All GED Language Arts (RLA) Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #311 : Ged Language Arts (Rla)
1 Overfishing is a serious threat [Question 1]. 2 Essentially, it means that humans are depleting the ocean’s supply of fish, crustaceans, sea mammals, kelps, and other [Question 2]. 3 The problem [Question 3] when sailors killed vast numbers of whales for their valuable blubber. 4 Since then, industrial fishing fleets and increased consumer demand have led to [Question 4] everything from sharks to blue fin tuna. 5 Even species that are not typically eaten [Question 5] have become accidental “bycatch” and are thereby threatened with endangerment. 6 If the process is not reversed soon, [Question 6].
What is the correct way to complete Sentence 6?
scientists predict that every oceanic ecosystem will have collapsed by the year 2050
scientists predict that the collapse of every oceanic ecosystem by the year 2050
it is predicted by scientists that every oceanic ecosystem will have collapsed by the year 2050
scientists predicting the collapse of every oceanic ecosystem by the year 2050
scientists, having predicted that every oceanic ecosystem will collapse, estimate that this disaster will occur by the year 2050
scientists predict that every oceanic ecosystem will have collapsed by the year 2050
Some of these choices are overly wordy: “it is predicted by scientists that every oceanic ecosystem will have collapsed by the year 2050” and “scientists, having predicted that every oceanic ecosystem will collapse, estimate that this disaster will occur by the year 2050.” Others are simply grammatically incorrect: “scientists predict that the collapse of every oceanic ecosystem by the year 2050” leads to a sentence fragment, as does “scientists predicting the collapse of every oceanic ecosystem by the year 2050.”
Example Question #72 : Syntax
Adapted from As You Like It by William Shakespeare (1623)
[This is a monologue by the character Jacques]
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like a snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like a furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.
To what does the underlined phrase refer?
morning
satchel
every man and woman
face
school-boy
school-boy
Although the participial phrase "creeping like a snail . . ." comes directly after "face," this latter word is not the antecedent for the phrase. Generally, we do place participial phrases directly after their antecedents. For instance, we would say, "The boy, walking to the park, decided to get some soda." Here, "walking to the park," describes, "boy." In our sentence, the phrase comes at some distance from its antecedent. However, context and meaning clearly indicate that it is referring to the school-boy, who is the one that is creeping along to school with such reluctance.
Example Question #312 : Ged Language Arts (Rla)
Adapted from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, III.ii.82-117 (1599)
[This is a speech by Mark Antony.]
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest-
For Brutus is an honorable man;
So are they all, all honorable men-
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutus says he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honorable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honorable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal [a public festival]
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,
And sure he is an honorable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause;
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
What is the function of the underlined expression, "Friends, Romans, countrymen"?
It is the subject of the sentence.
To announce the names of those being called to a meeting.
It is the predicate of the sentence.
To express the people being addressed in the speech.
To call out the perpetrators of Caesar's murder.
To express the people being addressed in the speech.
Notice several things in this question. First, we have three classes of people (or three names for one class): "friends," "Romans," and "countrymen." Furthermore, the last of these are separated from the main clause by a comma. You can find the main clause by looking for the part of the sentence that can "stand on its own." That portion is: "Lend me your ears." This is an imperative statement. It is a command by Mark Antony and is the main clause. The list of people is separated from this by a comma because they are three nouns of direct address. They are the people whom he is addressing. The context provided by the sentence and its grammar—without the further context of the play—is all that is necessary to figure this out.
Example Question #314 : Ged Language Arts (Rla)
Coupons
Are you trying to stick to a budget? Using coupons for [61] purchases, also known as “couponing” is a great way to save money on groceries. [62] Coupons are a little piece of paper that can give you a discount on what you buy. You will be amazed at the [63] great bargains and amazing savings you can get!
It’s easy to get started. [64] When you open up your daily newspaper, one might find a glossy insert full of coupons. [65] Some of the coupons will be for things you don’t buy, some will be for things you buy all the time. Go through the coupons and [66] chop out the ones you can use.
The key to successful couponing is getting multiple copies of coupon circulars. Ask [67] your friends, your neighbors, and family if they have any extras. Some coupon users even go through the recycling at their office to find more coupons! [68] Completely devoted, these circulars help coupon users to get even more savings.
Couponing might sound like hard work, but for [69] many people, it’s also a hobby. Not only does it help them save hundreds of dollars per year, [70] but instead it gives them a fun challenge every time they do their shopping.
Is there perhaps a greater value to a life lived without constant counting, penny-pinching, and miserliness? [71] But of what value are such savings? [72] At the end of the day; money is a construct, invented by the elite for the sole purpose of controlling the populace. [73] If we accept this fundamental truth, it behooves one to question the monetary structures that control our lives. Indeed, from this perspective, the very practice of couponing might seem a venial distraction from the valuable human endeavor of personal philosophical consideration. [74]
The papers we pore over should be in our books; the pennies we save should be in the currency of our happiness; [75] the budget we have made should have been a budget of our contentment.
A sort of couponing of the soul might ultimately be the solution.
Choose the answer that best corrects section [61].
purchases, also known as "couponing," is
purchases; also known as "couponing," is
NO CHANGE
purchases, also known as "couponing." Is
purchases, also known as "couponing," is
This question asks you to correct an interrupting phrase error. An interrupting phrase is a phrase that provides extra information, but can be removed without changing the sentence. These phrases should be surrounded on either side by commas. In the original text, the second comma after "couponing" is missing.
Example Question #74 : Syntax
Read the passage and answer the question below
Dear Congressman Phillips,
I urge you to reconsider your closure of the shipyard. I'm a medical practitioner in the area, I meet many of the men and women employed by the facility. Many of these people are living paycheck to paycheck, unable to afford regular medical care; any gap in their employment could be devastating. If you must see it economically, consider the tremendous cost to the taxpayers when these people must rely on public programs for assistance. I ask you to please keep this shipyard open.
Very truly yours, . . .
What is another way to write this sentence?
I meet many of the men and women employed by the facility that are medical practitioners.
I'm a medical practitioner in the area, and I meet many of the men and women employed by the facility.
I'm a medical practitioner in the area and meet many of the men and women employed by the facility.
I'm a medical practitioner in the area and I meet many of the men and women employed by the facility.
I'm a medical practitioner in the area, and I meet many of the men and women employed by the facility.
Removing the comma and replacing it with a conjunction is not quite enough to separate the two clauses, because they are independent. Thus, we must use a comma and a conjunction to separate them, not just one or the other.
Example Question #75 : Syntax
1About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. 2 All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. 3 She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage. 4 But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them. 5 Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any private fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse. 6 Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income in the living of Mansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year. 7 But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a lieutenant of marines, without education, fortune, or connexions, did it very thoroughly. 8 She could hardly have made a more untoward choice.
What style of sentence dominates this passage?
Paratactic
Hypotactic
Telegraphic
Interrogative
Imperative
Hypotactic
Hypotaxis or hypotactic sentences are ones in which clauses are subordinate to other clauses (e.g. “I am late because I overslept”). This is the kind of sentence structure that gives rise to the long, winding syntax of this passage. On the other hand, parataxis or paratactic sentences are ones in which short, simple clauses are placed beside each other without subordination (e.g. “I am late; I overslept”).
Passage adapted from Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (1814)
Example Question #1 : Literary Devices In The Passage
Adapted from As You Like It by William Shakespeare (1623)
[This is a monologue by the character Jacques]
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like a snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like a furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.
Why did the author choose the word "players" in the underlined selection?
To strengthen his earlier claim about the stage
To begin to show the theme about the importance of play in human life
To continue the metaphor of the world being a stage
To introduce the idea of human frivolity
To overcome a prejudice against theatre performers, who are actually just like other human beings
To continue the metaphor of the world being a stage
The word "players" refers to actors as "playing roles." This reading of the word is amply supported both before and after this sentence. Before this, the author speaks of the world as though it were a stage. All men and women are like "players"—i.e. actors and actresses—on this stage of life. Likewise, the following sentence supports this as well, for it speaks of every person having "exits and entrances." This is referring to the way that actors enter and exit the stage during a play.
Example Question #313 : Ged Language Arts (Rla)
Adapted from As You Like It by William Shakespeare (1623)
[This is a monologue by the character Jacques]
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like a snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like a furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.
Why has the author chosen to speak of "seven ages" in the underlined selection?
Because he will be drawing on ancient numerology to show the cyclical pattern of the seven-fold nature of life
Because Shakespeare was still living in a Christian culture for which seven was an important number
As there are seven days in the week, so too are there seven ages in a given man's life
Because he will be providing seven examples of how one person has many roles within a single lifetime
There is absolutely no reason for this specific number
Because he will be providing seven examples of how one person has many roles within a single lifetime
A number of the answer options are a bit ridiculous, providing little to no connection with the actual intent of the author—at least as far as we can tell by reading the passage. The best thing to do is to stick close to the passage and not read too much into it. Throughout the whole monologue, the character describes seven ages of human life, from infancy to old age. Hence, this is why he introduces the topic by mentioning the seven-fold character of human life.
Example Question #2 : Literary Devices In The Passage
Adapted from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, III.ii.82-117 (1599)
[This is a speech by Mark Antony]
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest-
For Brutus is an honorable man;
So are they all, all honorable men-
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutus says he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honorable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honorable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal [a public festival]
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,
And sure he is an honorable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause;
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
What is the speaker doing when he says the underlined words?
He is switching to a new theme.
He is shouting an important fact.
He is diverting the listener's attention.
He is making an aside, perhaps sarcastically.
He is emphasizing an antecedent point.
He is making an aside, perhaps sarcastically.
From the context of this passage, you might not be able to detect the sarcasm with which Mark Antony makes this repeated remark: "For Brutus is an honorable man; So are they all, all honorable men." However, note that the text is preceded and followed by hyphens. Given that these two lines break the flow of the speech, they must be expressed like something of an "aside," not directly part of the speech itself. This interpretation is verified by the use of hyphens, which often mark that kind of device.
Example Question #314 : Ged Language Arts (Rla)
From “The Dead” in Dubliners by James Joyce (1915)
She was fast asleep.
Gabriel, leaning on his elbow, looked for a few moments unresentfully on her tangled hair and half-open mouth, listening to her deep-drawn breath. So she had had that romance in her life: a man had died for her sake. It hardly pained him now to think how poor a part he, her husband, had played in her life. He watched her while she slept as though he and she had never lived together as man and wife. His curious eyes rested long upon her face and on her hair: and, as he thought of what she must have been then, in that time of her first girlish beauty, a strange friendly pity for her entered his soul. He did no like to say even to himself that her face was no longer beautiful but he knew that it was no longer the face for which Michael Furey had braved death.
Perhaps she had not told him all the story. His eyes moved to the chair over which she had thrown some of her clothes. A petticoat string dangled to the floor. One boot stood upright, its limp upper fallen: the fellow of it lay upon its side. He wondered at his riot of emotions of an hour before. From what had it proceeded? From his aunt’s supper, from his own foolish speech, from the wine and dancing, the merry-making when saying good-night in the hall, the pleasure of the walk along the river in the snow. Poor Aunt Julia! She, too, would soon be a shade with the shade of Patrick Morkan and his horse. He had caught that haggard look upon her face for a moment when she was singing Arrayed for the Bridal. Soon, perhaps, he would be sitting in that same drawing-room, dressed in black, his silk hat on his knees. The blinds would be drawn down and Aunt Kate would be sitting beside him, crying and blowing her nose and telling him how Julia had died. He would cast about in his mind for some words that might console her, and would find only lame and useless ones. Yes, yes: that would happen very soon.
The air of the room chilled his shoulders. He stretched himself cautiously along under the sheets and lay down beside his wife. One by one they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age. He thought of how she who lay beside him had locked in her heart for so many years that image of her lover’s eyes when he had told her that he did not wish to live.
Generous tears filled Gabriel’s eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman but he knew that such a feeling must be love. The tears gathered more thickly in his eyes and in the partial darkness he imagined he saw the form of a young man standing under a dripping tree. Other forms were near. His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself which these dead had one time reared and lived in was dissolving and dwindling.
A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
Throughout the passage, the descriptions of people becoming "shades" is a metaphor for __________.
the disillusionment of old age
people becoming ghosts that remain in the world to haunt others
people becoming shadows of their formerly young idealistic selves
people growing more physically tired and weak as they age
the journey towards death
the journey towards death
A metaphor is a literary device in which one one thing represents another thing that is not literally the same. A "shade" is referred to in two instances, both times specifically related to death. In the second paragraph, Gabriel muses that Aunt Julia would soon be a shade, and then imagines the circumstances of her death. In the following paragraph, he says they are all becoming shades, followed by a reflection on death: "Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age."