ACT Prep

In the sixteenth century, Thomas More coined the term utopia to describe a perfect yet fictitious island society’s ways of life. Since then, people have tried to replicate this society, not just in stories but also in real life. Around the world, a handful of towns and cities have been designed with this ideal society in mind. Though inevitably they fall short of perfection, it’s still possible to visit some of them.

What is the best placement for the underlined word?

• Where it is now.

• Before the word fall.

• Before the word perfection.

• Before the word possible.

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CCSS.L.11-12.1

Twenty-five hundred miles from the nearest continental landmass and adrift in oceanic isolation, the Hawaiian islands are the most habitat-diverse place on the planet. Of its’ 1,200 native plant species, 90 percent exist nowhere else on earth.

• NO CHANGE

• its

• there

• their

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CCSS.L.11-12.1

When fragments of China’s famed terracotta warriors were discovered by farmers in 1974, Zhao Kangmin was one of the first archaeologists on the scene. He consistently pieced the fragments together, spurring an excavation that would reveal thousands more clay soldiers packed into underground corridors.

Which choice most strongly emphasizes that Zhao Kangmin worked in a careful and detailed way?

• NO CHANGE

• compellingly

• exclusively

• meticulously

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CCSS.W.11-12.2D

The exhibition “Faces of Frida” includes not only paintings by Frida Kahlo and also her letters, personal photographs, and unpublished writings. Visitors can peruse the pages of her colorful diary, read her letters to her mother, Matilde Calderón y González, and browse through photos of Kahlo and her husband, the artist Diego Rivera.

• NO CHANGE

• along with

• but also

• in addition to

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Experts use to think that nearly all nitrogen in soil came directly from the atmosphere, sequestered by microbes or dissolved in rain. But it turns out that scientists have been overlooking another major source of this element, which is crucial to plant growth: up to a quarter of the nitrogen in soil and plants seeps out of bedrock.

• NO CHANGE

• use to think,

• used to think

• used to thinking

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No tidal dweller captured Rachel Carson’s imagination like Ascophyllum nodosum, a rubbery dark green algae known widely on the Atlantic coast as rockweed. The biologist was most enchanted by rockweed’s double life—how its identity changed with the tides.

• NO CHANGE

• nodosum, a rubbery, dark green, algae

• nodosum a rubbery, dark green algae,

• nodosum; a rubbery, dark green algae

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.1

CCSS.L.11-12.2

More than 150 years ago, the first whales and dolphins were brought from the wild and into aquariums, and since that time, scientists learn an enormous amount about their intelligence and complex social lives.

• NO CHANGE

• learned

• have learned

• would have learned

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.1

To evoke and conjure the spirit of the Rocky Mountains, the people of Stoney Nakoda have created artworks that have deep roots in the history of their homeland. A seemingly straightforward landscape image, for instance, pays homage to the region as a place to gather herbs, hold vision quests, and hunt.

• NO CHANGE

• To evoke while conjuring

• To evoke yet conjure

• To evoke

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CCSS.RL.11-12.4

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CCSS.L.11-12.5

It’s hard to imagine now, but a little over a century ago, there was hardly anyone in the world whom knew what plastic was. Today, that material fuels modern life, from medical devices to the lightweight materials used in cars, computers, spaceships, and shopping bags.

• NO CHANGE

• who knew

• which knew

• in which they knew

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.1

How many questions are on the English test of the ACT?

• 45

• 55

• 85

• 75