Reading Comprehension - Sample Questions

ACCUPLACER Placement Testing Reading Comprehension - Sample Questions

The Reading Comprehension test is designed to measure how well you understand what you read. It contains 20 questions. Some questions refer to reading passages of various lengths. Some passages are 75 words in length, while others are longer. Other questions are of the sentence relationship type, in which you must choose how two sentences are related.

Sample Question 1

Read the statement or passage and then choose the best answer to the question. Answer the question on the basis of what is stated or implied in the statement or passage.

Myths are stories, the products of fertile imagination, sometimes simple, often containing profound truths. They are not meant to be taken too literally. Details may sometimes appear childish, but most myths express a culture's most serious beliefs about human beings, eternity, and God.

The main idea of this passage is that myths

  1. are created primarily to entertain young children
  2. are purposely written for the reader who lacks imagination
  3. provide the reader with a means of escape from reality
  4. illustrate the values that are considered important to a society

Sample Question 2

Two sentences are followed by a question or statement about them. Read each pair of sentences and then choose the best answer to the question or the best completion of the statement.

The Midwest is experiencing its worst drought in fifteen years.

Corn and soybean prices are expected to be very high this year.

What does the second sentence do?

  1. It restates the idea found in the first.
  2. It states an effect.
  3. It gives an example.
  4. It analyzes the statement made in the first.

View sample ACCUPLACER questions