2021 AP MC Questions

15. The writer wants to add more information to the third paragraph (sentences 6-9) to support the main argument of the paragraph. All of the following pieces of evidence help achieve this purpose EXCEPT which one?

C) A quote from Thomas Jefferson's eighteenth-century proposal for a new decimal system to standardize weights and measures

4. In context, lines 11-23 ("You see... revolutionary methods") could be used to support which of the following claims about the writer's tone?

C) She adopts a bold, forthright tone in approaching her subject

1. Which of the following best describes the writer's exigence in the passage?

C) The limited resources available to women for changing existing power structures

11. In sentence 3 (reproduced below), which of the following versions of the underlined text best establishes the writer's position on the main argument of the passage? "The Orbiter mission failure is just one reason, albeit an extremely expensive one, that the United States needs to abandon future Mars survey missions."

C) needs to adopt the metric system

3. In the second paragraph (lines 11-30), which of the following best characterizes the writer's position on the relevance of her topic for American women?

E) Although American women are perceived as "well off" {reference: so well off,}, they should nonetheless consider adopting the methods described by the writer

5. In the third paragraph, the writer criticizes the logic of those who dismiss the methods of British feminists as "irrational" (line 42) on the grounds that they have

A) misconstrued the feminists' reasons for employing the strategies they have chosen to employ

10. In sentence 2 (reproduced below), the writer wants an effective transition from the introductory paragraph to the main idea of the passage. "The culprit was a discrepancy in the software that controlled the spacecraft's thrusters: one team of engineers had calculated the force needed from the thrusters in pounds, an imperial unit, while another team calculated the force in newtons, a metric unit." Which of the following versions of the underlined text best achieves this purpose?

A) (as it is now)

2. In the opening paragraph (lines 1-10), the writer contrasts a hypothetical rhetorical situation with her own primarily to

A) illustrate the double standard for men and women in the political realm

14. The writer wants to add the following sentence to the third paragraph (sentences 6-9) to provide additional explanation. "This means that the United States must convert to metric units whenever it is dealing with the rest of the world." Where would the sentence best be placed?

B) After sentence 6

9. Which of the following sentences, if placed before the sentence 1, would both capture the audience's interest and provide the most effective introduction to the topic of the paragraph?

B) On September 23, 1999, NASA officials were aghast when the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter vanished as it prepared to enter the red planet's orbit.

6. In the fourth paragraph (lines 52-67), the writer introduces a hypothetical scenario primarily to

B) underscore the efficiency of voting as a means of addressing political discontents

7. In the context of the passage, all of the following phrases refer to the same idea EXCEPT

D) "the proper and the constitutional and the practical way of getting their grievance removed" (lines 55-57)

17. In the fourth paragraph (sentences 10-11), the writer wants to provide further evidence to rebut the claim that converting to the metric system might be difficult. Which of the following pieces of evidence would best achieve this purpose?

D) A description of the successful adoption of the metric system by Great Britain, which had previously used the imperial system

12. The writer wants to add a phrase at the beginning of sentence 5 (reproduced below), adjusting the capitalization as needed, to set up a comparison with the idea discussed in sentence 4. "The imperial measurement system used in the United States assigns values haphazardly: one mile is 5,280 feet long, while one pound is 16 ounces." Which of the following choices best accomplishes this goal?

D) By contrast

8. At the end of the passage, the writer uses the "either... or" construction in lines 75-78 ("they would either... grievances remedied") in order to

D) imply that disruptive action may be the only way of resisting oppression in certain situations

13. In sentence 9 (reproduced below), the writer wants to provide a convincing explanation for why switching to the metric system would benefit United States industries. "Switching to the metric system would also benefit Unites States industries; the European Union, for example, has been requiring its member states to standardize their metric systems since 1971." Which version of the underlined text best accomplishes this goal?

D) industries: those with products in both domestic and international markets would no longer need to design in and produce to two different measurement systems, reducing both product overlap and manufacturing inefficiencies.

16. In the fourth paragraph (sentences 10-11), the writer wants to expand on the concession that converting to the metric system may seem difficult. Which of the following claims would best achieve this purpose?

E) It would be extremely costly as well as confusing for the United States to manage the overwhelming task of converting everything from road signs to measuring cups to the metric system.