Passage A

Practice Tests
Practice Tests for the Florida State College Basic Skills Exit Test
Passage A

Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.

1. Which sentence best states the main idea of this passage?

A. The working women of Russia faced severe hardships during World War I.

B. The working women of Russia took justice into their own hands.

C. The working women of Russia were left to manage on their own while their husbands went off to war.

D. The working women of Russia actually started the Russian Revolution.

2. The stated main idea of paragraph two is

A. Russian families were starving as a result of the war because there was too little food.

B. Many Russian children endured a horrible fate after the onset of the war.

C. Russian families suffered many hardships as a result of the war.

D. Russia was in turmoil over the inability to provide for the citizens.

3. What is the relationship between the parts of the following sentence?

"Even the officers and soldiers of the tsar's private army abandoned the tsar because they would not fire on crowds of women." (lines 30–32)

A. cause and effect

B. addition

C. time order

D. comparison and/or contrast

4. The author uses an overall organization pattern that

A. compares and contrasts the contributions of the Russian women with those of the men.

B. lists reasons for the women's involvement in the Russian Revolution.

C. provides examples of the women's views toward politics.

D. explains the time line of World War I and the Russian Revolution.

5. Based on the passage, the tsar's soldiers did not stop the protesters because

A. they were outnumbered since most of the men were away fighting in the war.

B. they were in secret agreement about the horrible conditions the people were forced to endure.

C. they refused to fire upon crowds of women.

D. they were out of the city at that time, housed at the tsar's winter palace.

6. Identify the relationship between the following two sentences from paragraph one.

"Most women workers held unskilled, poorly paid jobs in the textile industries and worked grueling 12- and 13-hour days. When work was over for the day, the women left their jobs to stand for hours in long bread lines, and then returned home to care for their families." (lines 3–6)

A. time order

B. cause and effect

C. contrast

D. simple listing

7. The word dire (line 14) means

A. dangerous

B. extraordinary

C. favorable

D. desperate

8. "In less than 3 years after the war had begun, prices had increased 400 percent."

The above sentence is a statement of

A. fact

B. opinion

C. informed opinion

D. bias

9. The tone of this passage could best be described as

A. nostalgic

B. bitter

C. sarcastic

D. sympathetic

10. The primary purpose of this passage is to

A. provide the historical background leading to the Russian women's involvement in the Russian Revolution.

B. describe the influence that the women of the United States had on influencing the Russian women to revolt against their government.

C. to list the advantages and disadvantages that occur as a result of women working in Russia.

D. argue that women should take a more prominent role in the government of Russia.