Strategies for the ACT reading Test

• memorize the directions to save time on test day.
• The test is 35 minutes long and includes 40 questions. By the time you have read the passages, you will have approximately 30 seconds for each question
• there are three different categories of reading questions: ‘specific detail’, ‘inference’, and ‘big picture’
• there are four reading passage categories: social science, natural sciences, humanities, and prose fiction. The passages are about 1,000 words long. Each category has ten questions
• do not get swamped by all the information in the passages and do not let the answer choices direct your thinking
• use the line references given when referring to the text and read just before and after them

Question:

    We still have, in short, all the weapons in the arsenal of satire: the rapier of wit, the broadsword of invective, the stiletto of parody, the Damoclean swords of sarcasm and irony. Their cutting edges are bright and sharp; they glisten with barbs guaranteed to stick and stay stuck in the thickest hide, or stab the inflated Polonius in the arras. Yet though they hang well-oiled and ready to our hands, we tend to use them separately and gingerly. We are afraid of hurting someone’s feelings or of being hurt in a return bout. We tremble at the prospect of treading on someone’s corns. We are too full of the milquetoast of human kindness. We always see the Other Side of the Case, always remember that our Victim may have a Mom who loves him, always fear that we may be setting him back a few hundred hours in his psychiatric progress toward the Terrestrial City of Perfect Readjustment. Oh, yes. We poke and pry a bit. We pin an errant butterfly to a board or two. But for real lessons in the

ungentlest of the arts we must turn back to the older masters.

1. What title best expresses the main idea of the passage?
(A) Idle Weapons
(B) The Well-Adjusted Person
(C) Writing and Psychiatry
(D) Lessons and Past Masters

2. According to the passage, we avoid using satire because we:
(A) are afraid of it.
(B) do not understand it.
(C) feel inferior to older masters.
(D) are not inquisitive

3. As used in the passage, the word ‘gingerly’ most nearly means:
(A) insincerely
(B) effectively
(C) clumsily
(D) carefully

4. Which device does the author not use in the passage?
(A) Literary allusions
(B) Metaphor
(C) Anecdotes
(D) Sarcasm

Answers:
1. A
2. A
3. D
4. C

Explanation:
1. The weapons of satire are idle because the author feels that we are afraid to use them.
2. The passage states: "We are afraid of hurting someone’s feelings or of being hurt in a return bout."
3. We use the weapons carefully because we are afraid of them.
4. There are no anecdotes, or humorous examples, in the passage.

Try our sample ACT math questions.

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