Ged® Test Reasoning Through Language Arts (Rla) Review
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GED® TEST REASONING THROUGH LANGUAGE ARTS (RLA) REVIEW GED_RLA_00_FM_i-x.indd 1 2/29/16 3:21 PM Other titles of interest from LearningExpress GED® Test Preparation GED® Test Mathematical Reasoning Review ® GED Test Flash Review: Mathematical Reasoning ® GED Test Flash Review: Reasoning through Language Arts ® GED Test Flash Review: Science ® GED Test Flash Review: Social Studies GED_RLA_00_FM_i-x.indd 2 2/29/16 3:21 PM GED® TEST REASONING THROUGH LANGUAGE ARTS (RLA) REVIEW ® NEW YORK GED_RLA_00_FM_i-x.indd 3 2/29/16 3:21 PM Copyright © 2016 LearningExpress. All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by LearningExpress, New York. ISBN-13: 978-1-61103-048-8 Printed in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For more information on LearningExpress, other LearningExpress products, or bulk sales, please write to us at: 224 W. 29th Street 3rd Floor New York, NY 10001 GED_RLA_00_FM_i-x.indd 4 2/29/16 3:21 PM CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 Introduction to the GED® RLA Test 1 About the GED® RLA Test 2 Question Types 2 How to Use This Book 7 Test Taking Tips 7 Eliminating Answer Choices 9 Keeping Track of Time 10 Preparing for the Test 11 The Big Day 12 Good Luck! 12 CHAPTER 2 Diagnostic Test 13 Part I 17 Part II 29 Answers and Explanations 30 CHAPTER 3 Reading Comprehension: Big Picture Tools 37 Reading the Passages 38 Tips for Fiction Passages 40 Tips for Nonfiction Passages 41 Author’s Purpose 42 Point of View 45 Theme 47 Synthesis 51 Reading More Closely 55 v GED_RLA_00_FM_i-x.indd 5 2/29/16 3:21 PM –CONTENTS– Interpreting What You Read 57 Quiz 59 Answers and Explanations 62 Review 65 CHAPTER 4 Reading Comprehension: Close-Reading Skills 67 Make Connections 67 Main Idea and Supporting Details 68 Reading Comprehension Review 73 Summarizing 77 Fact and Opinion 79 Organizational Structure 81 Inferences 87 Making Comparisons between Passages 89 Quiz 90 Answers and Explanations 97 Review 101 CHAPTER 5 Language and Grammar: Reading Skills 103 Word Parts 103 Parts of Speech 106 Context Clues 118 Multiple Meaning Words 119 Frequently Confused Words and Homonyms 120 Literary Devices 121 Language and Grammar Review 123 Answers and Explanations 125 Review 128 CHAPTER 6 Language and Grammar: Grammar Skills 129 GED® Test Strategies 129 Sentence Construction 130 Capitalization 136 Using Apostrophes to Create Possessive Nouns and Contractions 140 Sentence Punctuation 142 Sentence Structure 145 Usage 145 Mechanics 146 Organization 146 Quiz 148 Answers and Explanations 149 Review 151 vi GED_RLA_00_FM_i-x.indd 6 2/29/16 3:21 PM –CONTENTS– CHAPTER 7 The Extended Response Essay: Tips and Scoring 153 About the GED® Test Extended Response Question 153 Before You Write Your Essay 154 What’s in an Essay 155 How Your Essay Will Be Scored 160 Extended Response Practice 163 Extended Response Practice Sample Essays 169 CHAPTER 8 The Extended Response Essay: Planning and Revising 173 How to Write a Powerful Essay 173 Thinking Styles 174 Organization of Your Essay 179 Example of an Extended Response Essay 181 Revising an Essay 189 Sample Extended Response Question 189 Practice Essay 191 The Final Steps 195 Quiz 195 Answers and Explanations 198 A Final Word 206 Review 208 CHAPTER 9 GED® RLA Practice Test 1 209 Part I 210 Part II 226 Answers and Explanations 232 CHAPTER 10 GED® RLA Practice Test 2 249 Part I 250 Part II 267 Answers and Explanations 275 vii GED_RLA_00_FM_i-x.indd 7 2/29/16 3:21 PM Blank Page GED_RLA_00_FM_i-x.indd 8 2/29/16 3:21 PM GED® TEST REASONING THROUGH LANGUAGE ARTS (RLA) REVIEW GED_RLA_00_FM_i-x.indd 9 2/29/16 3:21 PM Blank Page GED_RLA_00_FM_i-x.indd 10 2/29/16 3:21 PM INTRODUCTION TO THE GED® RLA TEST CHAPTER 1 his book is designed to help people master the basic reading skills and concepts required to do well on the GED® Reasoning through Language Arts (RLA) test. Many people who are preparing for this par- Tticular GED® test have not been in a school setting for some time. This means reading skills have gotten rusty or have been forgotten altogether. Others may have been in a school setting, but have not mastered various essential reading skills. By focusing on basic reading skills, this book will give its readers a better grasp of key reading concepts. This book is not designed to prepare people to take the GED® test immediately afterward. Instead, its goal is to provide the necessary foundation of reading skills required for the GED® Reasoning through Language Arts test. Without these fundamental skills, it would be difficult for a person to prepare for the test effectively, much less earn a passable score. However, once these basic reading skills are understood, a person is then on the right path toward learning the concepts needed to succeed on this particular GED® test. 1 GED_RLA_01_1-12.indd 1 2/29/16 3:22 PM –INTRODUCTION TO THE GED® RLA TEST – About the GED® RLA Test How Long Is the Test? You can choose to take all four GED® tests at once, or In previous versions of the GED® test, the Language you can take each test separately. The entire exam will Arts section was divided into two separate tests: take about seven hours to complete. The timing for Reading and Writing. The new GED® test combines each subject area alone is as follows: these into a single test. Questions in this section will ask you to do things like identify the main idea or n Mathematical Reasoning—115 minutes theme in a reading passage or determine the mean- n Reasoning through Language Arts—150 minutes ings of words within a passage. The RLA section also (including a 10-minute break) tests your knowledge of grammar, sentence structure, n Science—90 minutes and the mechanics of language. Sharpening your n Social Studies—90 minutes reading and writing skills is important for the GED® test, and not only for the Reasoning through Lan- guage Arts section: The GED® Social Studies test and Question Types the GED® Science test also measure your ability to understand and communicate ideas through writing. The traditional multiple-choice questions will still be The Reasoning through Language Arts test will the main type you will see on the RLA test, and each contain a number of reading passages, each 400 to item will have four possible answer choices to select 900 words in length. Approximately 75% of these from. This is a change from previous GED® tests, passages will be nonfiction, and the other 25% will be which had five choices for each multiple-choice item. fiction. There is still only one correct answer choice for each Because the new GED® test is all given on the item. This eliminates the possibility of answer choices computer, you will see a number of different question such as “All of the above” or “Both A and B,” and types that are more interactive than the usual multi- allows you to focus on selecting the one correct ple-choice questions. answer. On the RLA test, all multiple-choice items will How Is the Test Delivered? refer to a reading passage; each passage will be followed You will take your GED® test on a computer. by six to eight items. The layout for multiple-choice Although you absolutely do not need to be a com- items related to a passage will be split-screen—the puter expert to take the GED® test, you should be passage will appear on the left, and the multiple- comfortable using a mouse and typing on a choice items will appear on the right. keyboard. 2 GED_RLA_01_1-12.indd 2 2/29/16 3:22 PM –INTRODUCTION TO THE GED® RLA TEST – Drag and Drop to the appropriate place in the problem, diagram, For these questions, you will need to click on the cor- chart, or graph that you’re given. rect object, hold down the mouse, and drag the object Of course, within this book you can’t drag and drop Drop Down items. For the purposes of GED® Test Reasoning In drop-down questions, you will need to select the through Language Arts (RLA) Review, you will choose answer or phrase to complete a sentence or problem from a list of items, as you would on a typical drag- from a menu that drops down with the click of a and-drop question, and write the correct answer(s) in button. the appropriate spot. 3 GED_RLA_01_1-12.indd 3 2/29/16 3:22 PM –INTRODUCTION TO THE GED® RLA TEST – Drop-down questions are very similar to multiple- Fill-in-the-Blank choice questions, so you will not see them in the two These questions ask you to manually type in tests within this book. answer(s) to a problem rather than choose from sev- eral choices. The fill-in-the-blank questions in this book look Hot Spot almost exactly like the ones you’ll encounter in the For hot-spot questions, you will be asked to click on online test, but here you will of course have to write an area of the screen to indicate where the correct in your answer instead of typing it. answer is located. For instance, you may be asked to plot a point by clicking on the corresponding online graph or to click on a certain area of a map. 4 GED_RLA_01_1-12.indd 4 2/29/16 3:22 PM –INTRODUCTION TO THE GED® RLA TEST– In this book, you will be asked to draw a dot on a spe- the provided lines.