Reading Test Prep Bank 7

This question has two parts. First answer A. Then answer B.

Part A

What is the central idea in paragraph 6 of Passage 1?

• Businesses had to srat paying taxes in the 1900s.

• Every President tries to lower the tax rate to please voters.

• The federal government uses tax money in a variety of ways.

• The income tax and business tax rates have changed over time.

Part B

How do the details in paragraph 6 support its central idea?

• They idenitfy examples of changes made to tax rates over time.

• They describe details of the process used for changing tax rates.

• They explain why changes to tax rates were made only certain years.

• They show why rate changes were fair to some people and not to others.

Select one sentence from Passage 1 that tells why income taxes still exist today.

• The office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue was also started in 1862.

• It had the power to take away people's property if they didn't pay their taxes.

• Nowadays, an agency known as the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS does these things.

• Income taxes became permanent in 1913 because of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.

• This Amendment gave Congress the power to collect income tax from individuals as well as businesses.

Read this sentence from Passage 1.

"Before 1800, the United States Government only levied taxes on certain goods, such as carriages and sugar."

What does the word levied mean as it is used in this sentence?

• eliminated

• increased

• charged

• opposed

According to Passage 1, why did the United States start collecting sales tax and income tax?

• Americans were making higher wages than before.

• The government needed money to pay for two wars.

• The nation was expanding at an increasingly fast rate.

• The government had no money because it had not collected taxes before.

What can you infer from paragraph 3 of Passage 2 about the people of France and Denmark?

• They don't care about the amount of income taxes they must pay.

• They want to increase the amount of money they spend on their military.

• They are wlling to pay a higher income tax rate because of the services they get.

• They would like to increase the amount of money they spend of education and health care.

Why does the author of Passage 2 compare what the United States spends on its military to what Denmark and France spend on their militaries?

• to support the central idea that countries have different tax rates

• to support the central idea that the United States has a great deal of money

• to support the central idea that the United States should reduce its military spending

• to support the central idea that countries make different choices about how to use tax money

Based on the table in Passage 2, what can you conclude about South Korea?

• South Korea would have to raise tax rates to spend more on its military.

• South Korea would have to raise tax rates to spend more on its social protection.

• South Korea spends more on its military and less on social protection than other countries.

• South Korea has a high tax rate and spends much more on its military than on social protection.

Read this sentence from Passage 2.

"Each country must decide how to divide its pie."

What is the meaning of this sentence?

• Each country has to choose the tax rates for individuals and for businesses.

• Each country has to choose what to spend more on and what to spend less on.

• Each country has to choose how much money to collect from its citizens in taxes.

• Each country has to choose how its spending compares with that of other countries.

What information does the reader know after reading both Passages 1 and 2?

• why different countries made the decision to collect income taxes

• the history of income taxes across the globe and how they compare

• how people of different countries feel about income taxes and rate changes

• how income taxes began in the United States and how U.S. money is spent