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Reading and Writing: Craft and Structure

The biggest domain on the section and the one that opens every module: words on a dial, outlines that build, and two arguments mapped side by side.

21 topics · 81 questions

Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.

Words in Context: The Fill-in-the-Blank Item

  1. How it worksHow does a sentence act like a set of constraints that rotates a word dial until one meaning survives?
  2. How it worksWalk me through mining the clause on each side of a blank for constraints before reading any choice.
  3. Worked exampleFind the word for 'The mural looks spontaneous, but every stroke was ______ months before the first paint went on.'
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't the fill-in-the-blank item a test of how many rare words a student has memorised?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'A census of the marsh counted 1179 nesting pairs in its first season and only 312 pairs last season. Ornithologists describe the colony's numbers over that stretch as ______.' Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?

The Most Nearly Means Item

  1. How it worksHow does 'most nearly means' ask for the sense the sentence forces rather than the sense you use daily?
  2. Worked exampleFind what 'charge' most nearly means in 'The curator took charge of the restoration after two failed attempts.'
  3. Common mistakeWhy doesn't dropping your favourite synonym into the sentence prove that you picked the right meaning?
  4. Going furtherWhat changes when the tested item is a two-word phrase such as 'bear out' instead of a single word?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'The station's oldest seismograph did not register the 11 small tremors that instruments 98 kilometres to the east picked up the same night.' As used in the text, what does 'register' most nearly mean?

Predicting Your Own Word First

  1. How it worksHow does naming the missing idea in plain everyday words shrink four tempting choices down to one?
  2. Worked exampleShow me what to predict for 'Her early canvases are muted; the late ones look almost ______ beside them.'
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't a prediction wasted when not one of the four choices matches the word you wrote down?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'Her first 25 canvases are muted and grey; the 72 she painted after the move look almost ______ beside them.' Before reading any answer choice, which plain prediction best fits the blank?

Contrast Signals That Reverse a Blank

  1. How it worksHow does one contrast signal flip the polarity a blank has to carry from plus to minus?
  2. How it worksWalk me through spotting the pivot word first and only then deciding which way a blank points.
  3. Worked exampleFind the word for 'Although the ridge looked ______ from the trailhead, three hours of switchbacks said otherwise.'
  4. Common mistakeWhy doesn't every 'but' in a sentence force the missing word to be an opposite of something near it?
  5. Going furtherWhat happens to a blank when a sentence stacks a concession like 'admittedly' on top of a contrast?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'From the trailhead the ridge looked like an hour's stroll; 7 hours of switchbacks later the party called the climb ______.' Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?

Cause, Result and List Signals

  1. How it worksHow does a result signal tell you the blank agrees with its clause instead of opposing it?
  2. How it worksHow does a run of three concrete items force a blank to be a word wide enough for all of them?
  3. Worked exampleFind the word for 'The soil drains within minutes, so only ______ plants take hold on that slope.'
  4. Going furtherWhat changes about a blank when a colon promises a definition and the definition arrives right after it?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'The slope's gravel drains within 11 minutes of a downpour, so only ______ plants take hold there.' Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?

Why the Familiar Meaning Is Usually Bait

  1. How it worksHow does a distractor get built out of the meaning you already had loaded for a word?
  2. Common mistakeWhy isn't 'novel' in 'a novel approach to flood control' talking about a book at all?
  3. Common mistakeWhy does frequency of everyday use count for nothing once the sentence has spoken?
  4. Going furtherWhat happens on the questions where the everyday meaning is genuinely the right one?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'The district's novel approach to flood control, which lets 687 hectares of farmland flood on purpose, has been copied by 10 councils since.' As used in the text, what does 'novel' most nearly mean?

Secondary and Tertiary Dictionary Senses

  1. How it worksHow does testing sense two and sense three against a sentence beat guessing from sense one?
  2. Worked exampleFind which sense of 'qualify' fits 'The author qualifies her claim in the final paragraph' out of the three it carries.
  3. Going furtherWhat changes when two numbered senses of a word both survive the sentence you were handed?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'The 31-metre span bears a load of 65 tonnes without any visible deflection.' As used in the text, what does 'bears' most nearly mean?

Connotation as the Tiebreaker

  1. How it worksHow does a word's emotional charge break a tie between two meanings the sentence allows equally?
  2. Common mistakeWhy can a blunt, unflattering word be exactly right inside a sentence full of praise?
  3. Worked exampleFind which word suits a craftsman the text admires: stubborn, tenacious or pigheaded.
  4. Going furtherWhat changes when the writer plainly means the opposite of what the sentence appears to say?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'For 37 years the luthier has refused every shortcut the trade adopted, recutting a scroll 8 times rather than accept one that was merely acceptable. Critics who have followed his shop call him ______.' Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?

Meaning That Shifts with Part of Speech

  1. How it worksHow does the slot a blank sits in settle its part of speech before meaning is even considered?
  2. Common mistakeWhy does ignoring the grammar of a blank leave you choosing between meanings that cannot fit the slot?
  3. Worked exampleShow me why 'The study bears out the claim' and 'The bridge bears the load' need two senses of one verb.
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'The inquiry turned on the inspector's conduct during the 9-hour search of the 7 warehouses.' As used in the text, what does 'conduct' most nearly mean?

Tier-Two Academic Vocabulary

  1. How it worksHow does a word land in tier two rather than in everyday speech or in a specialist's jargon?
  2. How it worksHow do age-of-acquisition ratings and college textbook word counts decide which words get tested?
  3. Common mistakeWhy does a deck of a thousand obscure words buy almost nothing on a section built from common academic words?
  4. Ties togetherHow do the same high-utility words that fill the blanks also decide whether you can read the science texts?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A student sorts 687 vocabulary cards before a PSAT sitting. Which of these words is the kind the test actually uses?

What a Text Says vs. What It Is Doing

  1. How it worksHow does one unchanged sentence glow differently depending on the argument built around it?
  2. Common mistakeWhy does 'it mentions a 2014 study' fail as an account of what that sentence is doing?
  3. Going furtherWhat happens to a single sentence when the paragraph around it is rewritten as a rebuttal?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'Coastal marshes trap carbon at roughly 8 times the rate of inland forest. A 2019 survey of 76 sites put the figure higher still. Marsh loss, then, costs more than the shoreline it removes.' Which choice best describes the function of the second sentence?

The Structural Moves Short Texts Repeat

  1. How it worksHow does an outline build block by block as a problem-then-solution text is read line by line?
  2. How it worksHow do you tell which of two stacked blocks holds the writer's own position in a claim-counterclaim text?
  3. Common mistakeWhy does the closing sentence sometimes belong to the view the writer is arguing against?
  4. Worked exampleTrace the outline of a text that defines a term, gives one example, then names a case the term misses.
  5. Going furtherWhat happens to a general-to-specific shape when a writer inverts it and opens with the single case?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'Urban trees can cool a street by as much as 6 degrees. The city's 1438 plane trees, planted in 1946, do most of that work downtown. One block that lost its trees runs hotter than the rest all summer.' Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

The Function of a Single Sentence

  1. How it worksHow do the sentences on either side of a marked line decide what that line is there for?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through the job of 'The picture is more complicated' set between a clean result and three exceptions.
  3. Worked exampleWalk me through the job of a sentence granting a rival view right before the word 'nevertheless'.
  4. Common mistakeWhy does sitting immediately after a sentence not make a line an elaboration of it?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'Across 30 trials the drug lowered fever within 8 hours. The picture is more complicated. Three of those trials used a dose no clinic now gives, and two recruited adults only.' Which choice best describes the function of the sentence 'The picture is more complicated'?

Purpose Verbs and What Separates Them

  1. How it worksHow do illustrate, qualify and refute each name a different thing a writer can do to a claim?
  2. How it worksHow does granting an opponent one point differ from changing your mind about the argument?
  3. Worked exampleCompare 'it concedes a limitation' with 'it introduces a limitation' for one sentence beginning 'Granted'.
  4. Common mistakeWhy does 'challenges' claim less than 'refutes', and when does that gap decide a question?
  5. Going furtherWhat happens when a writer offers an example that quietly works against the point it was meant to make?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'Granted, the excavation covered only 9 of the 46 known mounds. The pottery it recovered still dates the site to within 76 years.' Which choice best describes the function of the first sentence?

Right About the Content, Wrong About the Function

  1. How it worksHow does splitting a choice into its verb and its object expose which half of it is lying?
  2. Worked exampleFind what is missing from 'It reports the results of a study' as the purpose of a text reporting results.
  3. Common mistakeWhy does a choice crammed with correct details lose to a short choice that names the move?
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't a choice safe when it names the right function but hangs it on the wrong person's view?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text: 'A 2019 trial gave the vaccine to 460 patients and a placebo to 525 others. Infection rates came out at 3 percent and 9 percent. The authors conclude that a booster is unnecessary before year 3.' Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

Holding Both Claims Before You Compare

  1. How it worksHow do you compress each of two short texts into a single claim you can lay side by side?
  2. How it worksHow do two small argument maps drawn side by side turn agreement and disagreement into coloured edges?
  3. Worked exampleShow me both claims when one text argues early settlers shaped a dialect and the other finds no trace of them.
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text 1: 'The dialect's vowels match those of the 1727 settlers' home county in 16 of the 58 features compared, and little else explains the resemblance.' Text 2: 'A survey of 55 recordings finds no feature of the dialect attested before 1854, long after those settlers landed.' Which pair of one-sentence claims captures the two texts?

How One Author Would Judge the Other

  1. How it worksHow does a result nobody expected become a verdict on the theory that predicted otherwise?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through the verdict a team finding identical growth in both plots would pass on a theory predicting a gap.
  3. Common mistakeWhy does 'contrary to their expectations' show researchers believed a theory rather than doubted it?
  4. Going furtherWhat changes when two writers land on the same conclusion by routes that share nothing?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text 1: 'Adding nitrogen should raise growth in the treated plots by about 31 percent.' Text 2: 'After 7 seasons the treated and control plots differed by under 3 percent, well inside measurement error.' How would the authors of Text 2 most likely judge the prediction in Text 1?

Same Evidence, Opposite Reading

  1. How it worksHow does drawing agreement in one colour and disagreement in another expose where a pair really splits?
  2. Common mistakeWhy does disputing what a result means leave the result itself completely untouched?
  3. Worked exampleTrace the split when both writers accept a 40 percent decline and disagree entirely about its cause.
  4. Going furtherWhat changes when the two writers also fight about how the data were collected in the first place?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text 1: 'Bee counts on the heath fell 49 percent between 2001 and 2019, and the new pesticide is the obvious culprit.' Text 2: 'That same 49 percent fall tracks the loss of 112 hectares of flowering heath over exactly those years.' Where do the two texts disagree?

Extending Rather Than Contradicting

  1. How it worksHow does explaining why another writer's observation happens count as support rather than dispute?
  2. Worked exampleTrace the link when one text reports a moth dodging one bat call and another explains how the moth hears it.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't a text that adds a condition to a claim the same as a text that denies the claim?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text 1: 'In 72 of 126 trials the moth dropped out of the air within 76 milliseconds of a bat's call.' Text 2: 'A pair of ears tuned to the bat's frequency sits just behind the moth's thorax.' How does Text 2 relate to Text 1?

The Half-Right Paired-Text Trap

  1. How it worksHow do you force a second pass over the first text once a choice has satisfied you about the second?
  2. Common mistakeWhy does an answer built from accurate quotations still need both texts checked before you commit?
  3. Common mistakeWhy does swapping which writer holds which view turn a correct relationship into a wrong answer?
  4. Ties togetherHow does the habit that catches a half-right paired answer also catch a wrong purpose verb?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Text 1 (Ruiz) dates the canal to about 839. Text 2 (Adeyemi) dates it to 1130 on pottery grounds and calls Ruiz's date far too early. Which choice describes the relationship correctly?

The Fixed Domain Order Inside a Module

  1. How it worksHow does grouping by skill and then by difficulty shape the run of questions you actually see?
  2. How it worksHow does a fixed domain order let you predict what kind of question is coming ten screens ahead?
  3. Worked exampleFind the seconds left per question for 13 remaining items when 14 questions have eaten 19 of 32 minutes.
  4. Going furtherWhat changes about Reading and Writing pacing once you know it counts double in the Selection Index?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
A Reading and Writing module allows 32 minutes for 27 questions. A student has answered 18 of them with 20 minutes gone. Find the number of SECONDS available for each remaining question.

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