GED Reading Practice Test 1

Question 1 of 25 (click ‘Next Page’ at the bottom right of the page to go on to the next question.)

Read this excerpt from, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, then answer the questions that follow.

The whooping went on, and in about a minute, I come a-booming down on a cut bank with smoky ghosts of big trees on it, and the current throwed me off to the left and shot by, amongst a lot of snags that fairly roared, the current was tearing by them so swift.

In another second or two it was solid white and still again. I set perfectly still then, listening to my heart thump, and I reckon I didn’t draw a breath while it thumped a hundred.

1. The word __________ best describes the mood in the passage above.

A. eerie
B. hilarious
C. triumphant

Read this excerpt from, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, then answer the questions that follow.

The whooping went on, and in about a minute, I come a-booming down on a cut bank with smoky ghosts of big trees on it, and the current throwed me off to the left and shot by, amongst a lot of snags that fairly roared, the current was tearing by them so swift.

In another second or two it was solid white and still again. I set perfectly still then, listening to my heart thump, and I reckon I didn’t draw a breath while it thumped a hundred.

2. Which of the following describes the relationship between the character and the language of the text?

A. The character’s dialect describes the regional characteristics of the speaker.
B. The run-on sentences show that the character is well-educated.
C. The use of hyperboles help support his true motives.

Fill in the following passage correctly using: their, there, they’re, to, too, two, than, the:

We went 1._____(to/too/two) 2.______(their/they’re/there) house. It was better 3._______(then, than) our house. Megan wanted to come 4._____(to/too/two), but we told her that 5.______(their/they’re/there) was only room for 6.______(to/too/two). 7.________(Then, Than) Roger showed up, and Megan decided she would rather go with him. 8._________(Their/They’re/There) probably on 9.________(their/they’re/there) way to the movies now.

Read the passage, then answer the questions that follows.

(1)Dear students

(2)I am very excited about this year. (3)We have lots of things planned over the course of the year, like a field trip to the museum, a unit in electricity, a year-long reading challenge and a study about your family history. (4)It will be a year filled with fun activities. (5)I promise!

(6)The first day of school will be Monday September 3rd. (6) Our classroom number is 203. (7)I am looking forward to seeing you their!

(6)Enjoy the rest of your summer,
Miss Smith

4. Which of the following would be the best correction to make to Sentence 1?

A. Dear students,
B. Dear Students,
C. dear students.

Read the passage, then answer the question that follows.

(1)Dear students

(2)I am very excited about this year. (3)We have lots of things planned over the course of the year, like a field trip to the museum, a unit in electricity, a year-long reading challenge and a study about your family history. (4)It will be a year filled with fun activities. (5)I promise!

(6)The first day of school will be Monday September 3rd. (6) Our classroom number is 203. (7)I am looking forward to seeing you their!

(6)Enjoy the rest of your summer,
Miss Smith

5. Which of the following would be the best correction for Sentence 7?

A. change the word “their” to “they’re”
B. change the spelling of “field” to “feild”
C. change the word “their” to “there”

Read the passage, then answer the question that follows.

(1)Dear students

(2)I am very excited about this year. (3)We have lots of things planned over the course of the year, like a field trip to the museum, a unit in electricity, a year-long reading challenge and a study about your family history. (4)It will be a year filled with fun activities. (5)I promise!

(6)The first day of school will be Monday September 3rd. (6) Our classroom number is 203. (7)I am looking forward to seeing you their!

(6)Enjoy the rest of your summer,
Miss Smith

6. What is the purpose of the letter?

A. It is a letter written from a principal to the students of his school.
B. It is a letter written from a teacher to the students of her class.
C. It is a letter written from one student to another.

Read the passage and answer the question below:

“Never the idle, pampered doyenne of Mount Vernon, she [Mary Washington] was involved in everything from distilling rose water to gathering ash for making soap. George Washington liked to say that “Virginia ladies pride themselves on the goodness of their bacon,” and Martha derived special pleasure from the ham and bacon cured in their smokehouse. Each day, after an hour dedicated to prayer and meditation, she supervised servants in cooking and cleaning and presided over her sewing circle of slaves, who produced up to twelve hundred yards of homespun cloth yearly. All the while, she retained a folksy, unpretentious style. It was said that even when she wore the same gown for a week, it somehow managed to remain spotless. A woman with a delicate constitution, Martha was often sick for weeks at a time with liver and stomach troubles, known as “bilious fever,” but she ever let illness slow her down in performing her domestic chores.”
Chernow, Ron. Washington A Life. New York: The Penguin Press, 2010. Print.

7. Which of the following are supporting details of the main idea?

A. Martha was often sick for weeks at a time with liver and stomach troubles.
B. Martha sometimes wore the same gown for a week.
C. Martha was involved in distilling rose water and gathering ash for making soap.
D. Both a and b

Read the passage and then answer the question below:

(1)Hello Valued New Employee,

(2)We are so excited that you have joined our company. (3)To best orient you into our company, you will have a week long orientation period.

(4)Karen, a shift manager will lead our new staff orientation, on Monday, December 8th at 9am. (5)For the first three days, the orientation will consist of a wide variety of training courses with other new employees. (6)On day for of your orientation, you will be asked to fill out a voluntary survey. (7)This survey will ask you to rate you’re experiences while attending our training courses. (8)Our company are always aiming to improve, therefore, we appreciate any feedback that you are able to give us.

(9)On day five of your orientation, you will have on-site training with our shift supervisor.

(10)We look forward to seeing you on! And again, welcome to the team!

8. Sentence 4: Karen, a shift manager will lead our new staff orientation, on Monday, December 8th at 9am.

Which correction should be made to sentence 4?

A. Karen a shift manager will lead our new staff orientation, on Monday, December 8th at 9 am.
B. Karen, a shift manager, will lead our new staff orientation, on Monday, December 8th at 9 am.
C. Karen a Shift Manager will lead our new staff orientation, on Monday, December 8th at 9 am.

Read the passage and find the best answer:

(1)Hello Valued New Employee,

(2)We are so excited that you have joined our company. (3)To best orient you into our company, you will have a week long orientation period.

(4)Karen, a shift manager will lead our new staff orientation, on Monday, December 8th at 9am. (5)For the first three days, the orientation will consist of a wide variety of training courses with other new employees. (6)On day for of your orientation, you will be asked to fill out a voluntary survey. (7)This survey will ask you to rate you’re experiences while attending our training courses. (8)Our company are always aiming to improve, therefore, we appreciate any feedback that you are able to give us.

(9)On day five of your orientation, you will have on-site training with our shift supervisor.

(10)We look forward to seeing you on! And again, welcome to the team!

9. Sentence 7: This survey will ask you to rate you’re experiences while attending our training courses.

Which correction should be made to Sentence 7?

A. change “you’re” to “your”
B. change “you’re” to “you are”
C. change “you’re” to “youre”

Read the passage, then answer the question that follows.

(1)Hello Valued New Employee,

(2)We are so excited that you have joined our company. (3)To best orient you into our company, you will have a week long orientation period.

(4)Karen, a shift manager will lead our new staff orientation, on Monday, December 8th at 9am. (5)For the first three days, the orientation will consist of a wide variety of training courses with other new employees. (6)On day for of your orientation, you will be asked to fill out a voluntary survey. (7)This survey will ask you to rate you’re experiences while attending our training courses. (8)Our company are always aiming to improve, therefore, we appreciate any feedback that you are able to give us.

(9)On day five of your orientation, you will have on-site training with our shift supervisor.

(10)We look forward to seeing you on! And again, welcome to the team!

10. Sentence 8: Our company are always aiming to improve, therefore, we appreciate any feedback that you are able to give us.

Which correction should be made to Sentence 8?

A. change “our” to “hour”, so that the sentence would read, “Hour company are always aiming….”
B. change “aiming” to “aims”, so that the sentence would read, “…are always aims to improve….
C. change “are” to “is”, so that the sentence would read, “Our company is always aiming to improve…”

Read the short passage from “The Story of My Life” by Helen Keller, then answer the questions that follow.

As soon as I could spell a few words my teacher gave me slips of cardboard on which were printed words in raised letters. I quickly learned that each printed word stood for an object, an act, or a quality. I had a frame in which I could arrange the words in little sentences; but before I ever put sentences in the frame I used to make them in objects. I found the slips of paper which represented, for example, “doll,” “is,” “on,” “bed” and placed each name on its object; then I put my doll on the bed with the words is, on, bed arranged beside the doll, thus making a sentence of the words, and at the same time carrying out the idea of the sentence with the things themselves.

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One day, Miss Sullivan tells me, I pinned the word girl on my pinafore and stood in the wardrobe. On the shelf I arranged the words, is, in, wardrobe. Nothing delighted me so much as this game. My teacher and I played it for hours at a time. Often everything in the room was arranged in object sentences.

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11. From whose perspective is this excerpt written?

A. Helen’s mother, the parent of a young, blind girl
B. Helen, a young, blind girl learning language
C. Miss Sullivan, a teacher for the blind

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If you missed this question, you should study Point of View. Writers choose a particular point of view to narrate each of their stories. Point of view will vary from one story to the next. Ask yourself, who is telling the story?

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Read the short passage from “The Story of My Life” by Helen Keller, then answer the question that follows.

As soon as I could spell a few words my teacher gave me slips of cardboard on which were printed words in raised letters. I quickly learned that each printed word stood for an object, an act, or a quality. I had a frame in which I could arrange the words in little sentences; but before I ever put sentences in the frame I used to make them in objects. I found the slips of paper which represented, for example, “doll,” “is,” “on,” “bed” and placed each name on its object; then I put my doll on the bed with the words is, on, bed arranged beside the doll, thus making a sentence of the words, and at the same time carrying out the idea of the sentence with the things themselves.

One day, Miss Sullivan tells me, I pinned the word girl on my pinafore and stood in the wardrobe. On the shelf I arranged the words, is, in, wardrobe. Nothing delighted me so much as this game. My teacher and I played it for hours at a time. Often everything in the room was arranged in object sentences.

12. The purpose of this passage might be:

A. To show how a young girl was able to overcome challenges with hard word and inventive ideas.
B. To show that teachers do not get paid enough.
C. To show that even through tactile examples, Helen will never learn what she needs to.

If you missed this question you should study Purpose. The purpose of a story tells you why it was written. Ask yourself, what is the author trying to tell me?

Read the short journal entry below, then answer the question that follows.

(1)When I was seven my sister and I went to summer camp in Arkansas. (2) We spent one month at camp. (3) During that month, we did all sorts of activities, like horseback riding, canoeing and hiking. (4) I spent a lot of time at the stables but my sister did not. (5)While I loved the horses, my sister, on the other hand, was terrified of them!

13. Sentence 1: When I was seven my sister and I went to summer camp in Arkansas.

Which correction would best edit Sentence 1?

A. When I was seven, my sister and I went to summer camp in Arkansas.
B. When I was seven my sister, and I, went to summer camp in Arkansas.
C. When, I was seven, my sister and I went to summer camp, in Arkansas.

If you missed this question you should study comma use after introductory phrases. As a rule of thumb, commas should follow an introductory phrase in order to separate the introductory phrase from the main part of the sentence.

Read the short journal entry below, then answer the question that follows.

(1)When I was seven my sister and I went to summer camp in Arkansas. (2) We spent one month at camp. (3) During that month, we did all sorts of activities, like horseback riding, canoeing and hiking. (4) I spent a lot of time at the stables but my sister did not. (5)While I loved the horses, my sister, on the other hand, was terrified of them!

14. Sentence 4: I spent a lot of time at the stables but my sister did not.

Which correction would best edit Sentence 4?

A. I spent a lot of time at the stable’s but my sister did not
B. I spended a lot of time at the stables but my sister did not.
C. I spent a lot of time at the stables, but my sister did not.

If you missed this question, you should study the use of commas in compound sentences. In a compound sentence, the comma should be placed immediately before the coordinating conjunction.

Read the passage, then answer the question that follows.
Elie Wiesel’s preface to the new translation of his memoir Night””a book about his experience in the Holocaust.

“[…] Night has been received in ways that I never expected. Today, students in high schools and colleges in the United States and elsewhere read it as part of their curriculum….The topic of Auschwitz has become part of mainstream culture. There are films, plays, novels, international conferences, exhibitions, annual ceremonies with the participation of the nation’s officialdom. The most striking example of that is the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.; it has received more than twenty-two million visitors since its inauguration in 1993.

This may be because the public knows that the number of survivors is shrinking daily, and is fascinated by the idea of sharing memories that will soon be lost. For in the end, it is all about memory, its sources and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences.

For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Print.

15. Today, when one visits Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, there are usually survivors of Pearl Harbor there to greet visitors. They have often signed copies of books they’ve written. Based on what Elie Wiesel wrote, why is this so important?

A. The survivors are bearing witness and vitally contributing to our country’s collective memory.
B. One day the survivors will be gone.
C. So that it never happens again.
D. To forget the dead would be like killing them a second time.

If you missed this question, you should study the concept of drawing conclusions. When you draw conclusions from a text, you take the information provided, then apply your own thoughts and ideas to form an overall concluding idea about the text.

Read the passage, then answer the question that follows.

(1)The first manned hot air balloon ride occurred on November 21, 1783 in Paris France. (2)The balloon was manned by pilots Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. (3)The two men were actually brothers. (4)They launched there hot balloon from the center of the city. (5)The brothers flown the hot air balloon for twenty minutes!

16. Sentence 1: The first manned hot air balloon ride occurred on November 21, 1783 in Paris France. Which correction would best edit Sentence 1?

A. The first manned hot air balloon ride occurred on November 21, 1783 in Paris, France.
B. The first manned hot air balloon ride, occurred on November 21, 1783 in Paris France.
C. The first, manned hot air balloon ride occurred on November 21, 1783 in Paris France.

If you missed this question, you should study the use of commas in the names of places. It is necessary to place a comma between the city and country.

Read the passage, then answer the question that follows.

(1)The first manned hot air balloon ride occurred on November 21, 1783 in Paris France. (2)The balloon was manned by pilots Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. (3)The two men were actually brothers. (4)They launched there hot balloon from the center of the city. (5)The brothers flown the hot air balloon for twenty minutes!

17. Sentence 4: They launched there hot balloon from the center of the city. Which would be the best correction for Sentence 4?

A. They launched they’re hot balloon from the center of the city.
B. They launched their hot balloon from the center of the city.
C. They launched theyre hot balloon from the center of the city.

If you missed this question you should study Homonyms. Homonyms are words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings.

Read the passage, then answer the question that follows.

(1)The first manned hot air balloon ride occurred on November 21, 1783 in Paris France. (2)The balloon was manned by pilots Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. (3)The two men were actually brothers. (4)They launched there hot balloon from the center of the city. (5)The brothers flown the hot air balloon for twenty minutes!

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18. Sentence 5: The brothers flown the hot air balloon for twenty minutes! Which would be the best correction for Sentence 5?

A. The brothers flew the hot air balloon for twenty minutes!
B. The hot air balloon was flewn for twenty minutes by the brothers.
C. The brothers flewn the balloon for twenty minutes!

If you missed this question you should study verb tense.It is important that verbs are in agreement with the time frame of the text.

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Read the following passage about the American Revolution, then answer the question that follows.

“The English lost, but it took seven years and a world war to beat them. The effects of the military struggle thus had time to make themselves felt in every corner of the colonies (or states, as they soon began to call themselves). Soldiers, sailors, members of Congress, farmers, town-dwellers, men, women and children, all experienced the war, whether as a bloody struggle on their doorsteps, or as a terrible inflation which upset all the familiar patterns of trade, or as a general scarcity of goods (which was fine for those who produced them, and especially for the farmers who grew the goods the armies needed), or, most of all, as a revolution: an overturning of all the old political ways and means. War hurried on the change and in many cases determined its direction. It could not have done this if victory had come to either side as promptly as was hoped at Philadelphia and Westminster…” (173).
Brogan, Hugh. Longman History of the United States of America. New York: Logman, 1986. Print.

19. If victory in the colonies had not taken so long, what might have been the outcome?

A. Change would have taken longer.
B. The colonists would not have been as united through the war effort.
C. The English would have won
D. Both A. and B.

If you missed this question, you should study the concept of making inferences. Making an inference is your ability to read between the lines. An inference is based on the information provided in the text plus what you have learned about the real world.

Choose the answer that makes the subject and verb agree with one another:

Everybody has to do ________(her, his, their) own assignment.
Some of the cookies from the jar________(is, are) missing!
Some of the water from his bottle ________(is, are) missing.

Read the follow passage and then answer the question below:

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of a society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending class” (318).
Marx, Karl, and Engels, Friedrich. “The Communist Manifesto”. Reading the World: Ideas that Matter. Ed. Micheal Austin. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2007. 318. Print.

According to this philosophy, would Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels have to say about the American Revolution?

A. It was a class struggle
B. It was a religious war
C. It was a just Revolution
D. It was the ruin of the contending class

Which of the following are transitional phrases or words?

A. First of all,
B. On the contrary,
C. Furthermore,
D. Additionally,
E. All of the above

Read the following passage from Martin Luther King Junior’s “I have a Dream” speech (made available from abcteach.com):

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today…

What is the purpose of this speech?

A. To expose the injustice of America
B. To evoke the American ideal of equality no matter one’s race.
C. To call to arms
D. To think about dreams.

Which sentence below has a dangling modifier that needs to be corrected?

A. While walking down the dirt path, the fall leaves fall from above.
B. While walking down the dirt path, I see the fall leaves fall from above.
C. While walking down the dirt path, she sees the fall leaves fall from above.
D. While walking down the dirt path, he sees the fall leaves fall from above.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows.

“Opponents of the movement for democracy in Burma have sought to undermine it by on the one hand casting aspersions on the competence of the people to judge what was best for the nation and on the other condemning the basic tenets of democracy as un-Burmese. There is nothing new in Third World governments seeking to justify and perpetuate authoritarian rule by denouncing liberal democratic principles as alien. By implication they claim for themselves the official and sole right to decide what does or does not conform to indigenous cultural norms” (191).
Kyi, Aung S. “In the Quest of Democracy”. Reading the World: Ideas that Matter. Ed. Michael Austin. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1997. 191. Print.

25. Is the author of the above text an opponent of the movement for democracy in Burma? Why or why not?

A. Yes. The author points out that Democracy would be un-Burmese.
B. Yes.The author points out that only the ruling elite can decide what conforms the best way to society.
C. No. The author is akin to an outsider of the opposition by pointing out the argument used by opponents of the movement for democracy and the fallacy in their argument.
D. No. The author clearly states that Burma needs Democracy now.