© 2012 The College Board. ACCUPLACER SAMPLE QUESTIONS
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5. In 1848, Charles Burton of New York City made the rst
baby carriage, but people strongly objected to the vehicles
because they said the carriage operators hit too many
pedestrians. Still convinced that he had a good idea, Burton
opened a factory in England. He obtained orders for the
baby carriages from Queen Isabella II of Spain, Queen
Victoria of England, and the Pasha of Egypt. e United
States had to wait another 10 years before it got a carriage
factory, and only 75 carriages were sold in the rst year.
Even aer the success of baby carriages in England,
A. Charles Burton was a poor man.
B. Americans were still reluctant to buy baby carriages.
C. Americans purchased thousands of baby carriages.
D. the United States bought more carriages than any other
country.
6. All water molecules form six-sided structures as they freeze
and become snow crystals. e shape of the crystal is
determined by temperature, vapor, and wind conditions in
the upper atmosphere. Snow crystals are always symmetrical
because these conditions aect all six sides simultaneously.
e purpose of the passage is to present
A. a personal observation.
B. a solution to a problem.
C. actual information.
D. opposing scientic theories.
7. In the words of omas DeQuincey, “It is notorious that
the memory strengthens as you lay burdens upon it.” If,
like most people, you have trouble recalling the names of
those you have just met, try this: e next time you are
introduced, plan to remember the names. Say to yourself,
“I’ll listen carefully; I’ll repeat each person’s name to be sure
I have it, and I will remember.” You’ll discover how eective
this technique is and probably recall those names for the rest
of your life.
e writer believes people remember names best when they
a. meet new people
b. are intelligent
c. decide to do so
d. are interested in people
8. Many people have owned, or have heard of, traditional
“piggy banks,” coin banks shaped like pigs. A logical theory
about how this tradition started might be that because pigs
oen symbolize greed, the object is to “fatten” one’s piggy
bank with as much money as possible.
However, while this idea makes sense, it is not the correct
origin of the term. e genesis of the piggy bank is the old
English word “pygg”, which was a common kind of clay
hundreds of years ago in England. People used pots and jars
made out of this red “pygg” clay for many dierent purposes
in their homes. Sometimes they kept their money in one of
the pots, and this was known as a pygg bank. Over the years,
because “pygg” and “pig” sounded the same, glaziers began
making novelty banks out of pottery in the shape of a pig as
a kind of joke. ese banks were given as gis and exported
to countries where people spoke other languages and where
no one had ever heard of pygg clay. e tradition caught on
all over the world, and today piggy banks come in all colors
and are made of all kinds of materials, including plastic.
is passage is mainly about
A. how people in dierent countries save their money
B. how people in England made pottery centuries ago
C. how a common expression began in a surprising way
D. how an unusual custom got started
9. It is said that a smile is universally understood. And nothing
triggers a smile more universally that the taste of sugar.
Nearly everyone loves sugar. Infant studies indicate that
humans are born with an innate love of sweets. Based on
statistics, a lot of people in Great Britain must be smiling
because on average, every man, woman and child in that
country consumes 95 pounds of sugar each year.
is passage implies that the writer thinks that 95 pounds of
sugar per person per year is
A. a surprisingly large amount
B. a surprisingly small amount
C. about what one would expect
D. an unhealthy amount
10. e wheel has been used by humans since nearly the
beginning of civilization and is considered one of the most
important mechanical inventions of all time. Most primitive
technologiessince the invention of the wheel have been
based on its principles, and since the industrial revolution,
the wheel has been a basic element of nearly every machine
constructed by humankind. No one knows the exact time
and place of the invention of the wheel, but its beginnings
can be seen across many ancient civilizations.
According to this passage, the wheel is an important
invention because
a. it is one of the world’s oldest inventions
b. it forms the basis of so many later inventions
c. it is an invention that can be traced to many cultures
d. it is one the world’s most famous inventions
11. Samuel Morse, best known today as the inventor of
Morse Code and one of the inventors of the telegraph,
was originally a prominent painter. While he was always
interested in technology and studied electrical engineering
in college, Morse went to Paris to learn from famous artists
of his day and later painted many pictures that now hang
in museums, including a portrait of former President John
Adams. In 1825, Morse was in Washington, D.C., painting
a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette when a messenger
arrived on horseback to tell him that his wife was gravely
ill back at his home in Connecticut. e message had taken
several days to reach him because of the distance. Morse
rushed to his home as fast as he could, but his wife had
already passed away by the time he arrived. Grief-stricken,
he gave up painting and devoted the rest of his life to nding
ways to transmit messages over long distances faster.
Morse le the art world and helped to invent the telegraph
A. because he was tired of painting