The following text is adapted from Paul Laurence Dunbar’s 1902 novel The Sport of the Gods. Joe and some of his family members have recently moved to New York City. [Joe] was wild with enthusiasm and with a desire to be a part of all that the metropolis meant. In the evening he saw the young fellows passing by dressed in their spruce clothes, and he wondered with a sort of envy where they could be going. Back home there had been no place much worth going to, except church and one or two people’s houses.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A) It illustrates a character’s reaction to a new environment.

B) It explains why a character has traveled to a city.

C) It compares a character’s thoughts about an event at two different times of day.

D) It presents a character feeling regret over leaving home.

Yawn contagion occurs when one individual yawns in response to another’s yawn. Studies of this behavior in primates have focused on populations in captivity, but biologist Elisabetta Palagi and her colleagues have shown that it can occur in wild primate populations as well. In their study, which focused on a wild population of gelada monkeys (Theropithecus gelada) in Ethiopia, the researchers further reported that yawn contagion most commonly occurred in males and across different social groups instead of within a single social group.

Which choice best describes the function of the first sentence in the text as a whole?

A) It defines a phenomenon that is discussed in the text.

B) It introduces a problem that is examined in the text.

C) It makes a claim that is challenged in the text.

D) It presents a hypothesis that is evaluated in the text.

The following text is from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1910 poem “The Earth’s Entail.”

No matter how we cultivate the land,
Taming the forest and the prairie free;
No matter how we irrigate the sand,
Making the desert blossom at command,
We must always leave the borders of the sea;
The immeasurable reaches
Of the windy wave-wet beaches,
The million-mile-long margin of the sea.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A)The speaker argues against interfering with nature and then gives evidence supporting this interference.

B) The speaker presents an account of efforts to dominate nature and then cautions that such efforts are only temporary.

C) The speaker provides examples of an admirable way of approaching nature and then challenges that approach.

D) The speaker describes attempts to control nature and then offers a reminder that not all nature is controllable.

The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston’s 1921 short story “John Redding Goes to Sea.” John is a child who lives in a town in the woods. Perhaps ten-year-old John was puzzling to the folk there in the Florida woods for he was an imaginative child and fond of daydreams. The St. John River flowed a scarce three hundred feet from his back door. On its banks at this point grow numerous palms, luxuriant magnolias and bay trees. On the bosom of the stream float millions of delicately colored hyacinths. [John Redding] loved to wander down to the water’s edge, and, casting in dry twigs, watch them sail away downstream to Jacksonville, the sea, the wide world, and [he] wanted to follow them.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?"

A) It provides an extended description of a location that John likes to visit.

B) It reveals that some residents of John’s town are confused by his behavior.

C) It illustrates the uniqueness of John’s imagination compared to the imaginations of other children

D) It suggests that John longs to experience a larger life outside the Florida woods.

The following text is adapted from Indian Boyhood, a 1902 memoir by Ohiyesa (Charles A. Eastman), a Santee Dakota writer. In the text, Ohiyesa recalls how the women in his tribe harvested maple syrup during his childhood. Now the women began to test the trees—moving leisurely among them, axe in hand, and striking a single quick blow, to see if the sap would appear. The trees, like people, have their individual characters; some were ready to yield up their lifeblood, while others were more reluctant. Now one of the birchen basins was set under each tree, and a hardwood chip driven deep into the cut which the axe had made. From the corners of this chip—at first drop by drop, then more freely—the sap trickled into the little dishes.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

A)It portrays the range of personality traits displayed by the women as they work.

B) It foregrounds the beneficial relationship between humans and maple trees.

C) It demonstrates how human behavior can be influenced by the natural environment.

D) It elaborates on an aspect of the maple trees that the women evaluate.