MAKING GOOD CHOICES ON LANGUAGE MULTIPLE CHOICE 2014
OBJECTIVES
 To acquire specific strategies for making good choices on AP Language Multiple Choice Questions
 To work collaboratively to understand why answers are correct or incorrect
 To foster “equitable preparation and access” for students enrolled in AP courses
CONTENTS
Give Me a Hint: Getting Started on AP Language Multiple Choice
2
Practice # 1
Group Debriefing: Practice # 1
Individual Debriefing: Practice # 1
3
8
9
Practice # 2
Individual or Group Debriefing: Practice # 2
12
17
The Multiple Choice Trail
18
Footnote Review
20
Answer Keys
22
APMC Practice Test Instructions
22
Active Reading Reminders
22
Measuring Your Success
23
Playing the “What if?” Game
24
APMC Individual and Collaborative Debriefing: Individual and Group “Retests”
25
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
1
Give Me a Hint: Getting Started on AP Language Multiple Choice
OVERALL TEST FORMAT
(1)
MULTIPLE CHOICE
__________
MINUTES
(2)
BREAK
__________
MINUTES
(3)
FREE RESPONSE
__________
MINUTES (2 HOURS, 15 MINUTES)
(4)
TOTAL TESTING TIME
_________ HOURS AND __________ MINUTES
MULTIPLE CHOICE FORMAT
TIME LIMIT: ____________
# OF QUESTIONS: _______________
# OF PASSAGES: ___________
ORDER OF QUESTIONS: _____________________________________________________________________
DIFFICULTY OF QUESTIONS: ___________________________
CONTENT OF PASSAGES:
1.
___________________________ prose excerpts.
2.
_________________ century as well as 20th century material.
3.
Representative of ___________________________________________________
VALUE: _________________
SCORING:
1.
Multiple-choice scores are based on the _____________________________________________________.
2.
Points are not deducted for __________________________________________ answers.
3.
No points are awarded for ___________________________________________ questions.
4.
Because points are not deducted for incorrect answers, students are encouraged to answer ___________
all the multiple choice questions.
5.
If students do not know the answer to a question, they should ___________________________________
as many choices as they can, and then select the best answer among the remaining choices
6.
The test is ____________-referenced rather than ________________________ referenced meaning that
your performance is compared to the performance of others taking the same test.
YOUR GOAL: Answer _____________ % of the questions correctly.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
2
PRACTICE #1 (from AP Language and Composition Workshop Handbook 2010-2011)
Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers. In the space provided at the end of each
paragraph, jot down the main idea.
This passage is taken from a twentieth-century book about China.
Throughout her history China has believed herself the center of civilization,
surrounded by barbarians. She was the Middle Kingdom, the center of the universe, whose
Emperor was the Son of Heaven, ruling by the Mandate of Heaven. Convinced of their superior
values, the Chinese considered that China’s greatness was owed to principles of social order over
a harmonious whole. All outsiders were “barbarians” and necessarily inferiors who were
expected, and indeed required, to make their approach if they insisted on coming, bearing tribute
and performing the kowtow in token of humble submission.
MAIN IDEA: China considered herself ____________________________________________.
From the time of Marco Polo to the eighteenth century, visiting Westerners,
amazed and admiring, were inclined to take China at her own valuation. Her recorded history
began in the third millennium B.C., her bronzes were as old as the pyramids, her classical age
was contemporary with that of Greece, her Confucian canon of ethics predated the New
Testament if not the Old. She was the inventor of paper, porcelain, silk, gunpowder, the clock,
and movable type, the builder of the Great Wall, one of the wonders of the world, the creator of
fabrics and ceramics of exquisite beauty and of an art of painting that was sophisticated and
expressive when Europe’s was still primitive and flat . . .
MAIN IDEA:_________________________________________________________________
When at the end of the eighteenth century Western ships and merchants surged
against China’s shores, eager for tea and silk and cotton, they found no reciprocal enthusiasm.
Enclosed in the isolation of superiority, Imperial China wanted no influx of strangers from
primitive islands called Britain or France or Holland who came to live off the riches of the
Middle Kingdom bearing only worthless articles for exchange. They had ugly noses and coarse
manners and wore ridiculous clothes with constricting sleeves and trousers, tight collars and
coats that had tails down the back but failed to close in the front. These were not the garments of
reasonable men.
MAIN IDEA:______________________________________________________________
A past-oriented society, safe only in seclusion, sensed a threat from the
importunate West. The Imperial Government raised every barrier possible by refusals, evasions,
postponements, and prohibitions to foreign entry or settlement or the opening of formal relations.
Splendidly remote in the “Great Within” of the Forbidden City of Peking, the court refused to
concern itself with the knocking on its doors. It would admit foreign embassies who came to
plead for trade treaties only if they performed the ritual of three genuflections and nine
prostrations in approaching the Son of Heaven. British envoys, after surmounting innumerable
obstacles to reach Peking, balked at the kowtow and turned back empty-handed.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
3
MAIN IDEA:______________________________________________________________
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE ENTIRE PASSAGE: China is characterized as a
_______________kingdom with no interest in ________________ with the ______________
West unless Westerners________________________________________________________
DIRECTIONS FOR PRACTICE:
 Underline, circle, or otherwise mark key words in the questions and the answer choices. Doing so helps you
fight the fatigue factor and make educated guesses.
 Read the HINTS that appear after each question
 Strike through the choices you have eliminated. (We call these distractors.) You will need to see this process
when we debrief the activity. Then, make an educated (rather than random) guess.
 Write your answers in the left margin. Save the space to the right of the answer choices for notes.
 Use all of the allotted time.
START:
1.
STOP:
The principal contrast employed by the author in the passage is between
(a) past and present
(b) wisdom and foolishness
(c) Imperial China and Europe
(d) civilization and barbarism
(e) technology and art
# 1 HINT: Eliminate any answer choices that include topics not mentioned in the excerpt (e.g.,
technology).
2.
In paragraph 2, which of the following rhetorical devices is most in evidence?
(a) Appeals to authority
(b) The massing of factual information
(c) The use of abstract generalizations
(d) Impressionistic descriptive writing
(e) The use of anecdote
# 2 HINT: An anecdote is a short account of an interesting or humorous incident included
in order to illustrate a point.
3.
The primary rhetorical function of lines 9-14 is to
(a) provide support for a thesis supplied in lines 1-2
(b) provide evidence to contrast with that supplied in the first paragraph
(c) present a thesis that will be challenged in paragraph 3
(d) introduce a series of generalizations that are supported in the last two paragraphs
(e) anticipate objections raised by the ideas presented in lines 9-11
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
4
# 3 HINT: In approaching a “function” question such as # 3, it may be helpful to think of
function keys on a computer keyboard. Such keys activate a function (create an effect)
when pressed, either alone or in various combinations.
4.
Lines 8-11 contain which of the following?
(a) Elaborate metaphor
(b) Parallel syntax
(c) A single periodic sentence
(d) A compound subject
(e) Subordinate clauses
# 4 HINTS:
 Parallel syntax refers to making two or more words, phrases, or clauses equivalent
in part of speech, grammatical structure, and concept. Sharon Hamilton offers
these examples in Introduction to Literary Terms With Exercises:
Edgar Allen Poe modifies the noun “day” with three successive adjectives in “The Fall
of the House of Usher” > “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day . . .”
In the following example from one of Julius Caesar’s speeches, the three independent
clauses (clauses that could stand alone as sentences in their own right) consist of the
same pronoun, followed by a verb in the past tense > “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

5.
A periodic sentence creates emphasis and suspense by saving the most important
information for the end of the sentence. Hamilton cites this example from Franz
Kafka’s The Metamorphosis which begins with this sentence > “As Gregor Samsa
awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed
into a gigantic insect.”
In the last sentence of paragraph 2 (lines 10-13), which of the following words is parallel
in function to “inventor” (line 11)?
(a) “clock” (line 12)
(b) “one” (line 12)
(c) “creator” (line 13)
(d) “art” (line 13)
(e) “Europe’s” (line14)
SEE HINT ON NEXT PAGE.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
5
# 5 HINT: Review the hints for questions # 3 and # 4.
6.
In line 20, “bearing” modifies
(a) “Imperial China” (line 17)
(b) “strangers” (line 17)
(c) “primitive islands” (line 17)
(d) “riches” (line 18)
(e) “Middle Kingdom” (line 18)
# 6 HINT: A “modifier” is a word, phrase, or clause that describes or qualifies
another word or words. Who is “bearing only worthless articles for exchange”?
7.
The point of view expressed in “They . . . men” (lines 20-21) is that of
(a) the author
(b) present-day historians
(c) eighteenth-century British merchants
(d) eighteenth-century Chinese
(e) present-day Chinese
# 7 HINT: Whose point of view or opinion is being expressed?
8.
The word “importunate” (line 24) is reinforced by the author’s later reference to
(a) “prohibitions to foreign entry” (lines23-24)
(b) “formal relations” (line 24)
(c) “knocking on its doors” (line 25)
(d) “the ritual of three genuflections” (lines 26-27)
(e) “empty-handed” (lines 28-29)
# 8 HINT: “Importunate” is defined as persistent, sometimes annoyingly so, in
one’s demands.
9.
Which of the following best describes the first sentence of paragraph 4 (lines 22-29)?
(a) The author’s interpretation of China’s situation in the late eighteenth century
(b) An objective summary of eighteenth-century Europe’s view of China
(c) A challenge to the opinions in paragraph 3
(d) A restatement of the ideas in paragraph 2
(e) A conclusion rebutted by the information in paragraph 4
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
6
# 9 HINTS:


10.
Number the paragraphs for easy reference.
To “rebut” is to contradict or oppose with evidence
Which of the following characteristics of Imperial China or Britain is most emphasized
in paragraph 4?
(a) Britain’s adaptability to foreign customs
(b) Imperial China’s aloof and insular attitude toward Europeans
(c) Imperial China’s wisdom in relying on tradition and ceremony
(d) Britain’s desperate need for foreign trade
(e) The splendor of the Imperial Chinese court
# 10 HINT:


11.
Note that Britain is mentioned only once in this paragraph. Therefore, you can
eliminate choices A and D.
Consider the remaining choices. Does the paragraph deal with China’s attitude
toward Europeans, with the wisdom of its reliance on tradition, or with the
splendor of its courts?
The tone of the passage is best described as
(a) scornful and unsympathetic
(b) reverent and respectful
(c) acerbic and cynical
(d) serious but faintly condescending
(e) irate but carefully judicious
# 11 HINT: When presented with two-term answer choices, consider each of
the terms individually. Immediately strike through inappropriate choices. If
one of the two terms is wrong, that choice is wrong. Many distractors
include one correct and one incorrect term.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
7
GROUP DEBRIEFING: PRACTICE #1




Enter your answers in the “My answer” column.
As a group, come to a consensus on what you believe to be the correct answer and enter it in
the “Group consensus” column.
As a group, write an explanation for your “Group Consensus” and provide evidence from the
passage to support that explanation. Your goal is to explain why you eliminated at least one
distractor. #1 has been done as an example for you.
Correct answers will be announced at the conclusion of the activity.
Item
#
1
My
answer
C
Group
Correct
Consensus answer
C
C
Explanation and Evidence
2
Choice A (past and present) is incorrect
because the passage stops at the end of the
18th century and does not deal with the
“present.”
Choice _____ is incorrect because
3
Choice _____ is incorrect because
4
Choice _____ is incorrect because
5
Choice _____ is incorrect because
6
Choice _____ is incorrect because
7
Choice _____ is incorrect because
8
Choice _____ is incorrect because
9
Choice _____ is incorrect because
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
8
10
Choice _____ is incorrect because
11
Choice _____ is incorrect because
INDIVIDUAL DEBRIEFING: PRACTICE #1
1.
The Forest and the Trees*
A.
Forest questions ask you to see the big picture. To answer them, you must read and
understand the entire passage.
Identify forest questions (F) and answer the questions below.

Where did the forest questions appear?
__________________________________________________________________________________

What did they ask you? Copy the key words you underlined or circled in the question stem.
__________________________________________________________________________________
B.
Tree questions point to specific parts of the passage. Typically they will include line or
paragraph identifiers. To answer them, you must accurately read those lines or paragraphs.
And, you will often need to read the lines before and after the line identifiers to determine the
correct response.
Identify tree (T) questions and answer the questions below.

In what order did the tree questions appear?
_________________________________________________________________________________
*concept developed by Patricia Cain, AP Consultant and Pasadena ISD teacher
* Thanks also to AP Consultant Jennifer Troy for her explanations of forest, tree, and root questions.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
9
2.
Item Analysis and Scoring
Total # of questions
#
% correct
correct
#/% of forest #/% of tree
questions correct questions correct
11
Remember that points are NOT deducted for wrong answers. The
multiple-choice section counts as 45% of the composite (1-5) score.
Although the range changes yearly depending on the total number
of multiple-choice questions, the approximate range below gives
you a general idea of how you’re performing. Use your “% correct”
above to “predict” the score you would earn if you took the test
today.
50-65% = 3
66-79% = 4
80-100% = 5
3.
Timing and Strategies
Answer the following questions.
A.
Did you finish within the allotted time? _____________________
B.
If you had time to spare, how did you use it? ___________________________________
C.
What multiple choice strategies did you acquire as you worked on this practice passage? Refer
to a minimum of two of the HINTS. Include the question numbers.
EXAMPLE: When presented with two-term answer choices, consider each of the terms
individually. Immediately strike through inappropriate choices. If one of the two terms is wrong,
that choice is wrong. Many distractors include one correct and one incorrect term.(#11)
STRATEGY #1: _________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
STRATEGY # 2: _________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
10
4.
Vocabulary.
List 5 vocabulary words and/or rhetorical terms from the question and
answer choices for review. Words and terms that appear in the questions and answer
choices are part of the Test Development Committee’s lexicon and may appear again.
Therefore, also list the denotations of these words based on their use in the questions or
answer choices when you have access to a dictionary.
Word/Term and Question Definition
#
Insular (# 10)
Concerned only with local matters and not interested in new ideas
or different cultures
5.
A Note on Tone
AP prompts often ask students to identify the author’s tone. AP gurus will tell you that to misinterpret tone is to
misinterpret meaning. Therefore, it is crucial that you develop a “tone vocabulary.” The tone of a text may be
articulated in several ways. The examples below are drawn from College Board-released AP English exams
multiple choice questions.
With a single adjective (Use with a part of a text.)
ambivalent, ironic, hopeful, hysterical, insistent (AP
Lit 2009)
With an adjective-conjunction- adjective-construction :
callous and reckless, petulant and critical, resigned
and reconciled, detached but hopeful, civil but angry
(AP Lang 2007)
With an adjective-noun construction:
guarded optimism, stoic determination, grim despair,
bewildering chaos, violent retribution (AP Lit 2009)
With an adverb- adjective construction:
grudgingly appreciative, cleverly nonjudgmental,
bitterly disillusioned, viciously sarcastic, essentially
negative (AP Lang 2007)
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
11
PRACTICE # 2 (from AP Language and Composition Workshop Handbook 2010-2011)
Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers. In the space provided at the end
of each paragraph, jot down the main idea.
This passage is taken from a contemporary book about engineering and technology.
HINTS:
The author of the passage refers to aesthetics and ornamentation.
Ornamentation is the act of decorating, adorning, or embellishing.
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste
START TIME:
STOP TIME:
A major attraction at the Paris Exposition of 1867 was the locomotive America. Its cab was
crafted of ash, maple, black walnut, mahogany, and cherry. Its boiler, smokestack, valve boxes, and
cylinders were covered with glistening silvery material. The tender was decorated with the arms of the
Republic, a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant, and a number of elaborate scrolls. Other machinery of the day
exhibited similar characteristics. Steam engines were built in “Greek revival” style, featuring fluted
columns and decorated pedestals. On a printing press called The Columbian each pillar was a caduceus
– the serpent-entwined staff of the universal messenger, Hermes – and atop the machine perched an
eagle with extended wings, grasping in its talons Jove’s thunderbolts, an olive branch of peace, and a
cornucopia of plenty, all bronzed and gilt. 1
MAIN IDEA:______________________________________________________________________
It is little remembered today that well into the late nineteenth century most American machine
manufacturers embellished their creations. While this practice pleased the public, some observers
considered it anomalous. A writer in the British periodical Engineering found it “extremely difficult to
understand how among a people so practical in most things, there is maintained a tolerance of the
grotesque ornaments and gaudy colors, which as a rule rather than the exception distinguish American
machines.”2 An exasperated critic for Scientific American asserted that “ a highly colored and fancifully
ornamented piece of machinery is good in the inverse ratio of the degree of color and ornament.”3
MAIN IDEA:______________________________________________________________________
By the beginning of the twentieth century, machine ornamentation yielded to clean lines,
economy, and restriction to the essential. “Form follows function” became the precept of a new
machine aesthetic. Creators of exotic contraptions like the locomotive America were accused of being
sentimentalists, hypocrites, and worse. Yet in their reluctance to give up adornment – ridiculous as it
might have seemed – these designers were in fact expressing a discomfort we all share, an uneasiness in
the face of mathematical severity.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
12
MAIN IDEA:______________________________________________________________________
The new machine aesthetic, the admiration of slickness and purity of line, spread from factories
and power plants into every area of society. The term “industrial design” was first used in 1913, and by
1927 the famed Norman Bel Geddes was calling himself an “industrial designer.” 4 During the twenties
and thirties practically every human artifact was repatterned in the new mode. Lamps, tables, and
chairs; toasters, refrigerators, and clocks, plates, goblets, and flatware – all were simplified, trimmed,
and reshaped. Even the humble pencil sharpener did not escape; Raymond Loewy created a
streamlined, chrome model in 1933.
MAIN IDEA:______________________________________________________________________
Along with the revolution in style, came many theories about why it was happening –
admiration and emulation of the machine being only one. The new simplicity, it was claimed, was
democratic at heart, a rebellion against the baroque ornateness of older, autocratic societies. A more
jaundiced view held that the new vogue was intended to distract the masses in hard times, or simply to
help promote the sale of products by giving the machine a good name.
MAIN IDEA:_________________________________________________________________________
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE ENTIRE PASSAGE: _______________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
1
John F. Kasson, Civilizing the Machine: Technology and Republican Values in America 1776-1900 (New
York: Grossman Publishers, The Viking Press, 1976), Chapter 4, “The Aesthetics of Machinery,” pp. 139180.
2
“Machine Tools at the Philadelphia Exhibition,” Engineering (26 May 1876), p. 427 cited by Kasson, see
note 1 above.
3
“The International Exhibition of 1876,” Scientific American Supplement (17 June 1876), p. 386, cited by
Kasson, see note 1 above.
4
Richard Guy Wilson, Dianne H. Pilgrim, Dickran Tashjian, The Machine Age in America 1918-1941 (New
York: The Brooklyn Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986), p.85.
1.
Which of the following best states the subject of the passage?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
The senselessness of ornamentation
The development of modern machinery
A popular revolt against methods of industrial production
A change in the aesthetics of machine design
The historical development of aesthetics
SEE HINT ON NEXT PAGE.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
13
# 1 HINT: This is what I call a FOREST question. Answering it requires an understanding of
the passage as a whole. It may be a “speed bump” for you right now. You may choose to
mark it for further consideration later. When you get ready to answer, eliminate any
choices that are too broad.
2.
In context, which of the following changes to the sentence in lines 3-4, reproduced below,
would make it more parallel to the preceding sentences?
The tender was decorated with the arms of the Republic, a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant, and an
number of elaborate scrolls.
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Change “The tender” to “Its tender”
Begin with “And thus”
Change “The tender was decorated with” to “The decoration on the tender was”
Begin with “Also Noteworthy”
Change “The tender was” to The tender, in addition, was”
# 2 HINT: Look back at the HINT for question # 4 in the first practice passage. Then, look
at the beginning of sentences two and three in this passage.
3.
Which of the following is being referred to by the abstract term “characteristics” (line 5)?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
4.
“boiler, smokestack, valve boxes” (line 2)
“The tender” (line 3)
“a number of elaborate scrolls” (line 4)
“Steam engines” (line 5)
“a printing press” (line 6)
The tone of lines 10-11 (“It is . . . creations”) can best be described as
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
disbelieving
uncertain
objective
exasperated
relieved
# 4 HINT: Is the tone best described as positive, negative, or neutral? Mark the answer
choices with positive (+) and negative (-) signs.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
14
5.
Which of the following is an accurate reading of footnote 2?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
An article by John F. Kasson appears on page 427 of Engineering.
“Machine Tools at the Philadelphia Exhibition” was published in New York.
The article “Engineering” can be found on page 427 of “Machine Tools at the
Philadelphia Exhibition.”
“Machine Tools at the Philadelphia Exhibition” is an article published in the May 26,
1876, issue of Engineering.
Engineering is an article cited by John F. Kasson.
# 5 HINTS:



6.
Make sure you’re looking at footnote 2.
To “cite” a source is to attribute where it came from.
The title of an “article” is placed in quotation marks. The title of a book is italicized.
Both of the writers quoted in paragraph 2 (lines 10-16) view elaborately decorated machinery as
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
amusingly imaginative
inherently impractical
typical of European inventions
reflective of the complexity of machines
likely to prove too costly to reproduce
# 6 HINT:
passage.
7.
Lines 20-22 (“Yet . . .severity”) imply that human beings share which of the following?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
8.
Eliminate answer choices that include topics not mentioned in the
A preference for some sort of embellishment
A natural curiosity about ideas
An innate indifference toward designers and design
A fear of shifts in cultural styles and taste
A rejection of the principle of symmetry
The reference to the first appearance of the phrase “industrial design” (line 24) serves to
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
note how a new expression can be mocked by experts
explore the ways in which form is determined by function
support the authenticity of the movement toward ornamentation
detail the ways in which simplicity of form became overdone and outdated
highlight how two seemingly unrelated terms became popularly linked
SEE HINT ON NEXT PAGE.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
15
# 8 HINT: Underline the “author’s purpose” verb (e.g., note in Choice A) in each answer
choice. Then, ask yourself what is the author’s purpose in referring to the phrase “industrial
design”? Which verb best describes his/her purpose?
9.
The purpose of footnote 4 is to inform the reader that the quotation in line 25
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
has been attributed to three different designers
was first cited in 1918
was the inspiration for an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum
is in an article in The Machine Age in America 1918-1941 written by Harry N. Abrams,
Inc.
appears in a book written by Wilson, Pilgrim, and Tashjian and published in 1986
# 9 HINTS:



10.
The structure of lines 25-29 (“During . . .1933”) can best be described as
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
11.
Make sure you’re looking at footnote 4.
To “attribute” is to give credit to the author of the material.
The title of an “article” is placed in quotation marks. The title of a book is
italicized.
an exaggeration followed by a series of qualifying statements
a movement from the particular to the general
a historical example followed by contemporary examples
a generalization followed by other generalizations
a claim followed by supporting details
The development of the passage can best be described as the
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
presentation of two conflicting ideas followed by a resolution
explanation of an historical issue leading to the examination of the same issue in
contemporary society
chronological examination of an aspect of design during a particular time period
movement from European to United States views of the topic
examination of technological advances at a particular point in time
# 11 HINT: Think of “development of the passage” as the progression, movement, or
organization of the passage. Pay special attention to words and phrases in the answer
choices such as followed by, leading to, during, from . . . to, at a particular point in time.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
16
12.
Taken as a whole, the footnotes suggest that
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
the author of the passage wants the text to present highly technical material
the author of the passage relies heavily on Kasson’s book
very little was written about the topic of machinery and ornamentation prior to 1976
engineering magazines are an essential source for technical writers
except in rare cases, it is best to use the latest published work when documenting an
idea or concept
GROUP or INDIVIDUAL DEBRIEFING: PRACTICE #2
Question #
Forest, Tree, or Root Question
1
forest
My Answer
Correct
Answer
D
Strategy Notes
Eliminate any choices
that are too broad.
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
17
THE MULTIPLE CHOICE TRAIL*
When you are working your way through the multiple choice section, imagine yourself hiking on a trail
through a forest.
A.
Forest questions ask you to see the big picture. To answer them, you must read and
understand the entire passage. Examples:



B.
The author’s tone in the passage is . . .
The style of the passage as a whole is most accurately characterized as . . .
The principal contrast employed by the author in the passage is between . . .
Tree questions point to specific parts of the passage. Typically they will include line or
paragraph identifiers. To answer them, you must accurately read those lines or paragraphs.
Examples:



C.
The primary rhetorical function of lines 14-22 is . . .
Both of the writers quoted in paragraph 2 (lines 18-32) view elaborately decorated
machinery as . . .
The speaker’s reference to Hernando de Soto’s visit to the springs in 1541 (lines 10-12)
serves primarily to . . .
Root questions ask you to interpret information in the footnotes or to correctly read the
footnotes. We identify them as Root questions because the footnotes provide information
about the foundation reading that helped the writer of the passage draw conclusions about
his/her subject material. There are 3 kinds of roots questions:
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
18
Following the traiL
BEFORE READING THE PASSAGE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Read the italicized information preceding the PASSAGE.
Scan the questions.
Mark the forest questions with an F.
Mark the footnote (roots ) questions with an R.
The remaining questions are trees . Mark them with a T. Note that they proceed in the order
of the passage.
CHOOSING A ROUTE
 Answer the footnote (roots ) questions first (before reading the passage). Some students (hikers)
prefer this route because nearly all the footnote questions can be answered without reading the
passage.
OR
 Read the passage first. Concentrate on the forest questions as you read. Mark the passage for
main ideas and/or shifts in tone, focus, or argument.
AFTER READING THE PASSAGE
1.
Answer the tree questions .
OR
Answer the roots questions .
2.
Answer the forest questions.
3.
Don’t lag behind on the trail. Allow 15 minutes per passage. Then, smile and move on to the
next passage.
*concept developed by Patricia Cain, AP Consultant and Pasadena ISD teacher
*explanations developed by AP Consultant Jennifer Troy
* cool clip art contributed by Beth Priem
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
19
Footnote
REVIEW
In addition to forest and tree questions, a third basic category of multiple choice questions is footnote
questions.
Footnote (citation) questions will ask you to do one of the following:
*comment on the reading content of the footnotes (more common)
*compare/contrast, draw conclusions about two or more footnotes (common)
*demonstrate your understanding of basic footnote rules (least common).
UNDERSTANDING BASIC FOOTNOTE RULES
Although the following information covers the rules for the LEAST COMMON citation questions on the
multiple choice exam, knowing this information is very important to a researcher who must list or
investigate sources.


Books, journals, and magazines (LONG works) are italicized or underlined.
Articles, essays, and chapters (SHORT works) are put in "quotation marks."
Ibid: If you cite the same source and page number(s) from a single source two or more times consecutively, the
corresponding note should use the word ‘Ibid.,’ an abbreviated form of the Latin ‘ibidem,’ which means ‘in the
same place.’ If you use the same source but a different page number, the corresponding note should use ‘Ibid.’
followed by a comma and the new page number(s).

The information in footnotes can be expressed in a sentence or two. You are told these facts about
works in this order:
Author(s), editors > Title of work > City where published > Publishing Company > Date of publication
>Page number where quotation appears in the work.
See the footnote in the next box.
Richard Guy Wilson, Dianne H. Pilgrim, The Machine Age in America 1918-1941 (New York: The
Brooklyn Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986), p. 85.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
20
Sample sentence: Wilson and Pilgrim wrote a book entitled The Machine Age in America 1918-1941
which was published in New York by the Brooklyn Museum in 1986. The quote appears on page 85 of
that book.
Your Turn: Read the footnote in the box and then write the information in a sentence or two.
John F. Kasson, Civilizing the Machine: Technology and Republican Values in America 17761900 (New York: Grossman Publishers, The Viking Press, 1976), Chapter 4, “The Aesthetics of
Memory,” pp.139-180.
Your sentence: ______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
MORE COMPLICATED FOOTNOTES
Sometimes footnotes get more complicated--you are reading a book and within the book the writer
quotes from another book. Here's how that footnote looks:
John Peterson, Cars and Trucks in America (Boston: Scribner Publishing, 1944) in Wilson, Pilgrim, The
Machine Age in America 1918-1941 (New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 1986), p. 101-5.
The documented quotation was originally written by John Peterson in the book Cars and Trucks in
America. But, the writer who is citing this information actually found the quote in Wilson and Pilgrim's
book, The Machine Age in America 1918-1914, on page 101-5.
Remember that a footnote may take the form of a citation (a reference footnote), or it may provide
further explanation (a content footnote). Sometimes it may do both.
Footnote review created by Jennifer Troy.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
21
Passage 1 (China) Answer Key
Passage 2 (Machinery) Answer Key
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
c
b
a
b
c
b
d
c
a
b
d
d
a
c
c
d
b
a
e
e
e
c
b
APMC PRACTICE TEST INSTRUCTIONS
1.
You are encouraged to mark on your test. Judicious notating of the questions is an effective
strategy for making educated guesses and for fighting the fatigue factor.
Mark your answers on the test as well as on the answer sheet for retest purposes.
Scoring: Each correct answer earns one point. Because there is no penalty for guessing, you are
encouraged to use a process of elimination and answer all the questions.
This is a norm-referenced test which will count as a product grade. Your goal is to answer
approximately 50% of the questions correctly.
You will have 60 minutes for the test. Record the START and STOP times and make a plan so
that you do not run out of time.
Remember that pacing is not only a matter of finishing. It is also a matter of using all of the
allocated time effectively.
Out of courtesy to others, please remain seated until time is called.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
ACTIVE READING REMINDERS


Read the italicized information that appears at the beginning of the passage.
Scan the questions. Make notes above the passage on what the forest questions are asking. See
the sample forest questions and suggested notes below. The notes will be the focus of your reading.
o
o


The speaker’s central rhetorical strategy in the passage is . . .
The tone of the passage is best described as . . .
> central rhetorical strategy
> tone
Underline every other sentence in order to break up long chunks of material (especially pre-20th
century passages).
Mark main ideas and shifts in tone, focus, or argument.
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
22
Measuring Your Success
Directions:
 Compare your answers with the correct answers on the answer key and fill in the blank spaces on
the charts below.
 Use the space below the charts to comment on patterns you perceive in your performance.
Passage 1: John Stuart Mill (19th century British writer)
#
1
Correct/incorrect
2
% of students
answering
40
correctly
3
4
66
5
6
7
80
8
9
10
11
55
70
43
84
12
13
14
70
15
16
17
50
Passage 2: W.E.B. Du Bois (excerpted from a 1940 autobiographical essay)
#
18
Correct/incorrect
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
% of students
answering
80
78
85
correctly
Passage 3: Walter Isaacson (excerpted from a recent work that examines Benjamin Franklin)
#
32
Correct/incorrect
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
31
85
44
45
----% of students
answering
77
correctly
*
22
78
74
Passage 4: Joyce Carol Oates (contemporary American writer)
#
46
Correct/incorrect
& of students
answering
correctly
60
47
48
60
49
50
51
59
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
52
53
36
23
Directions:
 Compare your answers by passage to the 2007 national statistics.
 Enter your number correct per passage and calculate your percent by dividing your number
correct by the number of questions for that passage. For example, the average number correct on
the John Stuart Mill passage was 11.2 out of 17. Dividing the number correct (11.2) by the total
number of questions (17) yields a percentage correct of 65.9%.
 Use the space below the charts to comment on patterns you perceive in your performance.
Remember that your goal is to answer 50% of the questions correctly.
John Stuart Mill
Number of
questions
Average number
correct
W.E.B. Du Bois
Walter Issacson
17
14
13
11.2
(65.9%)
8.5
(60.7%)
8.5
65.4%
Joyce Carol
Oates
8
3.9
(48.8%)
My Number
Correct
And Percentage
Playing the “What if?” Game*
1.
Assume that each multiple choice question answered correctly is worth 1.298 points.
2.
Multiply the number of questions you answered correctly by 1.298:
3.
Play the “What if?” game. What if you could improve your score on the multiple choice section
by 5 questions, adding 6.49 points to your score?:
________________
4.
What if you could improve your score on the multiple choice section by 10 questions, adding
12.98 points to your score?:
_________________
5.
Remember that the multiple choice section is worth 45% of your composite score.
6.
Check below the improvements you can make before the REAL AP EXAM in May.
_____________
_______
I can make a plan for time allotment.
_______
I can read the introductory material (in italics).
_______
I can maintain my focus and fight the “fatigue factor” by writing a brief summary in the
margin next to each paragraph of the passage. (Even just a word or two will help!)
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
24
_______
I can underline, circle, or otherwise mark key words in the questions and in the answer
choices.
_______
I can strike through “distractors” and make an educated guess from the remaining
choices.
_______
I can mark the line(s) where I found the answer to each question with a > in the margin
in order to keep my place and save time.
7.
Use the space below to write goals specific to your own needs on the multiple choice section.
_______
I can _________________________________________________________________
_______
I can _________________________________________________________________
8.
REVIEW THIS PAGE THE NIGHT BEFORE THE EXAM.
*Many thanks to the Kentucky NMSI teachers for the “What if?” strategy.
APMC INDIVIDUAL AND COLLABORATIVE DEBRIEFING: INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP “RETESTS”
MATERIALS
VALUE AND SCORING
DIRECTIONS
IND.
1. Locate incorrect answers (marked with a check) on
 DICTIONARIES  ANOTHER
the answer sheet.
PRODUCT
 TESTS
GRADE (DOES NOT 2. Try again now that you have definitely eliminated
 ANSWER
REPLACE ORIGINAL one of the distractors.
SHEETS
3. Erase wrong answers and enter new answers on
GRADE)
the answer sheet.
 EACH CORRECT
3. Enter an answer for any question you did not
ANSWER EARNS
answer originally.
ONE POINT
GROUP  DICTIONARIES  ANOTHER
1. Move your desks together to create a table
surface.
PRODUCT
 TESTS
GRADE (DOES NOT 2. Write everyone’s first & last names on the answer
 ONE ANSWER
REPLACE ORIGINAL sheet.
SHEET PER
3. Review/discuss all test questions and come to a
GRADE)
GROUP
group consensus on the correct answer.
 YOU WILL BE
RANKED BY TIME* 4. Make notes on your individual test of the group’s
AND SCORE FROM answer choices.
5. Talk only to the people in your group.
80 to 100 (80, 84,
88, 92, 96, 100).
 ORIGINAL SCORES
WILL PREVAIL IF
HIGHER.*
Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014
25