ELA PraxisTest questions

11. Which of the following text features should a student examine first when determining the main idea of a passage in an informational text?

11. The correct answer is (C). Headings in an informational text typically present the major idea of each section of the text.

A teacher is using the following advertisement during a lesson on methods of persuasion. "Rosie the Revivitor" The advertisement primarily uses which of the following persuasive techniques to appeal to the audience?

12. The correct answer is (C). The poster encourages people to join in the group and work together

13. Which of the following is the best description of traditional phonics instruction?

13. The correct answer is (B), which is a typical definition of traditional phonics instruction.

Every day was a happy day, and every night was peaceful. The sentence above can best be classified as

14. The correct answer is (B). A compound sentence contains at least two independent clauses, which are often joined by a comma and a conjunction.

16. Whenever the mood strikes her, Angela takes a short walk around the block. In the sentence above, the underlined portion can best be described as

16. The correct answer is (C). A subordinate clause cannot stand alone and begins with a subordinating conjunction.

A student comes across the unfamiliar words "intercontinental," "interglacial," "interface," and "intercept" in his reading. The student can use his knowledge of affixes to understand that all of the words share which meaning?

17. The correct answer is (A). The affix inter- means between or among. All of the words share this common prefix.

18. At the border of two countries there is a port where fishermen work. The fishermen do not speak the same language, so they communicate using one that has been invented by them for the purpose of trade. The scenario above most accurately describes which of the following types of language?

18. The correct answer is (C). A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common.

Anna feels that she is confusing "who" and "whom" in her narrative. She wants to correct her error. Which of the following reference materials will best help Anna accomplish such a task?

19. The correct answer is (D). A grammar guide helps with the proper construction of sentences and proper use of words. (A) is incorrect because a dictionary provides the meaning of words.

20. Which of the following strategies are most appropriate for helping students comprehend new vocabulary in nonfiction texts? Select all that apply

20. The correct answers are (B), (C), and (D). Activating prior knowledge, examining new vocabulary in context, and providing opportunities for students to practice using new vocabulary words are all effective means of teaching vocabulary.

21. A student is conducting a research project and has learned of a website that may have useful information. The domain extension for the site is .org. Which of the following assumptions about the website is correct?

21. The correct answer is (C). The .org extension means that the site may belong to a nonprofit organization, though the student would have to confirm it through further investigation.

I. On a dark, secluded street stood three abandoned houses. The first had broken shutters and shattered windows. Next to it stood a dilapidated structure badly in need of paint. Adjacent, amid debris, stood a shack with graffiti scrawled across the door. 22. Which of the following best describes the organization of paragraph I ?

22. The correct answer is (B). Paragraph I describes three houses standing in a row and relates them to one another according to where in that row each is situated. The words "next to" and "adjacent" are words typically used in descriptions of spatial relationships. (A) is incorrect because the paragraph does not detail events or issues in time order.

II. Weeks before they decided on their destination, the seniors had already begun a massive fundraising project to help finance their class trip. When they were offered the choice between Rome and London, an overwhelming majority chose Rome. Then preparations began in earnest. In the months that followed, the students' enthusiasm escalated until the day the plane finally took off, carrying them toward an experience they would remember forever. 23. Which of the following best describes the organization of paragraph II ?

23. The correct answer is (A). Paragraph II describes a series of events that take place over the course of several months. Words and phrases such as "weeks before,""when,""then," and "in the months that followed" relate events sequentially.

III. Selecting a new car requires each buyer to weigh a number of factors. First to be considered is the car's appearance. Next, and even more critical, are the car's performance and safety ratings. Most significant to any prospective buyer, however, is the car's price. 24. Which of the following best describes the organization of paragraph III ?

24. The correct answer is (D). The organization of paragraph III reflects an order of increasing importance. The features of the car are arranged from the one that should least affect the prospective buyer's decision (appearance) to the one that should most influence the buyer's decision (price). Words such as "more" and "most" help establish the comparative importance of each feature.

25. In a holistic evaluation of student essays, evaluations are made on the basis of the

25. The correct answer is (D). Holistic evaluation is based on the premise that the overall impact of an essay depends on the integration of different elements of writing, such as organization, development, sentence structure, word choice, and mechanics. Holistic evaluators assign a single score to a student essay based on the total effect to which these elements contribute. Holistic evaluation does not rely on a count of errors

26. In preparation for a writing unit on short stories, a teacher presents students with several examples of short stories and works with them to identify defining characteristics of the genre. Which of the following best describes this instructional strategy?

26. The correct answer is (B). Discipline-based inquiry is the practice of learning about a writing form by dissecting it and investigating its parts. It involves analyzing, questioning, and forming conclusions from examples of the writing mode. (A) is incorrect because conferencing is the process of discussing a piece of writing, assessing its strengths and weaknesses, and setting goals based on the evaluation of the writing piece.

27. To best encourage student engagement in the classroom, a teacher should select texts based on which of the following?

27. The correct answer is (D). Learners should be at the center of instruction, and they are more likely to be engaged if they are reading about topics in which they are interested.

28. A student is standing in front of the class delivering a presentation. Some students in the back of the room note that they are having trouble hearing what the presenter is saying. Which of the following suggestions to the presenter would best address this problem?

28. The correct answer is (D). Proper posture is important for voice projection; poor posture anywhere in the body can lead to excess tension and lack of flexibility in the muscles that assist breathing and speaking.

29. Which of the following activities will best help a teacher collect data that will inform instruction to meet the individual needs of students?

29. The correct answer is (B). The K-W-L chart can be used to document what students know, what they want to know, and what they learned. This would be an effective means of collecting data on students' prior knowledge in order to effectively inform instruction that meets curricular objectives. (A) is incorrect because although concentric circles are an effective way to encourage one-on-one communication between students, they would not help the teacher plan responsive instruction. (

30. Students are reading the following passage from the National Park Service's Web site. Ten miles long and nearly 500 feet deep (152.4 m meters), Lake McDonald, the largest lake in the park, is a direct result of glacial carving. High peaks surrounding the lake all show evidence of the power of glaciers to carve even the hardest of rock. The powerful glaciers that carved the broad U-shaped valley that Lake McDonald sits in also carved smaller hanging valleys with wonderful waterfalls that are accessible by numerous hiking trails. Which of the following best identifies the intended audience of the passage?

30. The correct answer is (D). The information about the lake's formation provides potential visitors with an overview of the history of the park's landscape, and the details about the park's "wonderful waterfalls" and "numerous hiking trails" serve to generate interest in the activities available for visitors to the park. (A), (B), and (C) are incorrect because the passage is not written in a style appropriate for academic or scientific uses.

31. Which of the following is an example of persuasive speech?

31. The correct answer is (A). Political speeches are designed to persuade the listeners that the speaker has solutions to social problems.

32. I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. That was a long time ago, but it's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years. The excerpt is an example of which of the following types of writing?

32. The correct answer is (D). The excerpt tells a story and contains elements of narrative writing such as setting, theme, and a narrator.

Place a mark in the column next to each sentence that most accurately names the type of error contained in the sentence.

5. The first sentence contains a split infinitive. In English, an infinitive is the most basic form of the verb and is usually preceded by the preposition "to." A split infinitive occurs when an adverb is placed between "to" and the verb. In the example sentence, the adverb "hastily" is placed between "to" and "clean" to indicate that the cleaning was done hastily. The second sentence contains an error in adjective/adverb usage: the word "quick" is being used as an adverb although it is actually an adjective; it should be replaced by the adverb"quickly."The third sentence contains an error in parallelism. The three verbs in the sentence should be in the same form (i.e., "skating, sledding, and skiing"). The fourth sentence contains an error in subject-verb agreement. Since "Fridays" is plural, the verb form should also be plural. Therefore, "was" should be "were."

Grammar may be taught in two main ways— by experience with discourse that entails the varieties of word forms and sentence construction, or by analyzing dummy sentences and diagramming parts. Plentiful discursive experience is what really teaches grammar, for it exercises judgment and provides language intake, whereas formal grammar study has been proved irrelevant. Politics more than pedagogy retards the changing of the curriculum to fit this truth. The author of the passage above argues that

7. The correct answer is (A). The author maintains that "plentiful discursive experience" is the most effective teacher of grammar. In this context, "discursive" experience means experience with discourse—that is, speech or texts that communicate ideas for some purpose and not merely as an exercise. The author argues that students learn the rules of grammar as part of the process of learning to understand the meaning of diverse texts.

9. From the very beginning, I wrote to explain my own life to myself, and I invited any readers who chose to make the journey with me to join me on the high wire. I would work without a net and without the noise of the crowd to disturb me. The view from on high is dizzying, instructive. I do not record the world exactly as it comes to me but transform it by making it pass through a prism of fabulous stories I have collected on the way. I gather stories the way a lepidopterist hoards his chloroformed specimens of rare moths, or Costa Rican beetles. Stories are like vessels I use to interpret the world to myself. ----------Pat Conroy Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?

9. The correct answer is (B). In the excerpt, Conroy discusses his experience as a writer. He compares it both to being a trapeze artist in a high wire act and to being a lepidopterist collecting bugs. Thus, he uses analogies to explain his experience.

The book announced an insane world of dehumanization through terror in which the individual was systematically obliterated by an all-powerful elite. Its key phrases—Big Brother, doublethink, Newspeak, the Ministry of Peace (devoted to war), the Ministry of Truth (devoted to lies), the Ministry of Love (devoted to torture)—burned their way at once into the modern consciousness. The passage above discusses

George Orwell's 1984

29. Which of the following activities will best help a teacher collect data that will inform instruction to meet the individual needs of students?

The correct answer is (B). The K-W-L chart can be used to document what students know, what they want to know, and what they learned. This would be an effective means of collecting data on students' prior knowledge in order to effectively inform instruction that meets curricular objectives.

Science fiction: readers claim to either love it or loathe it; either they avoid it like poison or they devour favorite works and authors like chocolate addicts gulping down fudge truffles. The author of the passage compares certain readers with "chocolate addicts" primarily in order to

The correct answer is (B). The author makes a comparison between science fiction readers and people who love chocolate so much they could be called addicts to stress that those who like science fiction cannot get enough of it.

Mrs. Fairfax differs from the speaker in that Mrs. Fairfax

The correct answer is (C). Mrs. Fairfax sees that Mr. Rochester is "a gentleman, a landed proprietor" and she is content knowing only these external facts about Mr. Rochester. The speaker suggests that she, in contrast, would like to know more about Mr. Rochester's identity.

The people all saw her come because it was sundown. The sun was gone, but he had left his footprints in the sky. It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment. Which of the following is the best way of describing the last three sentences of the passage ("They became . . . in judgment") ?

The correct answer is (C). The sentences describe the way the sitters feel during the evening. After a long day of work and being "tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long," the sitters have reclaimed their autonomy. The words "lords" and "nations" and the phrase "sat in judgment" vividly describe the sitters' sense of power during the evening

This was all the account I got from Mrs. Fairfax of her employer and mine. There are people who seem to have no notion of sketching a character, or observing and describing salient points, either in persons or things: the good lady evidently belonged to this class; my queries puzzled, but did not draw her out. Mr. Rochester was Mr. Rochester in her eyes, a gentleman, a landed proprietor-nothing more: she inquired and searched no further, and evidently wondered at my wish to gain a more definite notion of his identity. The passage suggests that the speaker would describe the "account" mentioned in the first sentence as

The correct answer is (C). The speaker indicates that Mrs. Fairfax is one of those people who has "no notion of sketching a character, or observing and describing salient points, either in persons or things." Thus it can be inferred that Mrs. Fairfax's description of Mr. Rochester seemed deficient to the speaker.

From the very beginning, I wrote to explain my own life to myself, and I invited any readers who chose to make the journey with me to join me on the high wire. I would work without a net and without the noise of the crowd to disturb me. The view from on high is dizzying, instructive. I do not record the world exactly as it comes to me but transform it by making it pass through a prism of fabulous stories I have collected on the way. I gather stories the way a lepidopterist hoards his chloroformed specimens of rare moths, or Costa Rican beetles. Stories are like vessels I use to interpret the world to myself. ----------Pat Conroy 10. Which of the following questions can a student ask to best determine whether an author is using the persuasive technique of pathos in a passage?

The correct answer is (D). Pathos is an appeal to the emotions of the audience, and incorporating personal connections and stories is one technique for eliciting an emotional response from readers.

The people all saw her come because it was sundown. The sun was gone, but he had left his footprints in the sky. It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment. 4. The description of the sun in the second sentence contains which of the following literary devices?

The correct answer is (D). Personification involves endowing abstractions, ideas, and inanimate objects with human characteristics or sensibilities. In the second sentence, the sun is described as having the human ability to leave footprints.

31. Which of the following is an example of persuasive speech?

The correct answer is (D). The excerpt tells a story and contains elements of narrative writing such as setting, theme, and a narrator. (A), (B), and (C) are incorrect because the excerpt's purpose is to tell a story, not to inform, persuade, or describe.

32. I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. That was a long time ago, but it's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years. The excerpt is an example of which of the following types of writing

The correct answer is (D). The excerpt tells a story and contains elements of narrative writing such as setting, theme, and a narrator. (A), (B), and (C) are incorrect because the excerpt's purpose is to tell a story, not to inform, persuade, or describe.

Students are reading the following passage from the National Park Service's Web site. Ten miles long and nearly 500 feet deep (152.4 m meters), Lake McDonald, the largest lake in the park, is a direct result of glacial carving. High peaks surrounding the lake all show evidence of the power of glaciers to carve even the hardest of rock. The powerful glaciers that carved the broad U-shaped valley that Lake McDonald sits in also carved smaller hanging valleys with wonderful waterfalls that are accessible by numerous hiking trails. Which of the following best identifies the intended audience of the passage?

The correct answer is (D). The information about the lake's formation provides potential visitors with an overview of the history of the park's landscape, and the details about the park's "wonderful waterfalls" and "numerous hiking trails" serve to generate interest in the activities available for visitors to the park. (A), (B), and (

Zora Neale Hurston is associated with which of the following literary movements?

The correct answer is (D). Zora Neale Hurston is one of the authors associated with the Harlem Renaissance, an African-American cultural movement that took place in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s.