ACT Prep Quiz

I grew up with buckets, shovels, and nets waiting by the back door; hip-waders hanging in the closet; tide table charts covering the refrigerator door; 

• No Change
• waiting, by the back door,
• waiting by the back door,
• waiting by the back door

and a microscope was sitting on the kitchen table.

• sitting
• No Change
• sat
• was sitting

Having studied, my mother is a marine biologist. Our household might 

• My mother is
• As my mother’s interest is science, she is
• No Change
• My mother’s occupation is that of

Our meals weren’t always served in the expected order of breakfast, lunch, and supper. Which choice would most effectively introduce the rest of this paragraph?

• No Change
• There seemed to be no explanation for why Mom ran our household the way she did.
• Our household didn’t run according to a typical schedule.
• Mom ran our household in a most spectacular manner.

Everything was subservient to the disposal of the tides. When the tide was low, Mom could be found down on the mudflats. 

• No Change 
• was defenseless in the face of
• depended on
• trusted in

I have great respect for my mother. I learned early that the moon affected the tides. 

• No Change
• Our lives were likewise affected by the phases of the moon.
• A relationship exists between the moon and the tides.
• The moon is a mysterious orb afloat in the sky.

The moon being aligned with Earth and the sun when full or new,

• No Change
• The moon is
• Since the moon is
• The moon,

 so its gravity combines with the sun’s gravity to create an even stronger gravitational pull.

• No Change
• one's
• its
• it's

 I knew that it took about eight hours for the tides to change from high to low, sixteen hours for a complete cycle of tides.If the writer were to delete the phrase “sixteen hours for a complete cycle of tides” from the preceding sentence (ending the sentence with a period), the essay would primarily lose a detail that: 

• shows how the narrator’s interests are different from the mother’s interests.
• displays the narrator’s knowledge of tides.
• helps establish the setting for the essay.
• contradicts a point made earlier in the paragraph.

Often, my brother and I, joined our mother on her adventures into tidal lands. [2] At the very low tides of the full moon, 

• brother, and I
• brother and I
• brother, and I,
• NO CHANGE