AP English

Language &
Composition
Mini Practice
Multiple Choice
#1

Angie Burgin Kratzer, NBCT

Multiple Choice Mini Practice Set 1, #1 Name:

Samuel Johnson, from “Solitude not Eligible” 1. Which of the following words is the antecedent of
“them” (line 7)?
1 I know not whether those who thus
2 ambitiously repeat the praises of A. those (line 1)
3 solitude, have always considered, B. praises (line 2)
4 how much they depreciate mankind C. mankind (line 4)
5 by declaring, that whatever is excellent D. whatever (line 5)
6 or desirable is to be obtained by departing E. evils (line 9)
7 from them; that the assistance which we
8 may derive from one another, is not
9 equivalent to the evils which we have to Answer Defense:
10 fear; that the kindness of a few is
11 overbalanced by the malice of many; and
12 that the protection of society is too dearly
13 purchased by encountering its dangers
14 and enduring its oppressions.

What is an antecedent?
It sounds fancier than it is. You probably
already know that a pronoun is a word
that replaces another word, usually a 2. What is the antecedent of “its” (line 13)?
A. kindness (line 10)
noun but sometimes another pronoun.
B. malice (line 11)
That word being replaced is called the C. protection (line 12)
antecedent. D. society (line 12)
E. oppressions (line 14)

Answer Defense:

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved. http://www.angiekratzer.com/

 Multiple Choice Mini Practice Set 1, #2 Name:

Yoshida Kenko, from “Reading and Writing” 1. With which of the following statements does the
1 It is desirable to have a knowledge author agree?
A. All writing is good writing.
2 of true literature, of composition and
B. Everyone should know how to write well in
3 versifying, of wind and string instruments; cursive.
4 and it is well, moreover, to be learned C. True humility is only found in losing
5 in precedent and court ceremonies, so as intentionally.
6 to be a model for others. One should D. There is peace to be found in communing
7 write not unskillfully in the running hand, with the dead.
8 be able to sing in a pleasing voice and E. Being accomplished means to be
9 keep good time to music; and, lastly, highly skilled in one specific area.
10 a man should not refuse a little win when
11 it is pressed upon him. Answer defense:
12 To sit alone in the lamplight with a
13 book spread out before you, and hold
14 intimate converse with men of unseen
15 generations—such is a pleasure beyond
16 compare.

2. According to the author, how does one “hold

intimate converse with men of unseen generations?”
A. by writing letters to one’s elders
B. by reciting literature aloud
C. by speaking with the dead
D. by reading Scripture
E. by reading books

Answer defense:

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved. http://www.angiekratzer.com/

 Multiple Choice Mini Practice Set 1, #3 Name:
Zitkala-Sa, from “The Great Spirit” 1. What is the author’s relationship with nature?
A. communicative and peaceful
1 When the spirit swells my breast I B. aloof and nonchalant
2 love to roam leisurely among the C. fearful and angry
3 green hills; or sometimes, sitting D. uncomfortable yet respectful
4 on the brink of the murmuring E. dangerous yet tantalizing
5 Missouri, I marvel at the great
6 blue overhead. With half-closed Answer defense:
7 eyes I watch the huge cloud
8 shadows in their noiseless play
9 upon the high bluffs opposite me,
10 while into my ear ripple the sweet,
11 soft cadences of the river’s song.
12 Folded hands lie in my lap, for
13 the time forgot. My heart and I
14 lie small upon the earth like a
15 grain of throbbing sand. Drifting
16 clouds and tinkling waters,
17 together with the warmth of a
18 genial summer day, bespeak
19 with eloquence the loving Mystery
20 round about us. During the idle 2. What dominant techniques is the speaker using
21 while I sat upon the sunny river in this passage to communicate his relationship
22 brink, I grew somewhat, though with nature?
23 my response be not so clearly A. personification and imagery
24 manifest as in the green grass B. alliteration and onomatopoeia
25 fringing the edge of the high C. ad hominem and begging the question
26 bluff back of me. D. meiosis and hyperbole
E. logos and ethos

Answer defense:

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved. http://www.angiekratzer.com

/
Multiple Choice Mini Practice Set 1, #4 Name:
Mark Twain, from “Hygiene and
Sentiment” 1. Which of the following is an adequate
summary of Twain’s point about St. Anne?
1 I will gradually drop this subject of A. St. Anne’s debt to society was paid
2 graveyards. I have been trying all I quickly and fully.
3 could to get down to the sentimental
4 part of it, but I cannot accomplish it. I B. St. Anne redeemed her murderous life by
5 think there is no genuinely sentimental healing others in death.
6 part to it. It is all grotesque, ghastly, C. It is ironic that so many people got sick
7 horrible. Graveyards may have been via the remains of a healer.
8 justifiable in the bygone ages, when D. Because it took so long for her relics to be
9 nobody knew that for every dead used for healing, her miraculous life was
10 body put into the ground, to glut the forgotten.
11 earth and the plant-roots and the air E. The healing power of her relics has not yet
12 with disease-germs, five or fifty, or
made up for the deaths caused by exposure
13 maybe a hundred, persons must die
14 before their proper time; but they are to her remains.
15 hardly justifiable now, when even the
16 children know that a dead saint enters Answer defense:
17 upon a century-long career of
18 assassination the moment the earth
19 closes over corpse. It is a grim sort of a
20 thought. The relics of St. Anne, up in
21 Canada, have now, after nineteen
22 hundred years, gone to curing the sick
23 by the dozen. But it is merest, matter-
24 of-course that these same relics, within 2. The speaker’s primary purpose in the passage is
25 a generation after St. Anne’s death to
26 and burial, made several thousand A. explain the benefits of cremation.
27 people sick. Therefore these miracle- B. discourage prayer to St. Anne.
28 performances are simply C. criticize the use of in-ground burial.
D. argue for the building of better cemeteries.
29 compensation, nothing more. St. Anne E. explain how most diseases are spread.
30 is somewhat slow pay, for a saint, it is
31 true; but better a debt paid after Answer defense:
32 nineteen hundred years, and
33 outlawed by the statute of limitations,
34 than not paid at all; and most of the
35 knights of the halo do not pay at all.

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved. http://www.angiekratzer.com

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Multiple Choice Mini Practice Set 1, #5
Robert Louis Stevenson, from “Crabbed
Age and Youth”
1 There is a strong feeling in favour of
2 cowardly and prudential proverbs. The
3 sentiments of a man while he is full of
4 ardour and hope are to be received, it
5 is supposed, with some qualification.
6 But when the same person has
7 ignominiously failed and begins to eat
8 up his words, he should be listened to
9 like an oracle. Most of our pocket
10 wisdom is conceived for the use of
11 mediocre people, to discourage them
12 from ambitious attempts, and
13 generally console them in their
14 mediocrity. And since mediocre people
15 constitute the bulk of humanity, this is
16 no doubt very properly so. But it does
17 not follow that the one sort of
18 proposition is any less true than the
19 other, or that Icarus* is not to be more
20 praised, and perhaps more envied,
21 than Mr. Samuel Budgett the Successful
22 Merchant.
*Icarus is a character from Greek mythology. He
and his father attempted to escape from Crete
using wings made of feathers and wax. Icarus’s
father warned him not to fly too low or too
high. The young man ignored his father’s
warning and flew too high. The sun melted the
wax in his wings, and he fell to his death.
©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved. http://www.angiekratzer.com
/
Name:
1. What can you infer from the sentence “But when . .
. an oracle” (lines 6-9)?
A. Society believes that true wisdom comes
from
failure.
B. Society believes that failure produces proverbs.
C. Society believes that failure breeds mediocrity.
D. Society believes that people who write proverbs
have never failed.
E. Society believes that words are only produced
through failure.
Answer defense:
2. Why does the author make reference to Mr.
Samuel Budgett the Successful Merchant in lines
21 and 22?
A. He is highlighting the mediocrity of all
merchants.
B. He is equating Icarus’s failure with Samuel
Budgett’s success.
C. He is using Samuel Budgett’s name as a play
on words to stress the dangers of money.
D. He is making the point that we should heed
the
warnings of all historical figures who failed.
E. He is proposing that we should value the
lessons learned from everyday people just as
we do those learned from the famous and
infamous.
Answer defense: