Practice Test 11 - AP English Language and Composition

20 questions. Answer them in any order, then submit to see your score and every explanation.

A student writes the following speech for a town hall where residents will discuss converting an empty lot into a public dog park. The audience includes dog owners, parents of young children, and nearby homeowners. Passage: Let's stop acting like a dog park is some radical experiment. It's literally a fenced rectangle. People who oppose it keep inventing worst-case scenarios like they're writing a disaster movie: "What if dogs bark?" "What if there's poop?" Yeah—welcome to Earth. The solution is not to keep the lot as an ugly dirt patch forever. A dog park would increase neighborhood foot traffic, which improves informal surveillance and can reduce petty crime. It also gives owners a designated space so they're not letting dogs run around playgrounds or sidewalks. If you're worried about sanitation, install waste stations and enforce fines. Cities do this all the time. And to homeowners worried about property values: please. A maintained park is better than a vacant lot that collects trash. If you don't like seeing other people enjoy public space, maybe you should have moved to the middle of nowhere. Question (Evaluation): Which rhetorical choice most limits the speaker's effectiveness with this mixed audience?
Read the student essay below, then answer the question. My city has proposed a 10 p.m. curfew for teens in public parks, claiming it will reduce vandalism and keep young people safe. The proposal sounds like common sense until you ask who it actually targets: not vandals, but everyone who happens to be young and outside. Curfews are blunt instruments. They don't distinguish between a group causing damage and a student walking home from a late shift, or friends sitting on a bench talking. When policy is built on suspicion rather than behavior, it teaches teens that they are problems to be managed instead of people who belong in public space. Supporters say police need a clear rule to enforce. But "clear" doesn't mean "fair." A curfew increases stops and questioning, which can escalate minor situations into major ones. It also risks uneven enforcement, because discretion often follows bias. If the council's goal is safety, it should focus on lighting, programming, and targeted responses to actual vandalism, not a rule that treats presence as guilt. Also, parks are one of the few free places left for teenagers. Not everyone has a big house, a backyard, or money to spend at restaurants. When we close off public spaces, we push teens into fewer, more crowded places—or into isolation. Neither outcome builds a healthier community. The curfew is a bad idea, and the council should not do it. Which concluding sentence would most effectively extend the argument's implications?
The author makes the claim that...
Read the following passage and answer the question. Some companies celebrate "unlimited vacation" as proof they trust employees. The policy sounds generous, and recruiters know it photographs well on a careers page. But the fine print is cultural rather than legal: workers take time off only if their managers implicitly approve. In practice, employees often use fewer days than they would under a fixed allotment because there is no number that feels safe. ___ the policy also benefits employers financially, since unused days are not accrued and therefore do not need to be paid out when someone leaves. If a company wants to signal trust, it should guarantee a minimum number of days and protect them from informal retaliation. Which transition best fits in the bolded location?
Read the following passage and answer the question. My cousin insists she's "bad at cooking," but what she really means is that she's bad at improvising. Give her a recipe with weights, temperatures, and a timer, and she produces a perfect loaf of bread. Put her in front of an unlabelled spice rack and she freezes. We treat that freeze as evidence of a personal flaw, when it's often evidence of missing instruction. Cooking is a skill disguised as a personality trait: some people learn it early, some learn it late, and many never learn it because no one teaches them without judgment. That is why community cooking classes matter more than food influencers do. A video can inspire, but it can't watch your hands and tell you when the dough is too dry. It can't reassure you that you're allowed to fail. When we teach practical skills in public spaces—patiently, repeatedly—we don't just make better meals. We make people more independent, and we make "I can't" less believable. Taken as a whole, the passage suggests that…
Read the following and answer the question. A workplace columnist argues that remote work requires new management habits rather than tighter surveillance. She explains that when managers cannot "see" employees at their desks, some respond by tracking keystrokes or requiring constant status updates. But those tactics, she argues, signal distrust, which makes employees less likely to share problems early; when issues stay hidden, projects slip and managers feel justified in adding even more monitoring. This spiral, she says, wastes time and increases turnover, forcing teams to spend months hiring and retraining instead of improving products. As an alternative, she proposes setting clear deliverables, holding brief weekly check-ins, and documenting decisions so progress is visible without policing. She concludes that trust-based systems reduce the very uncertainty that tempts managers to surveil. The author develops the argument by…
Read the student essay excerpt below, then answer the question. In my town, the school board is debating whether to ban student cell phones during the entire school day. Supporters argue phones distract students; opponents argue phones are useful for safety and organizing after-school rides. A recent student survey at my school (n = 412) reported that 68% of students check their phones "at least once per class," while 54% also said they have used their phones to contact a parent about transportation changes. Essay excerpt: Many adults want a full-day phone ban because they think it will restore attention and respect in classrooms. They point to teachers who have to stop lessons to tell students to put phones away, and they argue that even a silent phone pulls attention away from learning. Some schools that restricted phones reported fewer discipline referrals, and that sounds like proof that the policy works. But students also say they need phones for safety, like if there is an emergency or if a parent's schedule changes. The survey at my school shows that lots of students check their phones during class, which is obviously distracting, but it also shows that students use phones for practical reasons. Also, a full-day ban would affect more than just learning time. For example, students often use phones at lunch to coordinate group projects, check sports practice updates, or message siblings about where to meet after school. Some students rely on translation apps to communicate with family members, and others use calendar reminders to manage jobs and homework. During one week, my friend used her phone to track a bus delay and avoid being stranded. Phones can be distracting, but they can also solve real problems. Which revision of the bolded sentence would best establish a clear claim for this paragraph?
Read the following excerpt from a column about customer service chatbots. The author notes that a bank reduced call-center staff by 15% after introducing a chatbot, yet complaint resolution times increased from 2 days to 6. The author argues that automation should not erase accountability. When the bot fails, the company shrugs; when the customer fails, the company charges. Which explanation best accounts for the author's decision to structure the bolded sentence this way?
Read the student draft below, then answer the question. Student draft (intro + excerpt): Standardized testing has been around for a while, and students often feel stressed about it. Education is important for the future. The state is considering making the end-of-course exam worth 30% of a student's final grade instead of 10%. Supporters say it will "increase rigor" and make grades comparable across districts; opponents argue it will punish students in underfunded schools and encourage teaching to the test. Last year, the state's own report found score gaps of 18 points between the highest- and lowest-funded districts. Which sentence would most effectively strengthen the introduction by clarifying the argument's stakes?
Read the following excerpt from an opinion piece about online privacy. The author notes that a popular fitness app shared location data that allowed journalists to infer users' home addresses; the company called it "anonymized." The author argues that privacy policies often shift responsibility to users. You can click 'I agree' in two seconds, but you can't unshare your life in two years. The author's use of the bolded sentence structure primarily serves to…
Read the student essay excerpt below. Some teachers at my school want to replace letter grades with standards-based grading, where students are scored on specific skills (like "using evidence" or "solving linear equations") instead of earning a single A–F. People hear that and assume it's "easier," but the point is actually clarity. One advantage is that standards-based grading tells students what to fix. A B in English could mean you write well but never revise, or it could mean you participate but don't cite sources. Skill scores make strengths and weaknesses visible, which makes studying more efficient. Another advantage is that it reduces the weird math of points. When a single zero can destroy an average, grades become about surviving the spreadsheet, not learning. Standards-based systems usually allow reassessment, which treats learning as a process rather than a one-time performance. Finally, it can make feedback more consistent across teachers. If the department agrees on what "proficient" evidence looks like, students aren't guessing what each teacher personally prefers. That consistency is fairer. Our school should adopt standards-based grading. Which revision of the bolded thesis best previews the reasoning that follows?
Read the following passage and answer the question below. The modern workplace praises "flexibility" with the reverence once reserved for loyalty, as if the ability to relocate, reskill, and respond at midnight were proof of character. For some workers, flexibility is freedom; for many others, it is a euphemism for unpredictability—shifts posted late, hours cut without warning, benefits tied to schedules that can vanish. Employers often defend these practices as the price of efficiency, but efficiency that depends on constant insecurity is simply a cost transferred from companies to households. If we want an economy that rewards work rather than anxiety, labor policy should treat schedule stability as a basic standard, much like safety rules or minimum wage. Predictable hours will not solve every inequity, but they would return one scarce resource to workers: the ability to plan a life. The author's main argument is that…
Read the following excerpt from a sports science article and answer the question. Cold-water immersion has become popular among athletes seeking faster recovery. Some studies show reduced soreness after intense workouts, and many teams report that players "feel fresher" the next day. However, the evidence is mixed, and the benefits appear to vary by training type and timing. Cold plunges may be useful for short-term relief after competition, but they are not necessarily ideal during phases focused on muscle growth, when inflammation can be part of adaptation. Athletes should match recovery tools to goals rather than adopting trends wholesale. The author qualifies the claim primarily by…
Read the following passage and answer the question below. Museums have recently rushed to digitize their collections, offering virtual tours and high-resolution images that can be viewed anywhere. This expansion of access is real, but it has also encouraged an illusion: that culture can be consumed without place, without patience, without the subtle instruction of standing before an object and noticing what does not fit on a screen. Digital archives are invaluable for research and for those excluded by geography or cost; they also risk becoming substitutes for the public spaces that teach people how to look together. Museums should treat digital access as a complement to, not a replacement for, in-person civic experience, and fund both accordingly. Otherwise, the institution becomes a website with a gift shop rather than a shared room for attention. The passage is primarily arguing that…
Read the passage below, then answer the question. At last week's school board meeting, the superintendent praised the district's "innovative embrace of AI," citing a pilot program that uses an algorithm to flag students "at risk" of failing. The applause was quick; the details were not. According to the board packet, the tool was trained on five years of local data, including attendance, grades, and discipline referrals. Yet the packet also notes that discipline incidents are recorded inconsistently across campuses, and that students who transfer midyear often have missing records. In other words, we are building a prediction engine from a patchwork. Supporters argue that any early warning is better than none. But when a model mistakes absence caused by unstable housing for "low motivation," the intervention becomes suspicion, not support. If we want technology that helps, we must insist on transparency: publish the variables, test for disparate error rates, and allow families to appeal labels that follow students from class to class. The district should pause expansion until an independent audit confirms the tool improves outcomes without widening inequities. Innovation is not a virtue when it cannot explain itself. The author's primary purpose is to…
Read the following excerpt from a college orientation address and answer the question. Some students treat office hours like a punishment: a place you go only after you've failed. That misunderstanding creates avoidable stress. When you wait until the night before an exam to ask questions, you turn a small confusion into a crisis, and you convince yourself the course is "too hard." Then you avoid the instructor even more, which keeps you stuck. Office hours are not detention; they are a shortcut. A ten-minute conversation can confirm whether you're studying the right material, show you how to interpret feedback, and connect you to tutoring before you fall behind. Students who use office hours early don't just earn higher grades—they spend less time spiraling alone. If you want independence, use the resources that make independence possible. The author uses this method of development to…
In a 7-sentence editorial about public transit funding, the author argues that a city's "free-fare pilot" did not meaningfully reduce traffic congestion. The author notes that during the three-month pilot, downtown vehicle counts recorded by the city's loop sensors fell by only 1.2% compared with the same months the previous year, while ridership rose 18%. The author adds that parking garage revenue stayed "nearly flat" (down 0.4%) and quotes a delivery company manager who says, "Our drivers still lose the same 20 minutes on Main Street every morning." The author then concedes that the program helped low-income riders but insists congestion requires changing driving behavior, not only lowering transit costs. Which of the following does the author use as evidence for the claim that the free-fare pilot did not meaningfully reduce traffic congestion?
Read the passage below, then answer the question. Our city's new "smart parking" meters were sold as a cure for congestion. The mayor's office promised drivers would spend less time circling blocks, emissions would drop, and downtown would become "more accessible for everyone." Six months later, the data posted on the city dashboard tells a different story: average parking turnover increased by 4%, but citations rose by 38%, with the steepest spike in two neighborhoods where English is not the dominant language. The app that allows remote payment is convenient—if you have a smartphone, a bank card, and a data plan. This is not an argument against technology; it is an argument against pretending that technology is neutral. When the city replaces human discretion with automated enforcement, it must also replace shrugging with responsibility. Translate instructions at the curb, create a cash-payment option within walking distance, and cap late fees so a ten-minute mistake does not become a hundred-dollar penalty. If "accessibility" is the slogan, equity must be the policy. The passage is primarily intended to…
Read the following excerpt from a technology newsletter about a company announcing an AI "wellness coach" for employees: The company unveiled its digital coach with the usual choreography: a keynote, a slogan, and a promise to "humanize productivity." The demo showed a smiling avatar reminding workers to breathe, stretch, and—most importantly—log their tasks. Executives described the tool as benevolent, though it collects a granular record of mood check-ins and keystroke patterns. We are told the data will be "protected," a word that functions here less as a guarantee than as a lullaby. It is difficult to miss the contradiction: a system designed to monitor you is being sold as a friend. Perhaps that is the point; surveillance is easier to accept when it arrives wearing a cardigan. The author's use of benevolent contributes to the tone by…
Read the following passage and answer the question. A coastal town is weighing whether to rebuild a damaged boardwalk exactly as it was. Nostalgia makes that option tempting: the old wood planks are part of the town's identity and tourism brand. But storms are arriving more often, and rebuilding the same structure in the same place is effectively a promise to pay for the same repairs again. Moving the boardwalk inland would cost more upfront and would require renegotiating property boundaries, yet it would reduce future losses and keep businesses open after extreme weather. That long-term stability matters because the town's tax base depends on uninterrupted seasons, not single ribbon-cuttings. Preserving the town's character, then, requires changing the location of the boardwalk rather than replicating its past. The author maintains logical progression by…

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