements about writing development is most accurate?
Pictorial writing usually precedes the use of letters.
The following is an excerpt from a student's essay. Many believe that letting kids have cell phones in school will ultimately cause conflict. Without cell phones kids are better able to focus on their schoolwork. I believe that there are many distractions in today's world. Kids should be trusted to focus on their schoolwork with or without a cell phone. Which of the following best describes the writer's purpose in the paragraph?
Presenting a counterargument to commonly-held ideas about cell phone use
The ocean is full of organisms—both plant and animal life—some of which you know, and others you probably haven't ever imagined! These organisms live and work together in the ocean ecosystem; they are important to each other and to the health of the ocean itself. Many of these organisms are at risk because of pollution that finds its way to the ocean. You can help prevent this by joining a local beach cleanup effort, disposing of your own trash when you're at the beach, and reusing and recycling as much as possible, anywhere and anytime. Which of the following organizational structures best describes the passage?
Problem/solution
Which of the following techniques is most appropriate to use when communicating with an English-language learner?
Providing pictures or outlines to supplement language
Which of the following describes automaticity?
Rapid recognition of words without conscious decoding (Automaticity is the ability to decode automatically through word recognition.)
Which of the following activities will best help students develop articulation skills within oral presentations?
Reading aloud short rhyming poems, focusing on individual sounds within words
Which of the following elements best helps early emergent readers construct meaning from a narrative book?
Realistic illustrations
The revision stage of the writing process includes which of the following activities?
Recognizing faulty logic
Which of the following graphic organizers would best support students in summarizing a story they have read?
SWBST chart (Somebody Wanted But So Then)
If you were level with the patch so that it was edge-on, it was nearly invisible, and it was completely invisible from behind. You could see it only from the side nearest the road, and you couldn't see it easily even from there, because all you could see through it was exactly the same kind of thing that lay in front of it on this side: a patch of grass lit by a streetlight. But Will knew without the slightest doubt that that patch of grass on the other side was in a different world. —Philip Pullman, from The Subtle Knife Which TWO of the following narrative points of view are demonstrated in the passage? (?)
Second person and Third person limited (The use of the pronoun "you" in the several lines describing the patch and the setting directly addresses the audience, which is characteristic of the second-person point of view. The excerpt also is partly told from a third-person point of view in which it is evident from both pronoun use and the description that the narrator has access to the thoughts and feelings of one character.)
The following excerpt is from a student draft. (1) Maggie chased her dog Barney down the street. (2) She is getting tired. (3) Barney had escaped his leash a few minutes ago. (4) Now he was headed toward the park. (5) Maggie wanted to catch him before he jumped into the pond. The error in verb usage can be corrected with which of the following revisions?
Sentence 2: Change "is getting" to "was getting"
A student is presenting a speech about the need for nature conservation. Which of the following guidelines is most appropriate for the student to follow?
Slow down the rate of speaking when transitioning into more complex content
During a small-group discussion of a class novel, the teacher asks students about a particular interaction between the two main characters. Which THREE of the following students are exhibiting active listening skills?
Student B asks the teacher to clarify the question before responding. Student C nods occasionally in agreement with the speaker. Student E looks at each speaker during the discussion.
Which of the following writing genres contains a setting based in fairly modern times, features characters who are modeled after people who may have existed, and uses exaggeration of characters and trickery to resolve conflict?
Tall tale
Which of the following prereading activities best helps students create a mental map of the text's content and establish a purpose for reading?
Text-feature walk
Which THREE of the following statements from a reading assessment checklist provide information about a student's fluency abilities?
The student adheres to punctuation and reads a selection with good phrasing. The student maintains a conversational pace while reading a selection. The student responds to text structure by reading with appropriate expression.
A teacher, Ms. Lee, is planning an assignment in which students will each research a different animal in depth and give an oral presentation to the class. The teacher is developing a rubric to give students so that they know how their presentations will be scored. Which THREE of the following characteristics should Ms. Lee include on the rubric as exemplary qualities for the oral presentation?
The student provides clear examples, facts, and evidence about the animal. The student speaks at an appropriate volume and enunciates words clearly. The student presents information in a logical sequence for classmates.
A teacher analyzing a reading passage for its qualitative text complexity should consider which TWO of the following?
The various levels of meaning in the passage and the language conventionality of the excerpt
Which of the following statements about the writing process is most accurate?
The writing process is often recursive rather than linear.
In the genre of drama, which of the following best describes a primary purpose of stage directions?
They provide the characters with instructions about their actions.
Click on a choice and drag it to a box. Keyboard Instructions To select an item for drag and drop press the space bar an you will be given a list of drop zones. Use the Tab to move to the item you want to move. Select the item you want to move with the Spacebar. Use the Up and Down cursor keys to select a target in the context menu. Press Enter to move the item to the target list. Question: Place the name of each type of figurative language next to the sentence that best exemplifies it.
This bag weighs a ton. Hyperbole You're about to open Pandora's box. Allusion I can resist anything, except temptation. Oxymoron Break a leg! Idiom
Waiting in her closet of a room, Turtle stared at the white-weighted branches of the maple tree on the hill. A twig snapped in silence, a flurry speckled across the crusted snow. Sometimes when her mother was too busy to do her hair she sent Angela in, but today no one came. They had forgotten about her. Brush and comb clutched in her fists like weapons, she stormed into apartment 2C. "Do you know how to braid hair?" —Ellen Raskin, from The Westing Game Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
Turtle is upset about being neglected.
Which of the following words is most appropriate to include on a list of spelling words that contain a silent consonant?
Whistle
A teacher is working with a group of students to help them achieve greater phonological awareness. The teacher writes the following on a whiteboard to begin a discussion. The figure presents a list of the following three words: bow (spelled b) o-w ); throw (spelled t-h-r) o-w ); and tow (spelled t) o-w ). for each of the words, the letters o and w are circled. an arrow is drawn pointing to each circle. Which of the following concepts is the teacher demonstrating for the students?
Working with rimes to create new words
Which of the following groups lists words that are best categorized as kindergarten sight words?
am, to, the, on (Each of the words in this group relies on the most basic of phonics concepts such as blending phonemes to form short, simple, high-frequency words.)
To increase comprehension, a reading teacher suggests that a student read a selection from a text repeatedly, while focusing on proper intonation. The intervention is appropriate for helping the student to
avoid reading through punctuation
Which TWO of the following words contain a closed syllable?
bat, top
Which of the following correctly segments the word "blueberry" by its onset?
bl-ueberry
Students in a language arts class are organizing word cards according to the three tiers of vocabulary. Which of the following groups of cards can best be categorized as tier-three words?
cell, artery, digest, suture
After students read one version of "The Three Little Pigs" told by a third-person narrator and another version told from the wolf's perspective, a teacher asks them to respond to the writing prompt, "Which character do you sympathize with in each version of the story? Why?" The activity primarily targets students' ability to
consider the impact of point of view on readers' interpretation of events
Replacing the word "hunting" with the word "predation" is an example of switching from
conversational to academic vocabulary "Hunting" is a basic word commonly encountered in conversation, and "predation" is specific to the study of ecology.
The DILAPIDATED barn served as a reminder of times gone by. Which of the following best describes the function of the highlighted word in the sentence?
describes a noun
If you were level with the patch so that it was edge-on, it was nearly invisible, and it was completely invisible from behind. You could see it only from the side nearest the road, and you couldn't see it easily even from there, because all you could see through it was exactly the same kind of thing that lay in front of it on this side: a patch of grass lit by a streetlight. But Will knew without the slightest doubt that that patch of grass on the other side was in a different world. —Philip Pullman, from The Subtle Knife As used in the passage, the description of the setting best assists the reader in
discerning the possible genre of the work of fiction
During a partner discussion of a text, a teacher asks students to paraphrase what their partners said before stating their own ideas. The primary benefit of the activity is that it enables students to practice
engaging in active listening
The figure presents a diagram. A windmill, labeled 1, is shown on the left side of the diagram. An inset, labeled 2, shows the shaft and generator from the windmill. A Transformer, labeled 3, is shown to the right of the windmill. An electrical tower, labeled 4, is shown on to the right of the transformer. A cable connects the windmill to the transformer and a second cable connects the transformer to the electrical tower. A wire is attached to the tower. An arrow is drawn above the wire pointing away from the tower. The graphic would be most appropriate to use with an article that
explains how wind power works
While th' wealthy are feastin' we're starvin', An' for this, lads, ther' must be a cause; —Samuel Laycock, from "Homely Advice for the Unemployed" In the lines of poetry above, the diction helps the speaker to establish
himself as part of the working class to lend credibility to the central message
Which of the following words contains a Latin root meaning "beneath"?
infrastructure
Star LIGHT, star BRIGHT, First star I see TONIGHT, I wish I may, I wish I MIGHT, Have this wish I wish TONIGHT. I wish I may, I wish I might, Have this wish I wish tonight. Answer the question below by clicking on the correct response. Question: The highlighted words could be best used in a phonics lesson on
irregular vowel families
An advantage of cloud-based word-processing tools over traditional word-processing software is that they
provide a platform for collaboration among users
A teacher writes the following sentence on the board. Although sales can be a LUCRATIVE career, if you can't keep your customers, you can lose a lot of money. To best help students determine the meaning of the underlined word, the teacher should have the students analyze the
sentence structure to highlight the contrast
The following passages are excerpts from a government Web site about astronauts. Passage A Astronauts living and working in space have the same hygiene needs as people on Earth. They wash their hair, brush their teeth, shave, and wash their hands. However, because of the microgravity environment, astronauts take care of themselves in different ways. Astronauts wash their hair with a rinseless shampoo that was originally developed for hospital patients who were unable to take a shower. Many astronauts have a personal-hygiene kit. The kit contains the personal hygiene items each astronaut has chosen to take. Passage B Imagine going camping for more than a week with several of your close friends. Because you'll be away from home so long, you would make sure you have plenty of food and the gear to cook and eat it with. The food would have to be stored properly and be nonperishable to avoid spoilage. . . . Astronauts basically do the same thing when they go to space, but since they'll be away from the planet, preparations are a lot more intense. Preparation varies with the food type. Some foods can be eaten in their natural forms, such as brownies and fruit. Other foods require adding water, such as macaroni and cheese or spaghetti. The two passages are most similar in
the integration of cause-and-effect text structure to present ideas
A student is delivering an informational presentation. Which of the following actions best reinforces the audience's understanding of the information communicated?
tilizing visual aids to emphasize the presentation's key points