of it. (4) In winter this pond was frozen over, and he had taken his daughter Abigail there when she was small and tried to teach her how to skate. (5) She hadn’t been able to catch on, and so after two or three lessons Abigail and him had given up the idea. (6) Now there came into his mind an image of such clarity it caused him to draw in his breath sharply; an image of Abigail gliding toward him on her new Christmas skates, going much faster than she should have been. 23. Which of the following changes needs to be made to the passage? a. Part 6: Change the semicolon to a colon. b. Part 4: Remove the word and. c. Part 3: Change the semicolon to a comma. d. Part 5: Change the comma to a semicolon. 24. Which of the following changes needs to be made to the passage? a. Part 4: Remove the comma after over. b. Part 6: Replace Christmas with christmas’. c. Part 5: Change him to he. d. Part 3: Replace their with there. Questions 25–27 are based on the following passage. (1) If a building is to be left in a safe condition after a fire is extinguished, firefighters must search for hidden fires that might r e-ignite. (2) Typically this process known as overhaul, begins in the area of actual fire involvement. (3) Before searching for hid- den fires; however, firefighters must first determine the condition of the building. (4) The fire’s intensity and the amount of water used to fight the fire are both factors that affect a building. (5) Fire can burn away floor joists and weaken roof trusses. (6) Heat from the fire can weaken concrete and the mortar in wall joints; heat can also e longate steel roof supports. (7) Excess water can add dangerous weight to floors and walls. (8) Once it has been determined that it is j ust fine to enter a building, the process of overhauling begins. (9) Firefighters can often detect hidden fires by looking for discoloration, peeling paint, cracked plaster, and smoke emissions; by feeling walls and floors with the back of the hand; by listening for popping, cracking, and hissing sounds; and by using electronic sensors to detect heat v ariance. 25. Which of the underlined words or phrases in the passage should be replaced by more effective or appropriate words? a. just fine b. heat variance c. elongate d. re-ignite 26. Which of the following numbered parts contains nonstandard punctuation? a. Part 8 b. Part 6 c. Part 9 d. Part 3 27. Which of the following changes needs to be made to the passage? a. Part 2: Insert a comma after process. b. Part 9: Remove the comma after paint. c. Part 6: Replace the semicolon with a comma. d. Part 9: Replace all the semicolons with commas. Questions 28 and 29 are based on the following passage. (1) The Competitive Civil Service system is designed to give candidates fair and equal treatment and ensure that federal applicants are hired based on objective criteria. (2) Hiring has to be based solely on a candidate’s knowledge, skills, and abilities (which you’ll sometimes see abbreviated as KSA), and not on external factors such as race, religion, sex, and so – THEA PRACTICE EXAM 3– 265 on. (3) Whereas employers in the private sector can hire employees for subjective reasons, federal employers must be able to justify his decision with objective evidence that the candidate is qualified. 28. Which if the following numbered parts lacks parallelism? a. Part 2 b. Part 3 c. Parts 2 and 3 d. Part 1 29. Which of the following numbered parts has an error in pronoun agreement? a. Part 1 b. Part 2 c. Part 3 d. Parts 2 and 3 Questions 30–32 are based on the following passage. (1) Heat exhaustion, generally characterized by clammy skin, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, profuse per- spiration, and sometimes fainting, resulting from an inadequate intake of water and the loss of fluids. (2) First aid treatment for this condition includes hav- ing the victim lie down, raising the feet 8–12 inches, applying cool, wet cloths to the skin, and giving the victim sips of salt water (1 teaspoon per glass, half a glass every 15 minutes) over the period of an hour. (3) ______________________________________. (4) Heat stroke is much more serious; it is an immediate life-threatening condition. (5) The char- acteristics of heat stroke are a high body temperature (which may reach 106° F or more); a rapid pulse; hot, dry skin; and a blocked sweating mechanism. (6) Victims of this condition may be unconscious, and first aid measures should be directed at cooling the body quickly. (7) Heat stroke often occurs in poor people in urban areas. (8) The victim should be placed in a tub of cold water or repeatedly sponged with cool water until his or her temperature is low- ered sufficiently. (9) Fans or air conditioners will also help with the cooling process. (10) Care should be taken, however, not to chill the victim too much once his or her temperature is below 102° F. 30. Which of the following sentences, if inserted into the blank numbered Part 3 in the passage, would best aid the transition of thought between the first and second paragraph? a. Heat exhaustion is a relatively unusual condi- tion in northern climates. b. The typical victims of heat stroke are the poor and elderly who cannot afford air condition- ing even on the hottest days of summer. c. Heat exhaustion is never fatal, although it can cause damage to internal organs if it strikes an elderly victim. d. Air conditioning units, electric fans, and cool baths can lower the numbers of people who suffer heat stroke each year in the United States. 31. Which of the following numbered parts draws attention away from the main idea of the second paragraph of the passage? a. Part 6 b. Part 10 c. Part 8 d. Part 7 32. Which of the following numbered parts contains a nonstandard sentence? a. Part 8 b. Part 1 c. Part 5 d. Part 3 – THEA PRACTICE EXAM 3– 266 Questions 33 and 34 are based on the following passage. (1) Theodore Roosevelt w ere born with asthma and poor eyesight. (2) Yet this sickly child later won fame as a political leader, Rough Rider, and hero of the common people. (3) To conquer his handicaps, Teddy trained in a gym and became a light-weight boxer at Harvard. (4) Out west, he hunted buffalo and ran a cattle ranch. (5) He was civil service reformer in the east and also a police commissioner. (6) He became President McKinley’s Assistant Navy Secretary during the Spanish-American War. (7) Also, he led a charge of cavalry Rough Riders up San Juan Hill in Cuba. (8) After achieving fame, he became Governor of New York and went on to become the Vice-President. 33. Which of the following sentences represents the best revision of Part 5? a. Back east he became a civil service reformer and police commissioner. b. A civil service reformer and police commis- sioner was part of his job in the east. c. A civil service reformer and police commis- sioner were parts of his job in the east. d. His job of civil service reformer and police commissioner were his jobs in the east. 34. Which of the following should be used in place of the underlined verb in Part 1 of the passage? a. will be b. are c. is d. was Questions 35 and 36 are based on the following passage. (1) Charles Darwin was born in 1809 at Shrews- bury England. (2) He was a biologist whose famous theory of evolution is important to philosophy for the effects it has had about the nature of man. (3) After many years of careful study, Darwin attempted to show that higher species had come into existence as a result of the gradual transformation of lower species; and that the process of transformation could be explained through the selective effect of the nat- ural environment upon organisms. (4) He con- cluded that the principles of natural selection and survival of the fittest govern all life. (5) Darwin’s explanation of these principles is that because of the food supply problem, the young born to any species complete for survival. (6) Those young that survive to produce the next generation tend to embody favorable natural changes which are then passed on by heredity. (7) His major work that con- tained these theories is On the Origin of Species writ- ten in 1859. Many religious opponents condemned this work. 35. Which of the following corrections should be made in punctuation? a. Part 4: Insert a comma before and. b. Part 3: Delete the comma after study. c. Part 2: Insert quotation marks around nature of man. d. Part 1: Insert a comma after Shrewsbury. 36. In Part 7 On the Origin of Species is italicized because it is a. a short story. b. the title of a book. c. the name of the author. d. copyrighted. – THEA PRACTICE EXAM 3– 267 Question 37 is based on the following passage. (1) Herbert was enjoying the cool, bright fall after- noon. (2) Walking down the street, red and yellow leaves crunched satisfyingly under his new school shoes. 37. Which of the following is the best revision of the passage? a. Herbert was enjoying the cool bright fall after- noon. Walking down the street red and yellow leaves crunched satisfyingly under his new school shoes. b. Herbert was enjoying the cool, bright fall afternoon. He was walking down the street, red and yellow leaves crunched satisfyingly under his new school shoes. c. Herbert was enjoying the cool, bright fall afternoon. Walking down the street, he crunched red and yellow leaves satisfyingly under his new school shoes. d. Herbert was enjoying the cool, bright fall afternoon. Walking down the street, red and yellow leaves were crunched satisfyingly under his new school shoes. Questions 38–40 are based on the following passage. (1) The building in which Howard Davis was to teach his undergraduate evening course, Interpreta- tion of Poetry, was Renwick Hall, in the General Sciences Building. (2) Markham Hall, which housed the English Department offices and classrooms, was to be closed all summer for renovation. (3) Howard’s classroom was in the basement. (4) The shadowy corridor that le d back to it was lined with glass cases containing exhibits whose titles r ead, “Small Mammals of North America,”“Birds of the Central United States,” and “Reptiles of the Desert Southwest.”(5) The dusty specimens perched on little stands; the ir tiny claws gripped the smooth wood nervously. (6) A typewritten card, yellow with age, bearing the name of its genus and species. (7) The classroom itself was outfitted with a stainless steel sink, and behind the lectern loomed a dark- wood cabinet through whose glass doors one could see rows of jars, each holding what appeared to be an animal floating in a murky liquid. (8) The class- room w reake d of formaldehyde. 38. Which of the following sentences, if inserted between Parts 6 and 7, would best fit the author’s pattern of development in the second paragraph of the passage? a. Howard would be teaching Byron, Shelley, and Keats this term. b. In the display case opposite Howard’s class- room, a pocket gopher reared up on its hind legs, staring glassy-eyed into the open doorway. c. Although Markham was at least twenty-five years younger than Renwick, the administra- tion had chosen to renovate it rather than the aging, crumbling science building. d. Genus and species are taxonomic categories. 39. Which of the following numbered parts contains a nonstandard sentence? a. Part 2 b. Part 7 c. Part 1 d. Part 6 40. Which of the underlined words in the passage needs to be replaced with its homonym? a. led b. their c. read d. wreaked – THEA PRACTICE EXAM 3– 268 Section 3: Writing (Part B— Writing Sample) Carefully read the writing topic that follows, then pre- pare a multiple-paragraph writing sample of 300–600 words on that topic. Make sure your essay is well- organized and that you support your central argument with concrete examples. American students are said to have fallen behind in the sciences, and some educators believe it is because American teachers are conducting science classes ineffectively. Write an essay in which you suggest ways sci- ence classes could be conducted so as to more effec- tively challenge high school and college students. – THEA PRACTICE EXAM 3– 269 Answer Explanations Section 1: Reading 1. b. The author describes in paragraph 1 how glam rock musicians were characterized by their flashy hair and makeup, and refers to their music as a product, as if it was something packaged to be sold. The choice that best describes a musi- cian who puts outward appearance before the quality of his or her music is choice b, style over substance. 2. c. Ostentatious is an adjective that is used to describe someone or something that is conspic- uously vain, or showy. There are numerous con- text clues to help you answer this question: it is stated in paragraph 1 that the glam rockers had a flashy style, and their music was symbolic of the superficial 1980s. 3. d. Trappings usually refer to outward decoration of dress. If you did not know the definition of trap- pings, the prior sentence supplies the answer: Grunge rockers derived their fashion sense from the youth culture of the Pacific Northwest; a meld- ing of punk rocker style and outdoors clothing . . . The author makes no judgment of the attrac- tiveness of grunge fashion (choice c). 4. d. The author states in paragraph 1 that White Snake was a glam rock band and therefore not associated with the Seattle grunge scene. Don’t be distracted by choice a; Mr. Epp and the Cal- culations may not have been a real band, but the name will nonetheless be forever associated with grunge music. 5. b. The relationship between grunge music and its mainstream popularity is best described as con- trary. The most obvious example of this is found in the second sentence of paragraph 6, when in describing the relationship, the author states it is very hard to buck the trend when you are the one setting it. 6. d. Ephemeral is used to describe something that lasts only a short time, something that is fleet- ing. The context clue that best helps you to answer this question is found in the first two lines of paragraph 6, where the author states that grunge faded out of the mainstream as quickly as it rocketed to prominence. 7. d. In the second sentence the author states that Prometheus is a complex character, and in this and the following sentence, the author lists several specific examples of the rich combina- tion of often-contradictory characteristics of Prometheus. 8. d. The passage relates the key episodes in the life of Prometheus. This is the only idea broad enough and relevant enough to be the main idea of the passage. 9. b. Prometheus’s actions show that he cared for humans more than he cared for Zeus. He gave man knowledge of the arts and sciences although Zeus wanted men to be kept in igno- rance (paragraph 3); he tricked Zeus to give mankind the best meat from an ox (paragraph 4); and he stole fire from Mt. Olympus to give mortals the fire that Zeus had denied them (paragraph 5). 10. a. Zeus had given Prometheus and his brother the task of creating humans as a reward for their help in defeating the Titans. 11. a. Prometheus helped create mortals and then became their benefactor and protector (second paragraph). He is thus most like a parent to humans. 12. d. The transgression refers back to the previous paragraph, which describes how Prometheus disobeyed Zeus and stole fire from Mount Olympus to give it to man. 13. c. The style is neither formal nor informal but an easy-going in between to make the material eas- ily understood and interesting to a lay audience. In addition, the passage does not take for – THEA PRACTICE EXAM 3– 270 . passage? a. Part 6 b. Part 10 c. Part 8 d. Part 7 32. Which of the following numbered parts contains a nonstandard sentence? a. Part 8 b. Part 1 c. Part 5 d. Part 3 – THEA PRACTICE EXAM 3– 266 Questions. just fine b. heat variance c. elongate d. re-ignite 26. Which of the following numbered parts contains nonstandard punctuation? a. Part 8 b. Part 6 c. Part 9 d. Part 3 27. Which of the following. process. b. Part 9: Remove the comma after paint. c. Part 6: Replace the semicolon with a comma. d. Part 9: Replace all the semicolons with commas. Questions 28 and 29 are based on the following passage. (1)