Practice Test 10 - AP English Literature and Composition

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

Read the poem below. The Fence Between Yards Our fence leans toward your roses, a tired diplomat. In summer, vines cross the slats, trading shade for thorns. You wave sometimes. I wave back. We never mention the property line drawn under grass. Last week, you fixed one loose board. I pretended not to notice, and felt gratitude like a trespass. Which thesis best interprets the fence as a symbol of relationship?
Read the following poem and answer the question. "Bus Stop in January" The bench is cold enough to teach. Wind threads itself through my scarf, patient as a needle. Across the street, the bakery vents warmth I can't afford. A schedule is taped to glass, its corners curled like old receipts. When the bus finally comes, it arrives already full of other people's days. How does the setting contribute to the speaker's tone?
Read the following poem and answer the question. "Cemetery Picnic" We spread a blanket between polished names. My aunt pours lemonade as if this were a park. Ants explore the edge of a headstone, reading it with their bodies. Someone laughs too loudly, then apologizes to the air. The sun keeps shining, unbothered by our careful voices. I chew a sandwich and taste how love survives by being ordinary. How does the setting create tension in the speaker's experience?
In this excerpt from an original play, a student claims the playwright suggests that Raj is alienated within his own home. Which choice best explains how the bolded evidence supports that claim? MILA: We saved you dinner. RAJ: You saved me leftovers. MILA: Same thing. (RAJ stands in the doorway, not stepping in, while the family continues eating without looking up.) RAJ: I'll eat later. MILA: Don't be dramatic.
In the following original drama excerpt, a couple, Nadia and Paul, attend therapy after repeated fights about having a child. Paul says he wants "a legacy"; Nadia says she wants "a life that is hers." The therapist asks them to bring one object representing their future. Paul brings a framed family tree. Nadia brings a small envelope. When prompted, Nadia opens it and slides across adoption paperwork—already signed by Paul's mother as "guardian sponsor." What is the primary function of this significant event in the drama?
Read the poem below and answer the question. "Bus Stop, Late" The schedule is a rumor taped to glass. I watch my reflection practice patience. Headlights pass without meaning. A man beside me folds his newspaper into smaller and smaller squares, as if shrinking the world could warm it. I tell myself: you are fine alone. My phone shows no new messages. The cold climbs my ankles like a vine. But when the bus arrives, I don't step forward— I wait for the others, let them board, counting their coats, their briefcases, their lives. Only then do I climb in, and choose the back, where the window turns the city into water. What is the primary function of the speaker's shift marked in bold?
In this excerpt, a man repairs a fence after a storm, replacing broken boards while his neighbor watches from across the yard. Neither speaks about the argument they had last week. What is the function of the simile "The hammer's rhythm sounded like an apology practiced in private"?
Read the following poem: "At the Vet" The cat carrier rocks with my mother's old towel inside. Dr. Singh says "quality of life" and the words fall like keys down a drain. I nod too many times. My hand finds the cat's fur through the plastic grate, counting breaths as if numbers could bargain. When they ask if I'm ready, I look at the clock, angry at its steady honesty. Which inference about the speaker is best supported by "angry at its steady honesty"?
Read the following original poem: I stand at the stove stirring soup. Carrots surface, then sink. The radio reports a distant fire. My partner hums without listening. I taste for salt, add more, and grief simmers at the edges. What is the best reading of grief simmers at the edges?
Read the following passage and answer the question that follows. On the first warm day of April, the track team practiced in the smell of cut grass and sunscreen. Coach Ramirez shouted times and encouragement in the same breath. Owen ran his laps with the others, his lungs burning in that familiar, satisfying way, until Coach blew the whistle and called them to the bleachers. "Meet on Friday," Coach said. "And remember: grades. No grades, no meet." The team groaned. Someone tossed a water bottle. Owen laughed along, but his laughter felt like a borrowed jacket—close enough to wear, not his. After practice, he walked to the guidance office. The hallway was empty, the lockers shut like teeth. He had told his friends he had "to talk to a teacher," which was true in the way a shadow is true. Ms. Halprin looked up from her computer. "Owen. You're early." He sat and stared at the college posters on the wall, all smiling faces and impossible lawns. "I just wanted to check," he said. "Check what?" Owen pulled a folded paper from his pocket: his report card, creased so many times it had softened at the edges. He slid it across the desk. "If… if it's official," he said. Ms. Halprin scanned it. "These are not your final grades." Owen exhaled, but his shoulders didn't drop. He kept his hand on the report card as if it might slide away, and asked, "But it could be, right?" Which inference about Owen is best supported by the detail "kept his hand on the report card as if it might slide away"?
Read the following poem and answer the question. "Hush" You put a finger to my lips when I start to tell the story the way it actually happened. "Not here," you whisper, eyes on the crowd. I swallow my words until they sit in my chest like pennies I can't spend. Later, alone, you kiss my forehead and call me "dramatic," as if that's affection. Which choice best describes the relationship implied by the poem?
Read the following excerpt from a short story: In the crowded subway car, Malik kept his eyes on the advertisement above the door: a beach scene promising escape in bright turquoise. Around him, bodies swayed in tired synchronization. Someone's backpack brushed his sleeve again and again, each touch a small reminder that personal space was a myth. When the train stalled between stations, the lights flickered. A child began to cry. Malik felt his own breath shorten, as if the air had been rationed. Anxiety, he thought, was a smoke alarm with no smoke. What is the primary function of the metaphor "a smoke alarm with no smoke" in the excerpt?
Read the following poem excerpt: In the apartment above the bakery, we learned each other's schedules by sound: your keys, my kettle, the radiator's cough. Our silence lay between us, like a closed book on a shared table, neither of us opening it, both pretending we'd already read the ending. The simile primarily conveys that the silence is
Consider the following original drama excerpt. [Stage: A backyard at night. A flashlight with dying batteries makes the beam pulse.] SOREN: Stop shaking it. MEI: I'm not. SOREN: Then why can't it stay steady? MEI (aiming at the ground): Because it's running out. SOREN: So are we. What is the function of the flashlight with dying batteries?
Read the excerpt and answer the question. At the clinic, the chairs were arranged in a circle that pretended to be friendly. A poster on the wall showed a cartoon brain lifting weights, smiling through effort. The counselor asked us to introduce ourselves and share one "goal." When it was my turn, I said I wanted to "manage stress," because it sounded like something you could file and label. The woman beside me said she wanted to stop feeling like she was drowning. I stared at my hands. Some people speak their pain like it's a language they grew up with; I'm still translating mine. When the counselor nodded at me encouragingly, I nodded back, as if agreement could substitute for honesty. Which interpretation best explains what the bolded details reveal about the narrator's perspective?
Consider this excerpt: "The new library opened with a ribbon-cutting and a string quartet that sounded like polite rain. Inside, the shelves were aligned with the patience of rulers. In the children's corner, the carpet was a field of cartoon suns, but the ceiling lights above it hummed like insects trapped in glass. Parents whispered about 'community,' and the toddlers screamed the older truth." What is the most likely function of the contrast between "a field of cartoon suns" and lights humming "like insects trapped in glass"?
In the following excerpt, a woman attends her first union meeting at the factory where she has worked for years: "The meeting was held in the break room, where the microwave's burnt-popcorn smell had seeped into the walls. The vending machine hummed, lit from within like a small altar, and the rows of chips and candy looked untouched—too bright to be food, too expensive to be comfort. Someone had taped a flyer over the old safety poster; the corners curled, revealing the word CAUTION beneath. Through the high windows, the factory floor was visible in slices: conveyor belts, yellow lines, the slow swing of a crane, all moving as if they didn't know anyone was watching." Which choice best explains how the setting functions in the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from a short story: "I keep a list of things I didn't say. It started as a joke—an index of missed comebacks—but it became a catalog of swallowed days. 'Tell your father you're proud of him.' 'Ask your friend why she disappeared.' 'Say no when they ask again.' The list lives in my phone under Notes, uncapitalized, like it's ashamed. Silence is not the absence of speech; it is a choice with consequences. Tonight I added a new line: 'Tell him you're leaving.' Then I stared at it until the screen went dark." The bolded sentence most strongly indicates the narrator
Read the following poem, in which the speaker speaks to a colleague who loves office small talk, and answer the question that follows. "Break Room" You tell stories while the kettle warms, each anecdote a sugar packet torn open. I rinse my mug in silence, watching the foam circle the drain. You ask about my weekend, bright-eyed, as if time off is always a gift. I say, Fine, and mean, survived, then stir my coffee until it forgets. When you laugh, the room feels larger. When I don't, it shrinks around the hum of the fridge, keeping my loneliness cold. What is the function of the contrast between "each anecdote a sugar packet" and "I rinse my mug in silence"?
Read the following original poem: In the attic, I find a box of cassette tapes. Each label is my mother's handwriting, looped and confident. I hold one to my ear, as if it could speak. Downstairs, the TV mutters. Up here, the past rewinds in dust. How does the past rewinds in dust function?

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