Free Praxis 8002 Reading and Language Arts Practice Test

1. Eager to finish the task quickly
2. Willing to share credit with others
3. Unsure which method to use
4. Extremely careful about small details ✓

Answer: D. Meticulous means showing great attention to detail. Checking each measurement three times before recording it is precision, and the word carries no sense of hurry, doubt, or generosity toward colleagues.

• Eager to finish the task quickly: Reads the repeated checking as impatience, but measuring three times is care with detail rather than a wish to finish faster.
• Unsure which method to use: Treats careful repetition as uncertainty, yet the researcher is following an established procedure instead of looking for one.
• Willing to share credit with others: Attaches a social quality to a word about precision; nothing in the sentence concerns how the researcher treats other people.

1. silent
2. rabbit ✓
3. table
4. napkin ✓
5. robot

Answers: B and D. A closed syllable ends in one or more consonants, which makes the vowel short: rab- in rabbit and nap- in napkin. The remaining three words open with a syllable that ends in a vowel letter and carries a long vowel sound.

• table: Treats the first syllable as closed, but ta- ends in a vowel letter and carries the long a sound, which makes it open.
• robot: Mistakes ro- for a closed syllable even though it ends in a vowel letter and takes the long o sound.
• silent: Counts si- as closed although it ends in a vowel letter and carries the long i sound, the mark of an open syllable.

1. The city spent four years planting trees along its streets.
2. The city used several natural approaches to manage stormwater. ✓
3. Replacing asphalt is the most expensive way to control flooding.
4. The parks department is responsible for all city drainage.

Answer: B. The paragraph lists three measures that share one purpose: slowing or absorbing rainwater. The trees, the permeable pavement, and the marsh are examples of that single idea rather than competing claims about cost or departmental responsibility.

• The city spent four years planting trees along its streets.: Narrows the paragraph's central idea to one of its supporting examples; the trees are one of three measures listed.
• Replacing asphalt is the most expensive way to control flooding.: Introduces a cost comparison the paragraph never makes; nothing in it ranks the measures by price.
• The parks department is responsible for all city drainage.: States a claim about departmental responsibility that the paragraph does not support.

1. The report ran to twelve pages.
2. The bell rang at exactly eight o'clock.
3. Her patience was a deep well. ✓
4. He walked three miles to the library.
5. The wind argued with the shutters all night. ✓

Answers: C and E. The first sentence gives the wind the human act of arguing, which is personification, and the second likens patience to a well without using “like” or “as”, which is metaphor. The remaining sentences report literal facts without comparison or transferred meaning.

• The bell rang at exactly eight o'clock.: Reports a literal event; figurative language needs a comparison or an image, not a plain statement of time.
• He walked three miles to the library.: States a measurable action as fact; no comparison or transferred meaning appears in it.
• The report ran to twelve pages.: Uses “ran” in its ordinary sense of extending to a length, an everyday usage rather than a figure of speech.

1. Elena was angry with her uncle.
2. Elena did not enjoy the meal.
3. Elena had somewhere else she needed to be. ✓
4. Elena was worried about the cake.

Answer: C. Repeated clock-checking, brief answers, and leaving before dessert together point to wanting the meal to end on schedule. Each of the other options rests on a single detail and ignores the detail that does not fit it.

• Elena did not enjoy the meal.: Builds on one detail, the uneaten food, and ignores the clock-checking that points to time rather than taste.
• Elena was angry with her uncle.: Infers an emotion from brief answers alone; nothing in the paragraph shows conflict with the uncle.
• Elena was worried about the cake.: Treats the cake as the source of concern even though Elena leaves before it is served.

1. To persuade readers to feed birds
2. To entertain readers with a story
3. To describe a bird feeder's history
4. To explain how to build something ✓

Answer: D. A tool list, numbered steps, and a caution about overtightening are the features of procedural explanation. The passage gives instructions rather than an argument, a history, or a narrative.

• To persuade readers to feed birds: Reads an instruction text as an argument; the passage never urges readers to take up bird feeding.
• To describe a bird feeder's history: Looks for origins and development, but the passage contains no background about where feeders came from.
• To entertain readers with a story: Expects characters and events, yet the passage only gives materials and directions.

1. Cause and effect ✓
2. Problem and solution
3. Chronological sequence
4. Compare and contrast

Answer: A. Each sentence follows from the one before it: the drought lowers yield, lower yield raises prices, higher prices drive migration. The paragraph traces consequences rather than comparing subjects, ordering dates, or proposing a remedy.

• Compare and contrast: Expects two subjects weighed against each other; the paragraph traces a single chain of events instead.
• Chronological sequence: Sees a date order that the paragraph does not supply; it names no specific times or stages.
• Problem and solution: Looks for a remedy offered in response, but the paragraph reports consequences without proposing a solution.

1. The storm's arrival at a predictable hour
2. The storm's power to close in and overwhelm ✓
3. The gulls' seasonal departure from the coast
4. The harbor's isolation from the open sea

Answer: B. A fist closing is an image of force and enclosure, and the paragraph supports it by reducing visible boats to outlines. The image works through threat and pressure rather than timing, geography, or wildlife patterns.

• The storm's arrival at a predictable hour: Takes “by noon” as the point of the image, but the time phrase only supplies the setting.
• The harbor's isolation from the open sea: Reads the harbor as cut off from the sea, while the paragraph places boats inside it.
• The gulls' seasonal departure from the coast: Seizes on the absent gulls, a supporting detail rather than the comparison the sentence builds.

1. Second person
2. Third person limited
3. Third person omniscient
4. First person ✓

Answer: D. A narrator who takes part in the story and uses “I” writes in the first person. Third-person narrators stand outside the action, and second person addresses the reader as “you”.

• Third person limited: Confuses a participating narrator with one who stands outside the story and follows a single character.
• Third person omniscient: Assumes the narrator knows every character's thoughts, which the description rules out.
• Second person: Expects the narrator to address the reader directly as “you”, which the description does not show.

1. Addressing readers directly with a concrete image ✓
2. Citing the conclusion of a named expert
3. Presenting statistical evidence as proof
4. Stating a viewpoint the report will oppose

Answer: A. The sentence turns to readers as “you” by inviting them to imagine, and it supplies a specific picture of a ten-minute walk. It makes no numerical claim, quotes no authority, and raises no opposing position.

• Presenting statistical evidence as proof: Looks for figures offered as proof, but the ten minutes belongs to an imagined scene rather than to evidence.
• Citing the conclusion of a named expert: Searches for a named authority, yet the opening quotes no source and credits no expert.
• Stating a viewpoint the report will oppose: Expects a counterargument, but the sentence states no position that anyone opposes.

1. A news article about a school that kept its original start time
2. District attendance records compared before and after a start-time change ✓
3. A blog post describing one parent's opinion about start times
4. A textbook chapter explaining how school schedules are set

Answer: B. A before-and-after comparison of attendance in the same district directly tests whether the schedule change and the outcome move together. The other sources offer an opinion, an unrelated case, or background about scheduling.

• A blog post describing one parent's opinion about start times: Offers one person's view rather than evidence about attendance, so it cannot show whether the claim holds.
• A news article about a school that kept its original start time: Describes a school that never changed its schedule, which cannot speak to the effect of changing one.
• A textbook chapter explaining how school schedules are set: Explains how schedules are decided without supplying any attendance figures, so it bears on procedure, not effect.

1. They reach opposing conclusions about the road
2. They reach the same conclusion using different kinds of support ✓
3. They reach the same conclusion using identical evidence
4. They disagree about how long the delays last

Answer: B. Both texts want the road widened, so the conclusion matches. What changes is the support: one measures traffic, the other describes commuters' routines. Sameness of position with difference of evidence is the contrast the paragraph sets up.

• They reach opposing conclusions about the road: Misses that both texts argue for the same outcome and so invents a disagreement about the conclusion.
• They disagree about how long the delays last: Invents a dispute over how long delays last, when only one text measures delay at all.
• They reach the same conclusion using identical evidence: Overlooks the difference between traffic counts and descriptions of commuters' morning habits.

1. Move at a fast pace
2. Seek office in an election
3. Perform or carry out ✓
4. Flow, as a liquid does

Answer: C. When the object of “run” is a test, a check, or a trial, the verb means to carry it out. The other senses need a subject that moves, a fluid, or a candidate.

• Move at a fast pace: Assigns the sense used of people or animals in motion, but a test does not travel anywhere.
• Flow, as a liquid does: Applies the sense used of liquids, though the sentence's object is a check rather than a substance.
• Seek office in an election: Uses the political sense, which requires an office or a candidacy as its object.

1. Judging the sentence by its length
2. Confusing a cause with its effect
3. Reading a figurative expression literally ✓
4. Missing the subject of the sentence

Answer: C. “Buried in paperwork” is an established figure for being delayed or set aside, not a report of physical burial. The reader has taken the image at face value instead of recognizing the metaphor.

• Missing the subject of the sentence: Faults the reader's parsing of the clause, which names the committee clearly as the subject.
• Confusing a cause with its effect: Points to a causal mix-up, but the reader draws no conclusion about what caused anything.
• Judging the sentence by its length: Blames the sentence's length for the mistake, though length does not affect figurative meaning.

1. Replacing the information given in the main text
2. Recording the order in which the chapter was written
3. Helping readers locate and clarify important information ✓
4. Persuading readers to accept the author's view

Answer: C. Bolded terms, labeled diagrams, and captions are navigation and explanation aids: they flag what matters and make it concrete. They support the main text rather than arguing, recording composition order, or substituting for content.

• Persuading readers to accept the author's view: Treats explanatory aids as an argument, though the features present information without taking a position.
• Recording the order in which the chapter was written: Ties the features to the author's writing order, which they are not designed to record.
• Replacing the information given in the main text: Claims the features stand in for the text, though they accompany and support it rather than replace it.

1. Quote more of the article's original wording
2. Rearrange the sentences into chronological order
3. Add the sources that the article itself cited
4. Keep the article's central points and drop the examples and the opinion ✓

Answer: D. A summary condenses: it carries the central points in the writer's own words and leaves out supporting examples and the summarizer's views. Adding citations, reordering, or quoting more would not make it more concise or more accurate.

• Add the sources that the article itself cited: Adds reference material a summary does not require, leaving the length and the opinion problem untouched.
• Rearrange the sentences into chronological order: Reorders the material without removing the example detail or the personal judgment that weigh it down.
• Quote more of the article's original wording: Increases reliance on the source's wording, which makes a summary longer and less independent.

1. Each of the volunteers arrives before eight. ✓
2. Each of the volunteers arrive before eight.
3. Each of the volunteers were arriving before eight.
4. Each of the volunteers have arrived before eight.

Answer: A. “Each” is singular, so the verb takes the singular form “arrives” regardless of the plural noun inside the prepositional phrase. The other options pair a singular subject with a plural verb or a plural-form auxiliary.

• Each of the volunteers arrive before eight.: Matches a plural verb to the singular subject “each”, letting the nearby plural noun pull the verb off course.
• Each of the volunteers were arriving before eight.: Uses a plural past form with a singular subject, so verb and subject disagree in number.
• Each of the volunteers have arrived before eight.: Pairs the singular subject with a plural auxiliary, the same number mismatch in a different tense.

1. The trail was muddy, we turned back.
2. The trail was muddy, therefore we turned back.
3. The trail was muddy, so we turned back. ✓
4. The trail was muddy we turned back.

Answer: C. Two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction take a comma before the conjunction, as in “muddy, so we turned back.” The second option is a comma splice, the third has no punctuation at all, and the fourth treats the adverb “therefore” as if it were a conjunction.

• The trail was muddy, we turned back.: Joins two independent clauses with only a comma, the pattern known as a comma splice.
• The trail was muddy we turned back.: Runs the two clauses together with no mark of separation, producing a fused sentence.
• The trail was muddy, therefore we turned back.: Treats the adverb “therefore” as a conjunction; it needs a semicolon before and a comma after.

1. The trail was steep; and the group stopped to rest.
2. The ranger warned us; the bridge was out. ✓
3. The tide was rising; we moved the boats to higher ground. ✓
4. It rained all night; so the river rose.
5. We packed water; snacks; and maps for the hike.

Answers: B and C. A semicolon can join two independent clauses that each stand on their own, which is what the first and fourth sentences do. The others misuse it: before a coordinating conjunction, between the items of a simple series, and before “so”, which is itself a coordinating conjunction.

• The trail was steep; and the group stopped to rest.: Puts a semicolon before the coordinating conjunction “and”; a comma is the mark used when a conjunction joins two clauses.
• We packed water; snacks; and maps for the hike.: Separates the items of a simple series with semicolons; commas do that job unless the items themselves contain commas.
• It rained all night; so the river rose.: Places a semicolon before “so”, a coordinating conjunction that pairs with a comma after the first clause.

1. The new hires
2. A person the sentence never names
3. The schedule
4. The supervisor ✓

Answer: D. “She” follows “the supervisor”, the only singular noun in the sentence that can perform the action of explaining. The new hires are plural, the schedule cannot explain anything, and no unnamed person appears in the sentence.

• The new hires: Takes a plural noun as the antecedent of a singular pronoun, which the forms rule out.
• The schedule: Makes an object the antecedent of a pronoun that performs an action, which the schedule cannot do.
• A person the sentence never names: Introduces a participant the sentence never mentions instead of using the noun already present.

1. The team collected the data, analyzes it, and wrote a report.
2. The team collected the data, analyze it, and write a report.
3. The team collects the data, analyzed it, and wrote a report.
4. The team collected the data, analyzed it, and wrote a report. ✓

Answer: D. All three verbs in that sentence are in the past tense, so the series reads as one finished process. Each of the others shifts into the present partway through, breaking the parallel structure of the list.

• The team collected the data, analyzes it, and wrote a report.: Shifts from past to present in the middle of the series, breaking the parallel tense.
• The team collects the data, analyzed it, and wrote a report.: Opens in the present tense and then returns to the past for the remaining two verbs.
• The team collected the data, analyze it, and write a report.: Keeps the opening verb in the past while putting the remaining two in the present.

1. In light of the fact that the bridge was closed, an alternate route was taken by us.
2. Because the bridge was closed, we took an alternate route. ✓
3. Owing to the fact that the bridge had been closed, we took an alternate route to the destination.
4. Due to the fact that the bridge was closed, we took another way to get there.

Answer: B. The revision replaces the wordy “due to the fact that” with “because” and drops the redundant “to the destination”, leaving the meaning intact. The other options keep the padding, add an unnecessary tense, or shift into passive voice.

• Due to the fact that the bridge was closed, we took another way to get there.: Keeps the wordy phrase and swaps in a longer phrasing for the route, adding words without adding meaning.
• Owing to the fact that the bridge had been closed, we took an alternate route to the destination.: Retains the padded phrase and adds a past perfect construction the sentence does not need.
• In light of the fact that the bridge was closed, an alternate route was taken by us.: Keeps the padding and shifts into passive voice, which lengthens rather than trims the sentence.

1. Checking the capitalization of proper nouns
2. Revising by deleting or relocating the paragraph ✓
3. Correcting the spelling of unfamiliar words
4. Editing the paragraph for punctuation

Answer: B. An unrelated paragraph is a problem of content and organization, so the fix is revision: remove it or move it where it belongs. Punctuation, spelling, and capitalization are editing concerns that leave the paragraph's relevance untouched.

• Editing the paragraph for punctuation: Treats a structural problem as a mechanical one; punctuation marks will not make an irrelevant paragraph relevant.
• Correcting the spelling of unfamiliar words: Applies a spelling fix to a paragraph whose real difficulty is that it does not belong in the essay.
• Checking the capitalization of proper nouns: Checks letter case in a paragraph whose problem is placement rather than mechanics.

1. One that introduces a new argument for readers to consider
2. One that restates the main point and ties the evidence together ✓
3. One that lists every source the writer consulted
4. One that repeats the opening sentence word for word

Answer: B. A conclusion closes the essay by returning to the central point and showing how the evidence supported it. New arguments belong earlier, source lists belong in citations, and a verbatim repeat of the opening adds nothing at all.

• One that introduces a new argument for readers to consider: Opens a new line of argument at the point where the essay should be closing it down.
• One that lists every source the writer consulted: Turns the conclusion into a bibliography, which does not gather the argument's evidence.
• One that repeats the opening sentence word for word: Repeats the opening sentence without showing how the evidence supported the main point.

1. The students' projects covered three walls. ✓
2. The student's projects covered three walls.
3. The students projects covered three walls.
4. The students's projects covered three walls.

Answer: A. A plural noun ending in s takes the apostrophe after the s, giving “students'”. Leaving the apostrophe out removes the possessive, placing it before the s marks a single student, and adding s after the apostrophe doubles a plural marker.

• The students projects covered three walls.: Drops the apostrophe altogether, so the sentence no longer marks possession at all.
• The student's projects covered three walls.: Places the apostrophe before the s, which marks a single student rather than several.
• The students's projects covered three walls.: Adds a second plural ending after the apostrophe, a possessive form that English does not use.

1. necessary ✓
2. neccesary
3. neccessary
4. necesary

Answer: A. “Necessary” has a single c and two s letters. The other spellings either double the c, drop one s, or make both changes at once.

• neccessary: Doubles the c, producing a spelling that no dictionary form of the word uses.
• necesary: Drops one of the two s letters in the middle of the word, where both are required.
• neccesary: Doubles the c and drops an s, combining two separate errors in the same spelling.

1. It changes the subject to a different question
2. It avoids taking any position on the issue
3. It shows the point was heard and makes clear what is being addressed ✓
4. It ends the discussion before others can respond

Answer: C. Restating the other person's point first confirms understanding and pins down exactly which claim is about to be challenged. Because the participant then disagrees, the move neither dodges the issue nor closes the discussion down.

• It changes the subject to a different question: Treats a clarifying summary as a change of topic, though the speaker stays on the same point.
• It avoids taking any position on the issue: Reads the summary as neutrality, but the participant goes on to state disagreement.
• It ends the discussion before others can respond: Assumes the move shuts the discussion down, although summarizing usually keeps it open.

1. A peer-reviewed study reporting a controlled trial ✓
2. An anonymous post on a public discussion forum
3. A manufacturer's promotional page for the product
4. A social media post describing one patient's experience

Answer: A. A peer-reviewed report of a controlled trial has been examined by independent experts and compares outcomes under conditions designed to test the claim. Promotional, anonymous, and single-account sources carry no such checks.

• A manufacturer's promotional page for the product: Comes from a party that profits from the claim and has undergone no independent review.
• An anonymous post on a public discussion forum: Offers no author to assess and no method to check, which makes the claim unverifiable.
• A social media post describing one patient's experience: Rests on a single experience rather than a comparison, so it cannot establish effectiveness.

1. The speaker's rate of speech
2. The acoustics of the room
3. The length of the presentation
4. The audience's background knowledge ✓

Answer: D. Defining terms and removing jargon are choices about what the listeners already know, so the speaker is calibrating to the audience's knowledge. Speaking rate, running time, and sound quality are separate concerns from wording.

• The speaker's rate of speech: Confuses word choice with pace; defining a term says nothing about how fast the speaker talks.
• The length of the presentation: Links vocabulary to running time, though explaining terms can shorten or lengthen a talk.
• The acoustics of the room: Attributes a language choice to the room's sound quality, which no wording change can affect.

1. Drafting
2. Editing
3. Revising
4. Planning ✓

Answer: D. Generating, grouping, and ordering ideas happens before any prose is produced, which is what planning covers. Drafting begins with the first attempt at text, while revising and editing work on material that already exists.

• Drafting: Names the stage that produces the first version of the text, which the writer has not yet started.
• Revising: Places the work after a draft exists, although the writer has not yet produced one.
• Editing: Confuses getting ready to write with correcting grammar and punctuation in finished text.