ACT Past Papers with Answers

The passage supports all of the following stateFnents about the Steichman brothers, business EXCEPT that: it was a small animation studio compared to the big ones in California. it produced caTtoons that were shown in the theater where Ives was an usher. it created characters that included tender and cute animals.

Source question 3. Refer to the source image.

One of the main ideas of the secoE]d paragraph (lines 16-33) is that.. as a young man, Ives frequently changed jobs because employers found his work unsatisfactory. attention of the Steichman brothers. variety of jobs as a young man. working many jobs at once, Ives lost important chances to advance his art career.

According to the passage. all of the following were aspects of Ives, s job at the movie theater EXCEPT: wearing a dark gray outfit. escorting girls to th¢ir seats. ACT.e8G 31 ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. Passage11 SOCIAL SCIENCE. This passage is adapted from the artlcle "In a Lonely Place. by Marlha Nussbaum (@2006 by The Natlon). Nussbaufll is reviewng the biography The Solitude of Self by Vivian Gornick. on good terms with powerful men and to preserve soli- darity with thc abolitionist cause. Nonetheless, Stanton 55 loved her life and her enduring friendships, alld she loved her struggle. In 1878, after recalling the exhaust- ing efforts she and other feminists had expended in the cause, she then says, "And all our theme is as fresh and absorbing as it was the day we started. In this strug- 60 gle for justice we have deepened and broadened our own lives, and extended the horizon OF our vision. Gornick's account of Stanton's life is exhilarating and deftly written. She follows Stanton from her rebel- lious childhood through the early days of her engage- 65 ment with abolitionism to that moment of conversion in London when she realizes that women aren, t respecied, even in the abolitionist movement. From th.ere, the road leads to the faEnous meeting at Seneca Falls in 1848, the first women's rights convention in the United 70 States, when Stanton boldly showed her radical colors, .demandintr suffrage for wom¢n. The next fifty-four years (she dked in 1902) were filled with passionate speech-making and activism, as Stanton traveled tire- lessly around the country on the lecture circuit with her 75 friend Susan B. Anthony. In one seven-month period, ror example, they lectured 148 times in 140 towns in ten states. Gornick vividly conveys the combination of constructive anger and ceaseless activity that marked Stanton's relatiollship to the world around her, and she 80 makes her refusal to surrender her radical demands seem deeply right, Gornick makes a good case that Stanton is indeed the key precursor to the feminLSt movement of the late twentieth century, which refused to compromise while at the satne time maintainino a 85 hopeful attitude to the potential of law as a force for social reform. In 1840 the young Elizabeth Cady Stanton attended the World Anti-slavery Convention in London with her new husband, an abolitionist politiclan. At least she tried to attend it. On her a￿1val at the conven- 5 tion site, Lhe people in charge refused to seat her because she was a woman. All the women were required to withdraw to the periphery, where, Vivian Gornick writes in her new book oll Stanton, The Soli- tude of Self, "they could see but not be seen, he&r but 10 not be he￿d., Most of the men, includino her husband, went along with this arrangement, unwilliiig to compli- cat¢ discussRon of the all-irnportant antislavery issue. Only a f'ew, notably the rominent abolitionist WiLliam Lloyd Garrison, refuse to participate on terms that 15 excluded women. Stanton recalled later that Lt was on this day that She realized for the first titne that 'in the eyes of the world I was not as I was in my own eyes, I was only a woman." So began the career of one of America's greatest 20 radicals, Perhaps, however, it re211y began much earlier. When Stanton, around age 12, heard of a local woman who had suffered outrageous but legally sanctioned injustice at the hands of her dead husband's son, she grabbed a knife cut the offending passage out of the 25 law book on her father's desk. Her father told her that she could work to change the law but that, in Gornick's words, defacing the book was "not only forbidden . it was also useless., She reflects that at this point it was "alr¢ady too late: an educated, upright, law-and-order 20 household had spawned a daughter who was going to cut the laws out of the books with a knife., Gornick loves Stanton's uncompromising radical- ism, her inextinguishable and rather joyous seiise of outrage. In this woukan who raised, seven children 35 during the day. and wrote at nioht, hey prolific output fueled by an abiding passion for justice, Gornick finds the archetype of the feminist movement she knew in the 1970s, with its Creative energy, its excitement at having identified the probleEn to bc solved. Stanton, Gornick 40 argues, is the model for this revolutionary feminism, because she was the one who always refused to scale back her just demands out of political expediency, who remained faithful to the radical vision of full equality. Stanton's revolutionary life was not entirely 45 happy. Although she and her husband initially shared political passions, they gradllally grew apart, and the whole abolitionist movemcnt, with its insistence that slavery had to be the sole focus of attentiotA, came to seem to her deeply compromised. Stallton's Kadical 50 demand for equality for both blacks and women lost her, moreover, the fEiendship of many feminist women, who were willing to postpone the suffrage fight to be

According to the passage, as a young man, Ives had a vision of success for himself that included: moving to a house in the country. magazine.

The passage indicates that compared to his work at the ukovie theater, Ives follnd his work for the Steichman brothers to be: ore enjoyable. B, less enjoyable. more profitable financially.

That MacGuirc was enrolled in a literature class was: an inference Ives made based on his observation of what she brought to ait class, a fact she'mentioned to her art school classmates as a way of suggesting her superiority to them. a detail that Ivcs learned from a classmate who had discovered that Ives was fond of MacGukre. a comment she made to overcome an awkward silence in hei first conversation with Ives.

The passage's author n]ost strongly implies that over time, Stanton's relationship with her husband: passion in aboli£ion2sm. ties diverged. worsened after an L840 antisl&very convention in London, then slowky improved. ended abruptly after an 1840 antiglavery coKLven- tion in London.

As portrayed in the passage, the reaction of Stanton's father to her cutting out a passage from a book IE best described as: concerned but hopeful. sympathetic but critical. angry and afraid.

In the stateiiient in lines 28-31, Gornick most strongly stresses:. the love for the law and education that Stanton shared with her father, at home and at school. involved in political activism. life and her rebellious behavior.

According Eo the passage, Gornick believes that Stanton is the model for the type of feminism found in the 1970s becausc Stanton: wanted nothing more than a quiet, private life as a writer and parent. tempered her passion for justice with a sense of compassion. refused to compromise her strongly held, radical belief in full equality. was realistic about the limits of what reformeTS could accomplish.

The passage most strongly suggests that Stanton looked back on her life with: reluctant acceptance. mild regret. weary bitterness.

Lines 15-18 most llearly ￿ean that Stanton.. that society placed on women. abruptly discovered that just being a woman reduced her value in many people's eyes. was devastated to learn that even G￿risOn thought less of her because she was a woman. slowly began to question whether women had fewer Tights than men because of their gender. ACT48G 33 TO THE NE T PAGE. Passage111 HUMANITIES: This passage is adapted from Ihe memolr Aly Heart Is in the Earlh., True Storles of Alabama and Mexico by Wayne Greenshaw (@2001 by Wayne Greenshawl. Hank Wllllafns was a popular singer and writer of country muslc in the 19408 and 50$. edge of the cold glass to keep from saying anything, feeling thc heat of all thÈir eyes on me. I wished we, d 50 nèyei seen the Cadillacs OT the men, and I wondered when Daddy was going to take us on down the road, where he said he had mole shops to call on. When I finally did glance up? I looked directly into the bluest eyes I'd ever seen on a His thin mouth 55 Stretched into a geneTOUS smile. "How's about you boys coming out here to the car with me??? He pushed his chair back. "I got some things for y'all,,, From the trunk of one of the pink Cadillacs he took two black-and-white eight-by-ten glossy photo- 60 graphs of himself, scratched out, "For Wayne, a fine young man," and signed it, then did the same for Donnie Lee, As we moved to Daddy's car, he called, "You got a Victrola?" I noddcd. Then he handed me a half-dozen 78 rpm records. "Y'all share em, okay?" I 65 nodded. In the summertimes of my youth, rny younger brother, Donnie Lee, and I rode with Daddy, a traveling salesman, when he traveled Alabama and east Missis- sippi, stopping at barber and beauty shops, bringing 5 them the latest stainletss steel razors, smelly perfumed wave lotion, the fancicst new dryers, and a tonic that would plaster hair to the scalp while turning it dark brown. It was on a highway in south Alabama that we 10 were passed one afternoon by a pink Cadillac with a pair of cowboy boots sticking out the rear window. "That's ol, Hank,, Daddy said. Donuie Lee and I looked at each other, puzzled. "In a minute or two there'll be another one just 15 like that,, Daddy said. Donnie Lee questi.oned his statement. But, sure enough, in a few minutes, the first car's twin, down to the snazzy fins shining brightly in the gunlight, passed us with a beep of its horn. Daddy 20 answered and shot an abbreviated wave. In the next town we found the two Cadillacs parked side by side facing the curb outside the drug- store. Daddy pulled his car parallel to thejll. We fol- lowed him inside, where a skinny man weuing a white 25 cowboy hat rose from the table where he sat with three friends and, 8Tinning from ear to ear, greeted Daddy like a Ion(s lost relative, They hugged and carried on, Daddy introducing us as his "number one assistants," and told us, '°Boys, this is Hank Williams, the most 30 famous singer &nd sontTwiiler ever to corne out of Georgiana." The skinny man hooted. "Now, that's about the best intioduction I've ever had,, he said, and ordered a round of soft drinks, which we accepted with thanks. 35 We slunk back on the edge of the shallow breeze from the slow moving fan centered over the marble-topped table. In the shadows of glass-squared display booths we sipped our drinks while the men talked about '°the road," Daddy asking where they'd played, Hank and his 40 boys saying they, d had a bxg crowd down in Andalusia the night before. With his bladed face cocked just so, the shadow of his wide-brimmed hat muting his features, Hank caughl my eyc and grinned and said, "What kind-a RllUSiC YOU 45 like, big 'un??? and I tried to hide behind my glass of soda, pushing back shyly against the glass case, 'Cat got yo, tongue?" he asked, and I put my mouth to the When we returned home to Trussville on Friday, Mama questioned us about our week with Daddy, We showed her the photographs, We took the records to our room. As the flrst started to play, Donnie Lee made a 70 face, I frowned and shook my head. In rnemory, that trip with Daddy unwinds in shades of black-and-white colored with a streak of pink. Today, as I listen to the powerful poetic slur of his music, hitting notes that even he could not find on 75 a scale between five parallel lines, sounding words that iing against the heart like coin8 dropped into a deep clear pool at the bottom of a deep dark cave, I am so moved that l am stunned alinost senseless with its beauty. Somewhere between then and now I Icarned to 80 fathom the depths of his genius. "Did you hear that lonesome whippoorwill? He sounds too blue to fly. The midnight 13 whining low. I'm so lonesome I could cry. How could any eleven-year-old ever ,know the 85 naked strength of such words prayed to such sounds? The plaintive voice cuts to the heart that knows the secrets of being twisted and torn, battered and bruised, where the scar-tissue (yrates against old feelings thal cannot-will not-remain hidden.

The passage'8 author characterizes Stanton at the Seneca Falls convention most nearly as: uncharacteristically outspoken on the issue of wotnen'F suffrage. surprisingly unclear about her position on voting rights for women, women's rights. impressively insistent on the. right of women to vole.

The point of view fi.om which the passage is told is best described as that of someone.. A, traveling with his father and brother. wanting to become a musician like Williams. reflecting appreciatively on meeting Willkams. searching for his roots in Alabama. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. AQT.68G 34

Based on the passage, the nattator's reaction to being first addressed by Williams is one of: curiosity and awe.

Il is reasonable to infer that, following their first expe- rien¢e listening to Williams's records, the narrator and his brother: continued to play the records often to recapture the fond memories of meeting Williarns. since they found the music unappealing. shared the records with their mother, as she appeared to appieciate the RllUSiC. were struck at once by Willia¥ns's skillful song- writing ability,

The narrator compares the sound of Williams's words to the sound of: 'a scale between five parallel lines" (line 75). 'coins dropped into a deep clear pool" (llnes 76-77). "that lonesome whippoorwill" (line 81). 'the midnight train" Oine 82).

As it is used in line 71, the word unwinds most nearly tueans:

The narrator uses the simile in lines 73-79 to describe Williams's ability to.. convey his depth of feeling. write songs that require a variety of instruTnents. train his voice to make unique sounds.

Based on the passage, how old was the narritor when he met Williams? . A. Threc

It is most reasonable to infer from the passage that the narrator gains an appreciation of WilliaEns's music pri- marily as a r¢sult of: r, Williams's friendliness on the day they met. encouragement from his brother and father. seeing Williatns perform in conèert, ACT.68G 35 GO ON TO THE NEXT P Passage IV NATURAL SCIENCE: This passago Is adapted from The Vari- ely of Life by Colln Tudge ((È2000 by Oxford University Press). Through aLI classification systeEns, whether devised by songbirds, professors of botany, or fishmon- ger8, two separate sets of considerations run in parallel. The first is operational: how do you actuaLly go about 5 classifyillg? What criterka do you adopt to decid'e whether item A belongs in category X or category Y? A songbird weighing up a bird of prey perhaps Looks for curvature of beak or lenuth of claw-or, more probably, relies on overall impression or gestalt. and by such 10 means it distinguishes a falcon from a duck. For chefs, succulence on the inside and a crunchy carapace on the outside are the marks of shellfish. If the crlteria ale made explicit: and can be repeated by other people simply by following the 15 instructions-if, for example, Lhcy depend on qualities that can be measured and are not judÉyed simply accord- ing to personaL taste-then those criteria can be called 'objectiv,e' But objective criteria may also be arbitrary. I mioht, for exampLe, decree that all insects with legs 20 over 2 centimetres long should be placed in a new grouping called 'mega-insects' The criterion would be . perfectly objective, in the sense that it is explicit and repeatable. which would not be the case if I simply decreed that there should be a special category marked 25 'beautifuL', But although the grouping of mega-insects would be objectively defined it would also be arbitrary. Nothing very special distinguishes insects that just happen to bc large, except their largeness. Behind all classifications, too, there is inevitably a 30 philosophy. All classifications impose some view of the world.. they aLI' make a statement. Thus a chef regards the Universe as a market., the ihings within it are divided up according to edibility and Miholesomeness. A songbird is concerned with food, too, but also with 35 enemies and potential mates. The many classific&tions devised by scientists, histOTically, have pursued various philosophies. Whatever criteria we adopt, howevei", and what- ever we are classifying and for'whatever purpose, all 40 classifications tend to follow a common pattern. The items in question are lirst divided into big categories, and then each big category is divided into smallei" cate- gories, and so on. The result is a series of nesting groups called a hierarchy.. little ones grouped within 45 bigger oncs within bigger OE]es still. Classifications, in short, tend to be hierarchical. Ad hoc ways of categorizing livinu things are useful. Long may they persist. Practical people doing practical things need to carve up the world in their own 50 ways, and it is not For outsiders 10 cavil. The flesh of abalones (ear shells) and of lobsters are comparably tender even Rf those creatures are less closeLy related to each other than eagles are lo sea squirts., so why not call them both 'shellfish?? A 'weed' is a useful category, as 55 any farmer will aitest. Each system of classification casts its own light upon the world. lay different classifi- calions side by sid¢ and you illuminate from different angles, and truly begin to see in three dimensions. But it is one thing simply to manipulate aspects of 60 nature for OL]r own convenienc¢, and another'to seek understanding, Of course, deeper understanding can lead to more subtle exploitafion-and thus it is, for example, that increasing knowledge of microbes on the one hand and of the operation of DNA on the other, is 65 currently bringing us the mixed but in general momen- tous benefits of biotechnology. But for inie biologists, the real pleasure comes simply from knowing, and fTom the sense of coming closer to other living things. I am defining 'biologists' broadly: to include naturalists, in 70 the old-fashioned sense, who like simply to observe nature, and scientksts, who seek to explakn Its workings by proposing hypotheses and then testing them out. True biologists seek something more in nature than mere utility, They feel in their bones, and all their 75 senses proclaim, that there is an order among living things. and it is this 'natural' order that they seek to reflect in their classifications. They feel, too, that there should be criteria foi classification that ￿"e not simply arbitrary, but reflect some real and important affilia- 80 tions. Thus, what is often called 'natural ci&ssificationrf is based on what biologists construe as the undcrlying order of nature. or that is the intention. Biologists (bkoadly defined) have been seeking to devise such a classification at least since the lime of the Greek 85 philosopher Aristotle.

The primary purpose of the passage is to: examine the hierarchical pattern for classifying items, view of the world and those that reflect a natural order. examine the similarities alld differences between how naturalists and biologists classify items. tions and usefulness of, a system of classification.

The main function of the second paragraph (lines 13-28) in relation to the passag¢ as a whole is to: ness of objective ciiteria. introduce a new scientific concept that the rcmain- der of the passage explores. argue the need far subjective ci"iteria, such as beauty, when classifying items. restate a SUTprising fact about ihe origin of classi- fication 8ygtem8, 36 GO ON TO THE NEXT P GE. ACT-68G

The author mentions abalones and lobsters in the fifth paragEaph (lines 47-58) piimarily to: explain the dissiJnilariiy between the two types of sea creatures. criticize the impractical classification systems developed by laypeople, convince the reader that 'shellfish" is a useless classification. show that people's ¢veryday categorization8 are useful in meeting their particular needs.

Source question 34. Refer to the source image.

Accoiding to the passage, the second step in establish- Ing a series of nestill￿ groups is io.. separate the items in question into equal groups. ieview subgroups for overlappiiig characteiistics. END OF TEST 3 GE UNTIL TOLD TO DO SO. T RETURN TO A PREVI UST STOP! DO NOT TURN THE P ACT-68G 37

As it is used in line 49, the phrase carve up m08t nearly means. minimize. analyze. inscribe.

In the context of the passage, the phrase "illllminate from different angles" (lines 57-58) most nearly sug- gests that different classification systems: convey contiadictory information that Is confusing to people. than others. people's understanding. can be positioned side by side to pinpoint an item'8 most important feature. 34, According to the passage, a true biologist seeks all of the following EXCEPT: a sense of coming closer to other living things. classifications that are rllainly utilitarian. classification CTlteria that aie both genuine and important. a natural order among living things.

The passage indicates that old-fashioned natUTalist3 differ from scientists in that naturalists,. about it. seem to care more deeply about nature than scien- tists do. ar¢ morc interested in manipulating aspects of nature than understanding it. seek to explain the intricate workings of nature through scientific tests,

Suppose a dog traincr typically divides her clients, dogs into two groups. "easy to train" and 'difficult to train,, based on her initial impressions of each dog on the first day of training. Based on the passage, the author would most likely describe this classification system as: objective and easily repeated by others. arbitrary and not useful to the trainer. inforinal and illappropriately unscientifkc.