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Writing and Language Test

35 MINUTES, 44 QUESTIONS

DIRECTIONS
Each passage below is accompanied by a number of questions. For some questions, you
will consider how the passage might be revised to improve the expression of ideas. For
other questions, you will consider how the passage might be edited to correct errors in
sentence structure, usage, or punctuation. A passage or a question may be accompanied
by one or more graphics (such as a table or graph) that you will consider as you make
revising and editing decisions.

Some questions will direct you to an underlined portion of a passage. Other questions will
direct you to a location in a passage or ask you to think about the passage as a whole.

After reading each passage, choose the answer to each question that most effectively
improves the quality of writing in the passage or that makes the passage conform to the
conventions of standard written English. Many questions include a “NO CHANGE” option.
Choose that option if you think the best choice is to leave the relevant portion of the pas-
sage as it is.

 uestions 1–11 are based on the

Q
following passage.

Living Walls

The practice of building living walls (also

known as vertical gardens) has exploded in

popularity in recent years, and promises only to

increase in the future as a premium continues

to be placed on space, greenery, and food

independence in the face of urbanization and

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global climate change.
1
Living walls are, essentially, gardens (of either
decorative or produce plants, like leafy greens)
that through careful cultivation and construction
and the use of hydroponic technology can be
made to flourish inside an urban home. 1 garden is built, no matter where
When a vertical garden is built, wherever it
is built and by whomever it is built, a frame
A. NO CHANGE
B. When a vertical garden is built,
wherever it is built and whoever
builds it, a frame is constructed
around a specifically designed
vertical irrigation platform.
C. When a vertical garden is built,
a frame is constructed around
a specifically designed vertical
irrigation platform.
D. When someone builds a vertical
that person builds it, a frame is
constructed around a specifically
designed vertical irrigation
platform.

is constructed around a specifically designed

vertical irrigation platform. This allows the

plants to grow upwards along a specifically

designed pattern, and in a particular location

within a home. Instead of taking up essential

floor space, thoughtfully designed vertical

gardens can inhabit negative space along walls,

or sometimes even on roofs, growing in specified

locations rather than inhabiting entire rooms of

a home or apartment. In addition to providing

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food or greenery, that is practical or aesthetic
2
Which of the following options provides the
value, 2 such walls can also help to keep the most relevant detail?

temperature in an enclosed space down. A. NO CHANGE

B. such walls can also help to keep the
temperature in an enclosed space
These gardens, by virtue of being in an perfectly regular.
C. such walls can also help to keep the
temperature in an enclosed space
enclosed space, also save their owners the down, as the plants absorb heat and
light.
D. such walls also help to decrease
trouble of protecting the gardens from insects
one’s energy, as they convert the
sun’s energy into fuel.
and rodents. Whereas an outdoor garden

3
may require 3 elaborate fencing to keep
 he use of the word “elaborate” has what
T
effect on the author’s description of outdoor
away animals and may even require the use of
gardens?

pesticides to keep away bugs, not to mention

growing season limited by weather, indoor
gardens are kept a steady temperature year
round and, unless the gardener happens to have
deers or rabbits running free in their home, are
A. It helps convey the ornate nature of
some garden fences.
B. It helps highlight the hassle and
complications associated with
outdoor gardens.
C. It helps ground the description by
providing realistic details.
D. It helps demonstrate the greater
skill needed to maintain an outdoor
garden.

protected from 4 animals’. 4

A. NO CHANGE
B. animal’s
The practice of keeping houseplants for
C. animal
D. animals
decorative purposes has been common for

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many years, but with recent developments in
5
Which of the following best emphasizes the
technology, the idea of a potted plant has been potential importance of how the vertical
gardens look?
expanded, both in terms of its 5 aesthetic
A. NO CHANGE
B. acetic
potential (e.g. a whole wall as opposed to an
C. artistic
D. visual
isolated plant on a shelf) and its practical,

6
environmental application (e.g. a living wall that
To make this paragraph the most logical, the
underlined sentence would best be placed
reuses water and provides food as opposed to a
___________.

purely decorative plant that is maintained with

tap water).
It is no secret that the world has been
undergoing a massive and fundamental shift
A. NO CHANGE
B. The sentence is irrelevant and
incoherent, and should be removed
entirely.
C. at the beginning of the paragraph
D. at the end of the paragraph,
following the sentence citing a
World Health Organization statistic

towards urbanization in the last two centuries. 7

A. NO CHANGE
6 Clearly, as people move from the country B. In 2014, the World Health
Organization estimated that 54% of
the world’s population lived in cities
to the city and from houses to condominiums or suburbs,
C. In 2014, the World Health
or apartments, the possibility of urban-dwelling Organization estimated that 54% of
the world’s population lived in cities
or suburbs.
families and individuals growing their own food D. In 2014, the World Health
Organization estimated that 54% of
the world’s population lived in cities
and plants within their living space only makes
or suburbs . . .

more and more sense. 7 In 2014 the World

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Health Organization estimated that 54% of the
world’s population lived in cities or suburbs;
meaning that almost four billion people lived in
these urban areas.
8 All this is not to say that vertical
gardens is the perfect solution to all of our
problems. 9 The hydroponic systems
required to maintain these gardens are costly,
complicated, and require a good deal of energy
to maintain, leading critics to question their
practical and environmental value. Those
concerns are certainly important and probably
valid 10 because as the technology continues
to develop and urban space continues to become
inhabited, 11 the desire city-dwellers all have
that is to grow their own fresh vegetables right
in their living room will almost certainly grow as
well.
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8
A. NO CHANGE
B. All this is not to say that vertical
gardens are being the perfect
solution to all of our problems
C. All this is not to say that vertical
gardens are the perfect solution to
all of our problems
D. All this is not to say that vertical
gardens were the perfect solution to
all of our problems
9
 he writer is considering deleting the
T
underlined sentence. Should he or she do so,
and why or why not?
A. Yes, the underlined sentence
undermines the overall thesis by
presenting the views of those critical
of the passage’s overriding thesis
about vertical gardens.
B. Yes, the underlined sentence
discusses views that are irrelevant
to the passage’s overall argument
about the popularity and viability of
vertical gardens.
C. No, the underlined sentence
provides useful context that
supports the passage’s overall
argument about the popularity and
viability of vertical gardens.
D. No, the underlined sentence
provides useful context, and lends
the author’s argument legitimacy by
providing and addressing alternative
viewpoints.
10
A. NO CHANGE
B. but
C. after
D. Delete “because”; the first word of
the second sentence should be “as.”
CONTINUE
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11
How can the underlined portion best be
rewritten to convey the author’s conclusion
more efficiently?
A. NO CHANGE
B. the desire city dwellers all have is to
grow
C. the desire of city dwellers to grow
D. the desire city dwellers that is to
grow

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