GED Language Arts Practice Test: Reading Literary Passages
- Reading Fiction: Character, Theme and Figurative Language
- 10 questions
- 15 minutes
These 10 questions are based on two short original stories, five questions each. The GED Reasoning Through Language Arts test asks you to support every answer with the text, so for each choice look for the words in the passage that prove it.
Tap an option to mark your answer. You can change your mind, or tap the same option again to leave the question blank. The correct answers and explanations appear when you finish the test.Tap an option to answer; tap it again to leave the question blank.
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Question 1
Read the passage.
Mrs. Alvarez had run the corner bakery for thirty-one years, and in all that time she had never once put up a sign. People found the door the way bees find clover. On the morning the developers came with their clipboards and their friendly smiles, she was rolling dough for conchas, flour to her elbows.
"We can offer you a very generous price," the younger one said, glancing at the cracked floor tiles.
Mrs. Alvarez did not look up. "Everything has a price," she said, pressing her thumb into the dough. "That is why I keep a few things that are not for sale."
When they left, she slid a tray into the oven and stood watching the bread rise, as if it might tell her something she did not already know.
What does the comparison "the way bees find clover" suggest about the bakery's customers?
Correct answer: C
Bees find clover by instinct, not by reading signs, and the sentence before says the bakery never had a sign. Nothing in the passage suggests the customers came only in summer; the comparison is about how they find the place, not when.
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Question 2
Read the passage.
Mrs. Alvarez had run the corner bakery for thirty-one years, and in all that time she had never once put up a sign. People found the door the way bees find clover. On the morning the developers came with their clipboards and their friendly smiles, she was rolling dough for conchas, flour to her elbows.
"We can offer you a very generous price," the younger one said, glancing at the cracked floor tiles.
Mrs. Alvarez did not look up. "Everything has a price," she said, pressing her thumb into the dough. "That is why I keep a few things that are not for sale."
When they left, she slid a tray into the oven and stood watching the bread rise, as if it might tell her something she did not already know.
What does Mrs. Alvarez most likely mean when she says, "That is why I keep a few things that are not for sale"?
Correct answer: B
She refuses the offer while calmly continuing her work, which shows that the bakery has a value to her that a price cannot match. The passage never mentions selling the recipes or waiting for a better offer.
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Question 3
Read the passage.
Mrs. Alvarez had run the corner bakery for thirty-one years, and in all that time she had never once put up a sign. People found the door the way bees find clover. On the morning the developers came with their clipboards and their friendly smiles, she was rolling dough for conchas, flour to her elbows.
"We can offer you a very generous price," the younger one said, glancing at the cracked floor tiles.
Mrs. Alvarez did not look up. "Everything has a price," she said, pressing her thumb into the dough. "That is why I keep a few things that are not for sale."
When they left, she slid a tray into the oven and stood watching the bread rise, as if it might tell her something she did not already know.
The detail that the younger developer was "glancing at the cracked floor tiles" mainly suggests that he
Correct answer: D
He speaks about a "generous price" while looking at damage, which hints that he sees the bakery only as an old building. Nothing in the passage points to a wish to help with repairs or to any past work in a bakery.
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Question 4
Read the passage.
Mrs. Alvarez had run the corner bakery for thirty-one years, and in all that time she had never once put up a sign. People found the door the way bees find clover. On the morning the developers came with their clipboards and their friendly smiles, she was rolling dough for conchas, flour to her elbows.
"We can offer you a very generous price," the younger one said, glancing at the cracked floor tiles.
Mrs. Alvarez did not look up. "Everything has a price," she said, pressing her thumb into the dough. "That is why I keep a few things that are not for sale."
When they left, she slid a tray into the oven and stood watching the bread rise, as if it might tell her something she did not already know.
Mrs. Alvarez keeps rolling dough and does not look up while the developer speaks. What does this behavior show about her?
Correct answer: A
She answers right away, so she heard him, but she does not stop working; the offer does not shake her. Her calm reply about things "not for sale" confirms that her decision is already made.
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Question 5
Read the passage.
Mrs. Alvarez had run the corner bakery for thirty-one years, and in all that time she had never once put up a sign. People found the door the way bees find clover. On the morning the developers came with their clipboards and their friendly smiles, she was rolling dough for conchas, flour to her elbows.
"We can offer you a very generous price," the younger one said, glancing at the cracked floor tiles.
Mrs. Alvarez did not look up. "Everything has a price," she said, pressing her thumb into the dough. "That is why I keep a few things that are not for sale."
When they left, she slid a tray into the oven and stood watching the bread rise, as if it might tell her something she did not already know.
Which statement best expresses a theme of the passage?
Correct answer: C
The story centers on a woman who turns down a generous price because her bakery means more to her than money. The passage says nothing about the bakery needing to change, and it does not show the developers as dishonest.
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Question 6
Read the passage.
I was twelve the winter my father started working nights at the plant. He left as I came home from school, his lunch pail swinging like a lantern, and he came back while I was still asleep. For weeks we lived in the same house like two clocks set to different countries.
Then one morning I found a note on the kitchen table, written on the back of an envelope in his square, careful letters: "Saw the frost on your window. Looked like a map of somewhere we should go."
I kept that envelope in my math book until the corners went soft. It was the first of many. By spring, I had started leaving notes of my own.
The narrator writes, "we lived in the same house like two clocks set to different countries." What does this comparison show?
Correct answer: B
Clocks set to different countries show different times, just as the father worked at night while the narrator was awake in the day. The passage says the father worked "at the plant," not abroad, so the comparison is about time, not travel.
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Question 7
Read the passage.
I was twelve the winter my father started working nights at the plant. He left as I came home from school, his lunch pail swinging like a lantern, and he came back while I was still asleep. For weeks we lived in the same house like two clocks set to different countries.
Then one morning I found a note on the kitchen table, written on the back of an envelope in his square, careful letters: "Saw the frost on your window. Looked like a map of somewhere we should go."
I kept that envelope in my math book until the corners went soft. It was the first of many. By spring, I had started leaving notes of my own.
From which point of view is the passage told?
Correct answer: D
The narrator uses "I" and describes events from when the narrator "was twelve," so this is an adult looking back on childhood. We learn the father's thoughts only through the note, not through a narrator who can see inside every character's mind.
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Question 8
Read the passage.
I was twelve the winter my father started working nights at the plant. He left as I came home from school, his lunch pail swinging like a lantern, and he came back while I was still asleep. For weeks we lived in the same house like two clocks set to different countries.
Then one morning I found a note on the kitchen table, written on the back of an envelope in his square, careful letters: "Saw the frost on your window. Looked like a map of somewhere we should go."
I kept that envelope in my math book until the corners went soft. It was the first of many. By spring, I had started leaving notes of my own.
Why does the narrator most likely mention keeping the envelope "until the corners went soft"?
Correct answer: A
Paper only wears soft when it is handled again and again, so the detail shows how much the note meant to the narrator. The father's "careful letters" rule out the idea that the note was written in a hurry.
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Question 9
Read the passage.
I was twelve the winter my father started working nights at the plant. He left as I came home from school, his lunch pail swinging like a lantern, and he came back while I was still asleep. For weeks we lived in the same house like two clocks set to different countries.
Then one morning I found a note on the kitchen table, written on the back of an envelope in his square, careful letters: "Saw the frost on your window. Looked like a map of somewhere we should go."
I kept that envelope in my math book until the corners went soft. It was the first of many. By spring, I had started leaving notes of my own.
How does the relationship between the narrator and the father change over the passage?
Correct answer: C
At first they barely see each other, but the father's notes and then the narrator's replies connect them again. The father never changes shifts in the passage, and the notes continue, not stop, in spring.
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Question 10
Read the passage.
I was twelve the winter my father started working nights at the plant. He left as I came home from school, his lunch pail swinging like a lantern, and he came back while I was still asleep. For weeks we lived in the same house like two clocks set to different countries.
Then one morning I found a note on the kitchen table, written on the back of an envelope in his square, careful letters: "Saw the frost on your window. Looked like a map of somewhere we should go."
I kept that envelope in my math book until the corners went soft. It was the first of many. By spring, I had started leaving notes of my own.
Which sentence from the passage best shows that the notes became a two-way exchange?
Correct answer: D
Only the last sentence shows the narrator writing back to the father. "It was the first of many" shows that the father kept writing, but it says nothing about the narrator answering.
Questions you leave blank are not counted as wrong.
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