Act Reading Test

The point of view from which the passage is told is best described as that of:

• a young adult riding a train through the small towns of the Upper Midwest.

• a young adult preparing to move away from her hometown.

• an adult missing the new home she has established.

• an adult reflecting on the past and pondering the present

The passage contains recurring references to all of the following EXCEPT:

• dreams

• reunion scenes

• photographs

• train trips

The first three paragraphs (lines 1–21) establish all of the following about the narrator EXCEPT that she is:

• passing through a number of towns.

• originally from Chicago.

• traveling by train.

• observant of the landscape

It can reasonably be inferred from the passage that the narrator thinks her hometown has:

• improved significantly over the years.

• made little genuine progress.

• remained about the same as it was years ago

• a chance of being rebuilt as it used to be.

It can reasonably be inferred from the passage that the narrator thinks her hometown has:

• improved significantly over the years.

• made little genuine progress.

• remained about the same as it was years ago

• a chance of being rebuilt as it used to be.

Based on the narrator’s account, all of the following were part of the past, rather than the present, in her hometown EXCEPT:

• four-digit phone numbers

• the fenced-in football field

• free ice cream during dairy month.

• the depot.

According to the narrator, which of the following businesses is relatively new to her hometown?

• the tanning salon

• the bait shop

• the dry goods store

• the used-card lot

When the narrator refers to the cosmonaut as “a man without a country” (lines 83–84), she is most likely directly referring to the:

• cosmonaut’s feeling that he is now a citizen of space, not the former Soviet Union.

• cosmonaut’s unrealized expectation that he will be treated like a hero

• political transformation that occurred while the cosmonaut was in space.

• . sixteen months that the cosmonaut spent in orbit around Earth.

Details in the passage most strongly suggest that the people meeting the narrator at the train station include:

• her father

• her sister

• a neighbor

• a journalist

The narrator indicates that the most significant change to her hometown has been the addition of:

• square dancing

• vinyl storefronts

• benches on Main Street

• Las Vegas–style gambling.