1. The word settled hasmore than one meaning. In which one of the following sentencesis settled used incorrectly?

A. Dust settled slowly as the truck moved down theroad.

B. As far as they were concerned, the matter wassettled.

C. Immigrants from Sweden settled in Maryland.

D. Mavis decided that small-town life was settled.

2. You spot a small bird with bright yellowfeathers on your back porch. Which one of the following books mightbe a good place to find out what kind of bird you'veseen?

A. Bird Feeders for Fun

B. How Geese Find Their Way

C. North American Birds Illustrated

D. The Anatomy of Birds

3. Jeb looked through the paper and cameacross an article called "A Look Back at the Civil War." Hewondered if the article had any information on Robert E. Lee. Heran his eyes quickly over the article, looking for the name RobertE. Lee. He did this in order to _______ the article.

A. scan

B. preview

C. review

D. understand

4. From looking at the title, which one ofthe following books is most likely to be nonfiction?

A. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

B. The Stranger Within

C. Exercise for All Seasons

D. A Summer in Venice

5. "Mark had been a resident of Larchmontfor 17 years, and local folks thought of him as a solid citizen."In this sentence, the word solidprobablymeans

A. heavy.

B. indestructible.

C. dependable.

D. older.

6. If thewords brave and courageous wereused in the same context, they would be examples of

A. nouns.

B. verbs.

C. antonyms.

D. synonyms.

7. Suppose you turn to the weather channelon TV because you want to know if the weather is good forice-skating. The specific information you'll probably look for isthe

A. 90-day forecast.

B. temperature.

C. chance of snow.

D. time of sunset and sunrise.

8. You can often tell what a word means byits _______ in a sentence.

A. context

B. order

C. spelling

D. placement

This question is based on the following excerpt from a story.

It had been six years since Army captain Godfrey Kline had seen hishometown. He hardly recognized some of the people who gathered togreet him at the airport.

9. Chances are, this story isabout

A. a group of relatives gathered at an airport.

B. a soldier's return to his hometown.

C. a soldier going to war.

D. Godfrey Kline's army career.

10. Which one of the following words meansthe same as cautious?

A. Careful

B. Timid

C. Steady

D. Caring

This question is based on the following passage.

As a new newspaper reporter, Amanda was nervous about doing herfirst interview with a state senator. She went to a veteranreporter, Clark Webb, for advice. Clark told her the first rule ofan interview is to make the person you're interviewing comfortable.Be polite and cheerful. The second rule is to ask open questions.Open questions allow the person you're interviewing to give youmore information. "How did you decide to run for office?" is anexample of an open question. Third, always try to do more listeningthan talking. Finally, be sure to thank the person you interviewfor his or her time.

11. From this paragraph, you can guess thatthe word veteran means that Clark Webbis

A. an experienced reporter.

B. Amanda's boss.

C. older than Amanda.

D. an ex-member of the armed forces.

This question is based on the following passage.

As a new newspaper reporter, Amanda was nervous about doing herfirst interview with a state senator. She went to a veteranreporter, Clark Webb, for advice. Clark told her the first rule ofan interview is to make the person you're interviewing comfortable.Be polite and cheerful. The second rule is to ask open questions.Open questions allow the person you're interviewing to give youmore information. "How did you decide to run for office?" is anexample of an open question. Third, always try to do more listeningthan talking. Finally, be sure to thank the person you interviewfor his or her time.

12. Which one of the following is anotherexample of an open question?

A. Did you know about the crime?

B. What can you tell me about your family?

C. Will you come to the party?

D. Is it raining outside?

This question is based on this passage.

When she heard the knocking on the door, Nora had just awakenedfrom a nap. She rushed into the hallway, about to answer the door.Thinking about how she looked, she glanced into the hall mirror tosee if her hair was messy. It was. She rushed back to her bedroomand grabbed a hairbrush.

13. In the above passage, which of thefollowing is another meaning for theword knocking?

A. Rapping

B. Ticking

C. Thundering

D. Popping

14. Preview the following magazine titles.Which one would you expect to include recipes for healthymeals?

A. Cucina Italiana

B. Bon Appétit

C. Eating Well

D. Gourmet

15. Preview the following titles of novels.Which one would you expect to be about the adventures of a sleddog?

A. The Call of the Wild

B. Sons and Lovers

C. A Passage to India

D. The Secret Agent

16. Which one of the following items wouldbe most likely to have a list of chapter titles?

A. A novel

B. A newspaper

C. A magazine

D. An article

17. If a word is capitalized in the middleof a properly written sentence, chances are the wordis

A. the most important word in the sentence.

B. a proper noun.

C. the start of a definition.

D. a grammatical error.

This question is based on the following passage.

As a rule of thumb, it's best to look before you leap. As they say,an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

18. In the context of this passage, thephrase a rule of thumb is best understood tomean a

A. rule to be avoided.

B. rule for an emergency.

C. rule that usually works.

D. smart way to use your thumb.

19. Suppose you're scanning an article.Which one of the following items would stand out most foryou?

A. Nouns

B. Verbs

C. Passages

D. Numbers

20. What mark of punctuation might indicatethat more information is to come?

A. Period

B. Dash

C. Exclamation point

D. Hyphen