Take this Exam: PSAT Reading — what the passage forces, and what it merely suggests | Zestly

Question 1

"In the village of Brentmere eight adults in ten speak a dialect found nowhere else in the county. The other two in ten arrived within the past decade and speak only the national language. The dialect speakers are on average a good deal older than the newcomers." Which of these must be true if the writer's account is accurate?

Accepted Answer

Some adults living in Brentmere do not speak the dialect

Answer

The newcomers moved to Brentmere in search of work

Answer

Every adult in the village understands the national language

Answer

The dialect will have died out within a generation

Question 2

"Professor Idris Calloway compared the memory scores of fifty students. Those who had slept eight hours before the test scored higher than those who had slept five. Among the students who had drunk coffee that morning, however, the eight-hour and the five-hour groups scored about the same." Which of these can be concluded from what the writer reports?

Accepted Answer

Something besides the hours slept is bearing on these scores

Answer

Students who sleep five hours should drink coffee before a test

Answer

All fifty students scored at about the same level

Answer

Coffee improves how much a student remembers

Question 3

"Twenty households in one street were tracked for a month. The ten with a water meter fitted used thirty gallons a day each; the ten without used forty-five. The twenty households held the same number of people each and much the same appliances." Which of these must be true if the writer's account is accurate?

Accepted Answer

The metered households used less water than the unmetered ones

Answer

Fitting a meter brings a household's water use down

Answer

The households without meters were wasting water on purpose

Answer

A meter is the only way to bring water use down

Question 4

"The Zenith Tower was glazed with a film that turns back nine tenths of the ultraviolet light falling on it. Through its first summer the building stayed about ten degrees cooler inside than the two older towers on either side of it, which are of much the same height and put to much the same use." Which of these can be concluded from what the writer reports?

Answer

Every new tower in the city should be glazed the same way

Answer

The glazing is the only reason the building stayed cooler

Answer

The building was warmer inside than its two neighbours

Answer

The tower needed less cooling that summer than the towers beside it

Question 5

"Dr. Elin Sarraf finds that the silver-winged warbler now nests about fifty miles north of where it nested a decade ago. Over the same decade the average spring temperature across its old nesting ground rose by three degrees. Sarraf reads the move as the birds keeping to the range of temperature their eggs require." Which of these can be concluded from what the writer reports?

Answer

The old nesting ground can no longer support the species at all

Answer

On Sarraf's account the birds' choice of ground turns on temperature

Answer

The birds now nest fifty miles south of their former ground

Answer

Temperature governs where every migratory bird nests

Question 6

"The Meridan Collective showed twelve steel sculptures for three months. Every notice the show received was favorable, and two of the twelve pieces sold. The gallery's previous show, fourteen paintings by one artist, had been reviewed with some reserve, and nine of the fourteen sold." Which of these can be concluded from what the writer reports?

Answer

Buyers in this town would rather have a painting than a sculpture

Answer

The sculptures were priced higher than the paintings

Answer

A favorable press did not, in this gallery, bring sales with it

Answer

The sculpture show was reviewed less warmly than the painting show