ASVAB Paragraph Comprehension Practice Test 8029 Results

Your Results Global Average
Questions 5 5
Correct 0 2.75
Score 0% 55%

Review

1
Ohio started the month of July with its pedal to the metal. The Buckeye State became the 34th state to adopt the 70 miles-an-hour speed limit. Drivers can now do up to 70 on more than 570 of Ohio's 1,332 miles of interstate highway. Congress repealed the 55 mph national limit in 1995. Despite predictions of calamity and carnage on the highways, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in October 1998 that "the traffic death rate dropped to a record low level in 1997". That pattern has continued since then.
You can infer from this paragraph that higher speed limits _______________ the traffic death rate.
39% Answer Correctly
are not linked to
reduce
have no impact on
increase

Solution
The paragraph cites research that indicates a long term decrease in the traffic death rate since the national speed limit was repealed in 1995. This lends credence to the opinion that higher speed limits reduce the traffic death rate.

2
The Peace Corps is a volunteer program run by the United States government. The stated mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance; helping people outside the United States to understand American culture; and helping Americans to understand the cultures of other countries.
Which of the following activities would not fit the stated goals of the Peace Corps?
78% Answer Correctly
Teaching English to local business owners in Croatia.
Organizing a protest against unfair labor laws in Bangladesh.
Organizing a foreign exchange program for an American high school.
Setting up a computer network for an elementary school in Taiwan.

Solution
Engaging in local politics does not fit the stated mission of the Peace Corps.

3
On Monday, after a long quarter-century, West Virginians said goodbye to their state's 6 percent food tax. Now to see what, if any, business we've been missing. In 1989, retailers warned that sales in West Virginia would go down if legislators imposed a 6 percent tax on food. "Whatever they put on would be passed on to the consumer," Charles Forth, who owned supermarkets in both West Virginia and Ohio, told the newspaper in February 1989. "Six percent is $6 on $100. That will make a difference when people are already hurting and trying to make ends meet." It's a lot easier to drive customers away than to win them back, a fact legislators should bear in mind when it comes to taxation.
The author is _______________ that eliminating the 6 percent food tax will bring customers back to West Virginia stores.
45% Answer Correctly
denying
confident
skeptical
hopeful

Solution
The author cites a local retailer who predicted that sales in West Virginia would go down if the food tax was implemented and, although no facts are given to indicate that sales did in fact go down, the tone of the paragraph implies that the perception is that they have. The author is skeptical that eliminating the food tax will bring customers back claiming "It's a lot easier to drive customers away than to win them back".

4
Reserve Deputy Probation Officers are deputized volunteers who have received special training in order to assist Probation staff in a wide range of supervised responsibilities, that include direct involvement with juvenile an d adult probationers. Reserve Deputies are highly motivated, skilled, and caring people who want to serve their community as a part of the Los Angeles County Probation Department. Reserve Deputies are not a replacement for or an alternative to paid staff, but are intended to be an enhancement to existing resources.
From the passage, it can be inferred that:
61% Answer Correctly
Experienced Reserve Deputies supervise new volunteer Reserve Deputies.
Members of the community who become Reserve Deputie s have a desire to give back to the community.
Reserve Deputies are able to act independently on the job once they have successfully passed all training requirements.
Direct interaction with probationers is the primary Duty of a Reserve Deputy.

Solution
The passage states that Reserve Deputies are "people who want to serve their community."

5
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor, as opposed to the method of internal reconstruction, which analyzes the internal development of a single language over time.
Which of the following would be the most useful for someone using the comparative method in linguistics when studying a particular language?
66% Answer Correctly
Old folk songs that have been passed down among generations of speakers of the language.
An ancient text written in the language.
The same text written in two different dialects of the language.
Two editions of the same text written one-hundred years apart.

Solution
The wrong answers all provide insight into how a single language has changed over time while the text written in two different dialects offers an opportunity to compare languages that share a common ancestor.