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English 6–12

Multiple-Choice Section

Test Format and Sample Questions

The English 6 to 12 Multiple-Choice Section contains approximately 60 multiple-choice items. You will have one and one-half hours to complete this section.

Each of the questions in the multiple-choice section will contain four response options. You will choose the best response out of the available options, and indicate A, B, C, or D.

The table below presents types of questions on the exam and directs you to examples of these formats among the sample items that follow.

Table of Question Formats

Type of Question Sample Question
Direct question
Choose the response option that best answers the question. 		Question 1
Sentence completion
Select the response option that best completes the sentence. 		Question 3
Text Analysis
Study a text and identify a literary feature, such as a figure of speech, style, form, or function, by choosing the best response option. 		Question 12
Command
Select the best response option. 		Question 16
Scenario
Examine a classroom situation or a student composition. Then select the response option that best answers a question, recommends a course of action, or gives the appropriate evaluation or teacher comment. 		Question 20

Sample Questions

The following questions represent both the form and content of questions on the examination. These questions will acquaint you with the general format of the examination; however, these sample questions do not cover all of the competencies and skills that are tested and will only approximate the degree of examination difficulty.

Question 1

Competency 1—Knowledge of effective use of the English language at the postsecondary level

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

The words gothic, vandal, and turret represent which of the following influences on language?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 2

Competency 1—Knowledge of effective use of the English language at the postsecondary level

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Determine the effect of the use of a semicolon in the student writing sample.

Beowulf is widely regarded as the oldest literary work in the English language. While technically true, this distinction is misleading; Beowulf was written in Old English.

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 3

Competency 1—Knowledge of effective use of the English language at the postsecondary level

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

In a literary text, a willful character was described as arbitrary. Students were confused, because their common definition and usage of arbitrary is random or inconsistent. The best resource to confirm the multiple meanings of "arbitrary" is a(an)

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 4

Competency 1—Knowledge of effective use of the English language at the postsecondary level

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

In the word intractable, the Latin root is tract, meaning pull or draw, and its suffix indicates its use as an adjective. Judging from the prefix in, what does the word mean?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 5

Competency 2—Knowledge and understanding of communication skills, techniques, and processes

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A student would like to write an essay about a personal event. This demonstrates which of the following types of essay?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 6

Competency 2—Knowledge and understanding of communication skills, techniques, and processes

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Which of the following include examples of common logical fallacies utilized when analyzing argument?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 7

Competency 2—Knowledge and understanding of communication skills, techniques, and processes

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Which question should a student be focusing on during the revising stage of writing?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 8

Competency 3—Knowledge of literacy processes and instructional practices

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

In the sentence, "Because they made a $300 profit, the young entrepreneurs were content with the outcome of their fundraiser," which strategy should students use to learn the meaning of the italicized word?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 9

Competency 3—Knowledge of literacy processes and instructional practices

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Which of the following instructional strategies is most effective for enhancing a student's reading comprehension of an academic text?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 10

Competency 3—Knowledge of literacy processes and instructional practices

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

When targeting words to be used in vocabulary instruction, the teacher should select words

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 11

Competency 3—Knowledge of literacy processes and instructional practices

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

What does the following discussion question exemplify?

In what way are Romeo and Juliet, Cry, the Beloved Country, and Newton's third law (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) connected?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 12

Competency 4—Knowledge of a wide range of literary and informational texts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

What literary device is illustrated by the excerpt below?

The solitude, vast, terrible to the eye,
was like a mute avenger everywhere. . . .

Hugo, V. (1991). Russia 1812, from The Expiation (R. Lowell, Trans.). In Prentice Hall literature: World masterpieces (annotated teacher's ed., p. 888). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. (Original work published 1853)

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 13

Competency 4—Knowledge of a wide range of literary and informational texts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Read the excerpt and answer the question below.

On the day of my first public poetry reading . . . in Miami . . . an older woman motioned me to her table. Thinking (foolish me) that she wanted me to autograph a copy of my brand new slender volume of verse, I went over. She ordered a cup of coffee from me, assuming that I was the waitress.

From Cofer, Judith Ortiz. "I Just Met a Girl Named Maria" The Latin Deli: Prose and Poetry. University of Georgia Press © 1993 by Judith Ortiz Cofer.

Which literary device is used in this excerpt?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 14

Competency 4—Knowledge of a wide range of literary and informational texts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Read the excerpt below and answer the question.

The rainy Pleiads wester,
     Orion plunges prone,
And midnight strikes and hastens,
     And I lie down alone.

Housman, A.E. (1936). The rainy Pleiads wester. In More Poems (p. 21). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

The allusions the poet makes in this excerpt are to

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 15

Competency 4—Knowledge of a wide range of literary and informational texts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

An instructional unit including the works of John Keats, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Frost, and Nikki Giovanni exemplifies

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 16

Competency 4—Knowledge of a wide range of literary and informational texts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Select the writer who lived in Eatonville, Florida, who became a member of the Harlem Renaissance, and whose writing reflects her study of anthropology.

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 17

Competency 4—Knowledge of a wide range of literary and informational texts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

In his speech I Have a Dream, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. refers to the Biblical passage of Isaiah 40:4–5. This reference is an example of the literary element

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 18

Competency 4—Knowledge of a wide range of literary and informational texts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

If a text contains transitional signal words such as consequently, therefore, and thus, then that text is most likely illustrating which type of structure?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 19

Competency 4—Knowledge of a wide range of literary and informational texts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

After reading a poem with his students, a high school English teacher asks them the questions below.

To which of the following poetic elements do these questions refer?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 20

Competency 5—Knowledge of effective techniques for listening, viewing, speaking, and presenting

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A 10th-grade student has been selected to deliver a speech introducing a local author who has come to speak to an English class. In preparing the speech of introduction, which are the most appropriate guidelines for the student to follow?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 21

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogical content for teaching English language arts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

To improve awareness of the intended audience's effect on writing, the teacher should

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 22

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogical content for teaching English language arts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Below is the first paragraph of a student composition.

Many people do not care for snakes, but I like them. Some of the kinds of snakes are poisonous, nonpoisonous, rattleskakes, garter snakes, and water mocasins. Usually, snaks wo'nt hurt you unless they are frightened.

Which set of teacher comments would be most productive?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 23

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogical content for teaching English language arts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

While reading a novel, a teacher would like students to reflect on the text as they read. Which of the following is the most appropriate method?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 24

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogical content for teaching English language arts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

What resource would be most effective for a teacher to use to help students practice interpreting nonverbal cues as an aid to effective listening?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 25

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogical content for teaching English language arts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Which statement should a teacher use as an example of a writer's attempt to persuade or manipulate the audience?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 26

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogical content for teaching English language arts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

During a study of political cartoons as commentary, the teacher wants to ensure that students understand the persuasive elements of cartoons. The most effective assignment would be for the students to

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 27

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogical content for teaching English language arts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

To evaluate students' knowledge of gerund phrases with an alternative assessment, the teacher should have the students

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 28

Competency 7—Knowledge of various assessments and use of assessment data to drive instructional decisions within English language arts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

What is the most effective technique for testing students' knowledge and application of literary terms?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 29

Competency 7—Knowledge of various assessments and use of assessment data to drive instructional decisions within English language arts

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Which type of literature assessment involves small, student-led book discussion groups that the teacher evaluates on collaboration, participation, progress in reading skills, and products?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.