A county environmental office published the following recycling rates (percentage of each material recovered): Paper: 22% (1985), 31% (1990), 40% (1995). Glass: 18% (1985), 21% (1990), 23% (1995). Aluminum: 35% (1985), 48% (1990), 51% (1995). Plastic: 6% (1985), 8% (1990), 10% (1995). Which statement is best supported by the data?

Aluminum led in every year shown, while paper made the largest gain over the full period

Between 1990 and 1995, glass recycling grew faster in percentage points than aluminum recycling

Paper’s recycling rate rose steadily enough that it had surpassed aluminum’s rate by 1995

By 1995, at least half of every material listed was being recovered by the county’s program

A poet of the 1920s who drew on the rhythms of jazz and the blues to portray everyday Black life in the city is best identified with which writer and movement?

Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance

Edwin Arlington Robinson and American Realism

Ernest Hemingway and the Lost Generation

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the Fireside Poets

A high school student is beginning a research project on how artificial light at night affects birds that migrate through her town. Which research question is most effectively focused for a ten-page research paper?

How has nighttime lighting in the Riverside business district affected the number of migrating songbirds recorded there each autumn?

What is light pollution, and where does it come from?

Why are birds important to the environment and to people?

How does light pollution affect animals, plants, human health, energy use, and local economies in cities and towns throughout the world?

Which piece of evidence, added after sentence 2, would be most relevant and persuasive to the city council?

A survey of 400 Oakdale High School students found that 62 percent would use a skate park at least once a week.

Skateboarding first became popular in California during the 1950s and 1960s.

A famous professional skateboarder once said in a magazine interview that skating changed his life and kept him out of trouble.

My friends and I all agree that skateboarding is the best sport there is.

Which planned visit complies with every requirement in the table?

Viewing 15 photographs while wearing nitrile gloves, requested four days in advance

Viewing 6 manuscripts with a pencil, requested three days in advance

Viewing 4 oversize maps with staff assistance, requested ten days in advance

Viewing 8 books printed before 1800 without supports, requested two days in advance

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales presents pilgrims ranging from a Knight and a Prioress to a Miller and a Plowman, each sketched in the General Prologue. Which statement best describes how the work reflects its late-fourteenth-century context?

It satirizes the medieval estates, exposing gaps between social roles and conduct.

It celebrates the Protestant Reformation’s challenge to the authority of the Church.

It imitates classical epic in order to glorify the reigning Tudor monarchy.

It rejects vernacular English in favor of Latin, the language of learned readers.

A student is writing a research paper on how the muralist Aaron Douglas developed his visual style during the Harlem Renaissance. Which source would be a primary source for this paper?

A letter Douglas wrote to a patron in the late 1920s describing his plans for a mural

A biography of Douglas published in the 1990s, drawing on interviews with his former students

An encyclopedia entry summarizing the major artists of the Harlem Renaissance

A documentary film in which museum curators discuss Douglas’s best-known works

A student is choosing a claim for an argumentative essay about museum collections that include artifacts taken from other countries. Which claim is most effective as the thesis of an argumentative essay?

Museums should return artifacts taken without their communities’ consent, because keeping them prolongs the injustice of their removal.

Many large European and American museums hold artifacts that originally came from countries in Africa, Asia, the Pacific islands, and the Americas.

Every museum in the world should immediately give back every object in its collection that came from another country.

Ancient artifacts are some of the most beautiful objects ever made, and everyone should visit a museum to see them.

TX PACT ELAs and Reading 7-12 (731)

Free TX PACT ELAs and Reading Practice Questions

10 sample questions for the TX PACT ELAs and Reading 7-12 (731), with the correct answer and an explanation for each. No account needed. Try each one before you open the answer.

Sections covered on the exam: Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, and Reading Various Text Forms, Analyzing and Interpreting Literature, English and Language Usage, Modes of Writing, Oral and Visual Communication.

Question 1 · Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, and Reading Various Text Forms
The senator dismissed the proposed zoning code as antediluvian, a relic of a regulatory philosophy that predated automobiles, electric lighting, and indoor plumbing.
Based on its Latin roots (ante- meaning “before” and diluvium meaning “flood”) and the context, antediluvian most nearly means
- A.hopelessly outdated
- B.reckless and impractical
- C.deliberately deceptive
- D.excessively intricate
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. hopelessly outdated
The prefix ante- (“before”) and the root diluvium (“flood”) literally mean “before the Flood,” and the sentence reinforces this sense of extreme age by calling the code a relic that predated automobiles and electric lighting. “Excessively intricate” may describe many zoning codes, but nothing in the roots or the context points to complexity.
Question 2 · Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, and Reading Various Text Forms
A county environmental office published the following recycling rates (percentage of each material recovered):
Paper: 22% (1985), 31% (1990), 40% (1995). Glass: 18% (1985), 21% (1990), 23% (1995). Aluminum: 35% (1985), 48% (1990), 51% (1995). Plastic: 6% (1985), 8% (1990), 10% (1995).
Which statement is best supported by the data?
- A.Between 1990 and 1995, glass recycling grew faster in percentage points than aluminum recycling
- B.Aluminum led in every year shown, while paper made the largest gain over the full period
- C.Paper’s recycling rate rose steadily enough that it had surpassed aluminum’s rate by 1995
- D.By 1995, at least half of every material listed was being recovered by the county’s program
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Aluminum led in every year shown, while paper made the largest gain over the full period
Aluminum leads in all three years (35, 48, and 51 percent), and paper rose 18 percentage points, more than aluminum’s 16 or the 4–5 point gains for glass and plastic. Between 1990 and 1995, glass rose only 2 points while aluminum rose 3, so glass did not grow faster.
Question 3 · Analyzing and Interpreting Literature
A poet of the 1920s who drew on the rhythms of jazz and the blues to portray everyday Black life in the city is best identified with which writer and movement?
- A.Edwin Arlington Robinson and American Realism
- B.Ernest Hemingway and the Lost Generation
- C.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the Fireside Poets
- D.Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance
Langston Hughes, in collections such as The Weary Blues (1926), adapted jazz and blues forms to depict urban Black experience, making him a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Hemingway was active in the 1920s as well, but he was an expatriate fiction writer known for spare prose, not jazz-inflected poetry.
Question 4 · English and Language Usage
A high school student is beginning a research project on how artificial light at night affects birds that migrate through her town.
Which research question is most effectively focused for a ten-page research paper?
- A.What is light pollution, and where does it come from?
- B.Why are birds important to the environment and to people?
- C.How does light pollution affect animals, plants, human health, energy use, and local economies in cities and towns throughout the world?
- D.How has nighttime lighting in the Riverside business district affected the number of migrating songbirds recorded there each autumn?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. How has nighttime lighting in the Riverside business district affected the number of migrating songbirds recorded there each autumn?
An effective research question is narrow enough to investigate thoroughly, open enough to require analysis, and tied to evidence that can actually be found. The question about the Riverside district names a specific place, population, and measurable effect. The worldwide question is analytical but far too broad to answer in ten pages, and the other two call only for definitions or general facts.
Question 5 · Modes of Writing
Which piece of evidence, added after sentence 2, would be most relevant and persuasive to the city council?
- A.Skateboarding first became popular in California during the 1950s and 1960s.
- B.A famous professional skateboarder once said in a magazine interview that skating changed his life and kept him out of trouble.
- C.My friends and I all agree that skateboarding is the best sport there is.
- D.A survey of 400 Oakdale High School students found that 62 percent would use a skate park at least once a week.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. A survey of 400 Oakdale High School students found that 62 percent would use a skate park at least once a week.
Local survey data shows demand among the residents the park would serve, which speaks directly to the council's decision. The professional skateboarder's quotation offers testimony, but it reflects one person's experience and gives no evidence about Oakdale's needs.
Question 6 · Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, and Reading Various Text Forms
Read the passage below; then answer the question that follows.
After the Norman Conquest of 1066, French became the language of England’s ruling class for roughly three centuries. One lasting result is a set of word pairs in which an Old English word names a living animal, while a French-derived word names its meat as served at the table: cow and beef, swine and pork, sheep and mutton.
Which word pair follows the same pattern described in the passage?
- A.hound and dog
- B.ship and boat
- C.deer and venison
- D.sky and cloud
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. deer and venison
Deer comes from Old English, while venison entered English from Old French and names the animal’s meat, matching the cow/beef pattern. Hound and dog are both native Germanic words for the same living animal, so that pair shows no Norman French influence. The other pairs likewise involve no animal-versus-meat split.
Question 7 · Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, and Reading Various Text Forms
Which planned visit complies with every requirement in the table?
- A.Viewing 6 manuscripts with a pencil, requested three days in advance
- B.Viewing 15 photographs while wearing nitrile gloves, requested four days in advance
- C.Viewing 4 oversize maps with staff assistance, requested ten days in advance
- D.Viewing 8 books printed before 1800 without supports, requested two days in advance
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Viewing 15 photographs while wearing nitrile gloves, requested four days in advance
Fifteen photographs is within the limit of 20, four days exceeds the 72-hour notice, and gloves meet the handling rule. The map visit has enough notice and assistance but exceeds the limit of 3 maps. The manuscript visit exceeds the limit of 5, and the book visit violates the foam-support rule.
Question 8 · Analyzing and Interpreting Literature
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales presents pilgrims ranging from a Knight and a Prioress to a Miller and a Plowman, each sketched in the General Prologue. Which statement best describes how the work reflects its late-fourteenth-century context?
- A.It celebrates the Protestant Reformation’s challenge to the authority of the Church.
- B.It imitates classical epic in order to glorify the reigning Tudor monarchy.
- C.It rejects vernacular English in favor of Latin, the language of learned readers.
- D.It satirizes the medieval estates, exposing gaps between social roles and conduct.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. It satirizes the medieval estates, exposing gaps between social roles and conduct.
Chaucer’s portraits of nobility, clergy, and commoners form an estates satire, exposing, for example, the worldliness of the Monk and the greed of the Pardoner. The Tudor dynasty began nearly a century later and the Reformation more than a century later, so those choices are anachronistic. The work is notable precisely for its use of Middle English rather than Latin or French.
Question 9 · English and Language Usage
A student is writing a research paper on how the muralist Aaron Douglas developed his visual style during the Harlem Renaissance.
Which source would be a primary source for this paper?
- A.A biography of Douglas published in the 1990s, drawing on interviews with his former students
- B.An encyclopedia entry summarizing the major artists of the Harlem Renaissance
- C.A documentary film in which museum curators discuss Douglas’s best-known works
- D.A letter Douglas wrote to a patron in the late 1920s describing his plans for a mural
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. A letter Douglas wrote to a patron in the late 1920s describing his plans for a mural
A primary source is a firsthand document created by a participant during the period studied, and Douglas’s own letter about his mural plans fits that definition. The documentary is tempting because it shows his works, but the curators’ commentary interprets them after the fact, making it a secondary source. The biography and encyclopedia entry are also later interpretations or summaries.
Question 10 · Modes of Writing
A student is choosing a claim for an argumentative essay about museum collections that include artifacts taken from other countries.
Which claim is most effective as the thesis of an argumentative essay?
- A.Many large European and American museums hold artifacts that originally came from countries in Africa, Asia, the Pacific islands, and the Americas.
- B.Museums should return artifacts taken without their communities’ consent, because keeping them prolongs the injustice of their removal.
- C.Every museum in the world should immediately give back every object in its collection that came from another country.
- D.Ancient artifacts are some of the most beautiful objects ever made, and everyone should visit a museum to see them.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Museums should return artifacts taken without their communities’ consent, because keeping them prolongs the injustice of their removal.
A strong argumentative claim is debatable, appropriately qualified, and supported by a reason; this claim limits itself to objects removed without consent and states why. The statement about where artifacts are held is a verifiable fact, so there is nothing to argue. The demand to return “every object” is so absolute that it is easily refuted, and the last choice is a matter of taste.

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