Read:

(1) The future is now! (2) With driverless cars, teens can practice driving on side streets but let the car drive on the highway. (3) Driverless cars help teens practice good road habits, like not driving while texting.

Jesse has not provided a position statement. Which of these sentences could come before sentence 2 and state the position Jesse is taking?

Read:

(1) Our ancestors did not have the machines we have today to make difficult ordinary tasks easier. (2) Washing clothes, carrying wood, and shoveling coal all required a great deal of physical labor. (3) People had to be in good physical shape. (4) Without elevators, cars, and computerized robots, people had to climb stairs, walk to work, and perform backbreaking labor. (5) Almost every chore they needed to get done required a workout.

Mary’s paragraph needs a position statement. Which of these sentences could best follow sentence 4 and state the position that Mary is taking in this paper?

Read:

(1) In the modern world, we want to make everything easy to do. (2) We would never think of making our own clothes and growing all our food. (3) It would take strength and countless hours to perform these tasks, and our economy provides these necessities for us.

Mary did not write an effective position statement for her paragraph. She would like to replace sentence 3 with a sentence that better articulates her position. Which of the following should she use?

Read:

(1) Cars today are designed to endure damaging road conditions like potholes and salt corrosion. (2) Cell phones could last for years but many people want to get the latest cell phone. (3) They just upgrade but they are satisfied with keeping their cars for a decade. (40 On the other hand, houses built today are made of materials that will last much past ten years. (5) Not by accident, that is the average time consumers spend in their homes these days before selling and moving.

Marco has not provided a thesis statement. Which of the following should come after sentence 5 to serve as a thesis statement for this paragraph?

Read:

For many, the idea of bungee jumping is an extraneous risk and thus not worth taking. When everyday life has its own pitfalls and challenges, why would someone risk injury doing something unnecessary? A war more pragmatic point of view is to take risks only when you have something tangible to gain from them.

In the first sentence, the word extraneous means --

Read:

For many, the idea of bungee jumping is an extraneous risk and thus not worth taking. When everyday life has its own pitfalls and challenges, why would someone risk injury doing something unnecessary? A far more pragmatic point of view is to take risks only when you have something tangible to gain from them.

Which word in the third sentence has the same meaning as “real”?

Read:

The pink granite dome that is the hallmark of Enchanted Rock State Natural Area tantalizes daring rock climbers and dreamy hikers alike. The park features eleven miles of hiking trails ranging from easy to laborious. Regardless of how you get to the pinnacle, the result is the same - a phenomenal view of the sublime Hill Country.

In the first sentence, the word tantalizes means --

Read:

The pink granite dome that is the hallmark of Enchanted Rock State Natural Area tantalizes daring rock climbers and dreamy hikers alike. The park features eleven miles of hiking trails ranging from easy to laborious. Regardless of how you get to the pinnacle, the result is the same - a phenomenal view of the sublime Hill Country.

In the last sentence, which word has the same meaning as “beautiful”?

Read:

The ranch hand unrolled his belongings from the back of his horse. The pillow, which he had coveted above all else, had already deteriorated into a lumpy mess that was saturated with mildew. His indispensable item, it turned out, was the cast iron skillet he used to cook supper each night. Regardless of how rough the trail had been that day, a hot meal did more to soothe than the finest pillow he could imagine.

In the first two sentences, which word has the same meaning as “came apart”?

Read:

(1) Emojis are graphics, specifically called ideograms, that are simple pictures of things ranging from smiley faces to pizza to flags. (2) Emojis were invented in Japan in the late 1990s, but became a worldwide phenomenon when major phone makers in the United States included them in their phones in 2011. (3) Some emojis, such as the laughing smiley face, seem to have a universally understood meaning. (4) People around the world easily understand many emojis. (5) However, some emojis take on specific cultural meaning for a particular region or country. (6) Because of this communicating with emojis can be less clear than communicating with text.

Dawn would like to add the following detail to her paragraph. "The first emojis were based on facial expressions the designer saw on people's faces around Tokyo." Where should this sentence be inserted?

Read:

(1) Emojis are graphics, specifically called ideograms, that are simple pictures of things ranging from smiley faces to pizza to flags. (2) Emojis were invented in Japan in the late 1990s, but became a worldwide phenomenon when major phone makers in the United States included them in their phones in 2011. (3) Some emojis, such as the laughing smiley face, seem to have a universally understood meaning. (4) People around the world easily understand many emojis. (5) However, some emojis take on specific cultural meaning for a particular region or country. (6) Because of this communicating with emojis can be less clear than communicating with text.

There is a redundant sentence in Dawn’s paragraph. Which of these sentences unnecessarily repeats information and should be deleted?

Read:

(1) More people are growing food in their homes. (2) Using lights and efficient watering systems, people can grow lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and other fruits and vegetables. (3) This system of growing is called hydroponics, which means growing in water, not soil. (4) Plants are given water with nutrients in it. (5) Their roots either float in the water or grow in ta medium such coconut wool or clay pebbles. (6) Special lights give the plants the light they need to grow.

Which of these sentences could best follow and support sentence 2?

Read:

(1) More people are growing food in their homes. (2) Using lights and efficient watering systems, people can grow lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and other fruits and vegetables. (3) This system of growing is called hydroponics, which means growing in water, not soil. (4) Plants are given water with nutrients in it. (5) Their roots either float in the water or grow in ta medium such coconut wool or clay pebbles. (6) Special lights give the plants the light they need to grow.

Tiffany would like to add the following quotation to her paragraph, "William Benson in Topeka, Kansas, noted, "All this equipment was available locally and worked perfectly."' Where is the most effective place to insert this sentence.

Read:

(1) When pets get sick or injured, they might need medicine or even surgery. (2) Surgery on a cat or dog is a lot like surgery on a person. (3) The animal takes medicine that helps it sleep and keeps it from feeling pain during the surgery. (4) Doctors use many of the same tools, such as scalpels and tweezers. (5) They also use sponges and wear masks and gloves. (6) After the surgery, the animal rests and recovers, much like a person does. (7) One notable difference, though, is the cone some animals wear around their necks. (8) The cone is meant to stop an animal from chewing or licking the place where it had surgery. (9) Most people can control their urge to lick or bite themselves, so they don’t need the cones.

Bianca would like to add a relevant quotation to the end of her paragraph. Which of the following could best follow sentence 9 and help support the ideas in this paragraph?

Read:

Francis Scott Key, a lawyer negotiating an important prisoner exchange during the War of 1812, was the accidental poet of our national anthem when he hastily jotted down “Defense of Fort McHenry,” after watching twenty five hours of bombardment. The flag flying over Fort McHenry had survived the night from the “twilight’s last gleaming” to the “dawn’s early light.” The resilience and endurance of that flag was Key’s inspiration. Today, the national anthem is played at every sports event, including the Olympics, and asks the same question every time it is sung: Does the flag still waver over “the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

Which sentence best states the main idea of the paragraph?

Read:

Francis Scott Key, a lawyer negotiating an important prisoner exchange during the War of 1812, was the accidental poet of our national anthem when he hastily jotted down “Defense of Fort McHenry,” after watching twenty five hours of bombardment. The flag flying over Fort McHenry had survived the night from the “twilight’s last gleaming” to the “dawn’s early light.” The resilience and endurance of that flag was Key’s inspiration. Today, the national anthem is played at every sports event, including the Olympics, and asks the same question every time it is sung: Does the flag still waver over “the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

The author’s purpose in writing the paragraph is to -

Read:

Ray Brown works after school and on weekends delivering pizza, and he may one day be out of a job. A major car company and a pizza business are teaming up to deliver pizzas in driverless cars. Customers will have to come out of their homes, type in a code, and reach into the heated backseat compartment to extract the exact pizza from the stack of up to five orders. Currently, the driverless delivery service is being tested with a development engineer as driver behind blacked-out windows to determine customer interaction and to make sure the expensive radar and cameras are secured. If the test proves successful, driverless deliver of not only pizza but other products to homes and job sites may be a reality by 2021.

Which quotation from the paragraph shows the main idea?

Read:

Ray Brown works after school and on weekends delivering pizza, and he may one day be out of a job. A major car company and a pizza business are teaming up to deliver pizzas in driverless cars. Customers will have to come out of their homes, type in a code, and reach into the heated backseat compartment to extract the exact pizza from the stack of up to five orders. Currently, the driverless delivery service is being tested with a development engineer as driver behind blacked-out windows to determine customer interaction and to make sure the expensive radar and cameras are secured. If the test proves successful, driverless deliver of not only pizza but other products to homes and job sites may be a reality by 2021.

What is the primary purpose of the paragraph?

Read:

Selecting the right kind of car for a newly licensed teen is an important responsibility. One parent might say, “Let’s buy an old junker so that when the first wreck happens, it won’t cost us as much.” Another parent (the parent of a teen’s dreams) might say, “Let’s get a car that you will like to show off and use to drive around with your friends.” But the wisest parent will choose a newer, reliable model with the best safety equipment that the family can afford. That kind of choice will be worth every penny in the case of an accident.

The author uses an aside in the paragraph to----