Function of a Sentence: Example Questions | Reading for ACT PDF Download

Example 1.
In the context of the passage, the word “fauna” in paragraph one most nearly means
This passage is adapted from “Flagship Species and Their Role in the Conservation Movement” (2020)
Until recently, two schools of thought have dominated the field of establishing “flagship” endangered species for marketing and awareness campaigns. These flagship species make up the subset of endangered species conservation experts utilize to elicit public support - both financial and legal - for fauna conservation as a whole.
The first concerns how recognizable the general public, the audience of most large-scale funding campaigns, finds a particular species, commonly termed its “public awareness.” This school of thought was built on the foundation that if an individual recognizes a species from prior knowledge, cultural context, or previous conservational and educational encounters (in a zoo environment or classroom setting, for instance) that individual would be more likely to note and respond to the severity of its endangered status. However, recently emerging flagship species such as the pangolin have challenged the singularity of this factor.
Alongside public awareness, conservation experts have long considered a factor they refer to as a “keystone species” designation in the flagstone selection process. Keystone species are those species that play an especially vital role in their respective habitats or ecosystems. While this metric is invaluable to the environmentalists in charge of designating funds received, recent data has expressed the more minor role a keystone species designation seems to play in the motivations of the public.
Recent scholarship has questioned both the singularity and the extent to which the above classifications impact the decision making of the general public. Though more complicated to measure, a third designation, known as a species’ “charisma,” is now the yardstick by which most flagship species are formally classified. Addressing the charisma of a species involves establishing and collecting data concerning its ecological (interactions with humans/the environments of humans),  aesthetic (appealing to human emotions through physical appearance and immediately related behaviors), and corporeal (affection and socialization with humans over the short- and long-terms) characteristics. This process has been understandably criticized by some for its costs and failure to incorporate the severity of an endangered species’ status into designation, but its impact on the public has been irrefutable. While keystone and public awareness designations are still often applied in the field because of their practicality and comparative simplicity, charisma is now commonly accepted as the most accurate metric with which to judge a species’ flagship potential.

In the context of the passage, the word “fauna” in paragraph one most nearly means
(a) conservation
(b) flagship
(c) animal
(d) all

Correct Answer is Option (c)
Here, the paragraph speaks about the role of flagship species in the conservation of animals. Thus, using context, we can conclude that the word “fauna” must mean animal. While the paragraph as a whole speaks about conservation and ends with the phrase “as a whole,” it would not make sense to take out the word “fauna” and replace it with any of our other answer options. With vocabulary in context questions, we need to focus on finding the term (using a process of elimination and/or anticipating the correct answer by filling in the blanks ourselves) to find the correct contextual meaning to the term.

Example 2.
The following is an excerpt from Agnes Grey, an autobiographical novel by Anne Bronte that follows the life of a governess working in wealthy British households in the 19th century.
I particularly remember one wild, snowy afternoon, soon after my return in January: the children had all come up from dinner, loudly declaring that they meant ‘to be naughty;’ and they had well kept their resolution, though I had talked myself hoarse, and wearied every muscle in my throat, in the vain attempt to reason them out of it. I had got Tom pinned up in a corner, whence, I told him, he should not escape till he had done his appointed task. Meantime, Fanny had possessed herself of my work bag and was rifling its contents—and spitting into it besides. I told her to let it alone, but to no purpose, of course. ‘Burn it, Fanny!’ cried Tom: and this command she hastened to obey. I sprang to snatch it from the fire, and Tom darted to the door. ‘Mary Ann, throw her desk out of the window!’ cried he: and my precious desk, containing my letters and papers, my small amount of cash, and all my valuables, was about to be precipitated from the three-story window. I flew to rescue it. Meanwhile, Tom had left the room, and was rushing down the stairs, followed by Fanny. Having secured my desk, I ran to catch them, and Mary Ann came scampering after. All three escaped me, and ran out of the house into the garden, where they plunged about in the snow, shouting and screaming in exultant glee.
What must I do? If I followed them, I should probably be unable to capture one, and only drive them farther away; if I did not, how was I to get them in? And what would their parents think of me, if they saw or heard the children rioting, hatless, bonnetless, gloveless, and bootless, in the deep soft snow?
Q. As used in the highlighted sentence, “vain” most nearly means
(a) exceptional
(b) successful
(c) conceited
(d) futile

Correct Answer is Option (d)
With vocabulary in context questions, we need to focus on the context used in the passage. In the sentence, if we were to take out the word “vain,” and replace it with something else, “unsuccessful,” "doomed,” or “futile”  would fit our context nicely and maintain the original meaning of the sentence. “Successful” completely changes the meaning of the context, as would “exceptional, and “conceited” would just be outright illogical. Keep in mind, vocabulary in context is a context question, not a vocabulary memorization question, so our job is generally to take common terms and find the meaning of those terms that best match with the context.

Example 3.
The following is an excerpt from Agnes Grey, an autobiographical novel by Anne Bronte that follows the life of a governess working in wealthy British households in the 19th century.
To avoid trouble and confusion, I have taken my pupils one by one, and discussed their various qualities; but this can give no adequate idea of being worried by the whole three together; when, as was often the case, all were determined to ‘be naughty, and to tease Miss Grey, and put her in a passion.’
Sometimes, on such occasions, the thought has suddenly occurred to me—’If they could see me now!’ meaning, of course, my friends at home; and the idea of how they would pity me has made me pity myself—so greatly that I have had the utmost difficulty to restrain my tears: but I have restrained them, till my little tormentors were gone to dessert, or cleared off to bed (my only prospects of deliverance), and then, in all the bliss of solitude, I have given myself up to the luxury of an unrestricted burst of weeping. But this was a weakness I did not often indulge: my employments were too numerous, my leisure moments too precious, to admit of much time being given to fruitless lamentations.

As used in the highlighted sentence, “deliverance” most nearly means
(a) unhappiness
(b) arrival
(c) appearance
(d) liberation

Correct Answer is Option (d)
With vocabulary in context questions, we need to focus on the context used in the passage. In the sentence, if we were to take out the word “deliverance,” and replace it with something else, “freedom” (or liberation) would fit our context nicely and maintain the original meaning of the sentence. While “unhappiness” matches the tone of the surrounding paragraph, it would not make sense to replace “deliverance” with “unhappiness,” as the passage is suggesting that this time is her only escape or freedom from the challenges of her job. Additionally, while “appearance” and “arrival” fit *a* meaning of the word deliverance, they would not make sense in the context of the highlighted sentence. Keep in mind, vocabulary in context is a context question, not a vocabulary memorization question, so our job is generally to take common terms and find the meaning of those terms that best matches with the context.

Example 4.
The following passage is excerpted from a speech delivered by Susan B. Anthony in 1873. The speech was delivered after Anthony was tried and fined $100 for voting in the 1872 presidential election.
It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people— women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government—the ballot.
For any State to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people is a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity. To them this government had no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the right govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured, but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every household—which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord and rebellion into every home of the nation.
With vocabulary in context questions, we need to focus on the context used in the passage. In the sentence, if we were to take out the word “just,” and replace it with something else, “lawful” would be the best fit. The surrounding paragraph addresses that current voting laws are “unlawful,” so suggesting that the government has no “lawful” powers fits our context perfectly. While “exact” and “confirmed” match other meanings for the word just, they do not align with the context of the passage, and would change the meaning. Keep in mind, vocabulary in context is a context question, not a vocabulary memorization question, so our job is generally to take common terms and find the meaning of those terms that best match with the context.

Q. As used in the highlighted sentence, “just” most nearly means
(a) confirmed
(b) lawful
(c) partial
(d) exact

Correct Answer is Option (b)
With vocabulary in context questions, we need to focus on the context used in the passage. In the sentence, if we were to take out the word “just,” and replace it with something else, “lawful” would be the best fit. The surrounding paragraph addresses that current voting laws are “unlawful,” so suggesting that the government has no “lawful” powers fits our context perfectly. While “exact” and “confirmed” match other meanings for the word just, they do not align with the context of the passage, and would change the meaning. Keep in mind, vocabulary in context is a context question, not a vocabulary memorization question, so our job is generally to take common terms and find the meaning of those terms that best match with the context.

Example 5.
Genetic testing showed that the blueworm and the heatworm were not merely structurally similar; to the scientists’ surprise, the worms were identical. This was startling, not only because of their vastly differing habitats, but also because of the difference in size. The answer again was to be found in the keratin, a tough substance that normally inhibits growth, keeping the hydrostatic pressure very high within the worm. The relatively large worm found in the rainforest molts as it grows, allowing the worm to increase its volume a very small amount each time it does, but the smaller worm cannot afford this much exposure. The freezing temperatures trigger the production of keratin so quickly that the worm has little chance to grow, thus keeping its volume approximately one-fourth that of the larger worm.

In the context of the highlighted portion of the passage, “inhibits” most nearly means
(a) impedes
(b) accelerates
(c) exhibits
(d) reverses

Correct Answer is Option (a)
In this example, we’re tasked to use context to understand the use of “inhibits” in the context of the highlighted sentence. If the substance, keratin, “inhibits” growth, and later context clarifies that keratin creates a situation in which “the worm has little chance to grow, thus keeping its volume approximately one-fourth that of the larger worm” we can see that inhibit must mean that it gets in the way of or “impedes” growth. While exhibits might sound similar, its meaning does not align with the context at all. Additionally, reverses and accelerates both take things too far, as the context does not imply that the keratin actively reverses the size of the worm, and instead just gets in the way of or “impedes” its further growth.