Critical Reading
questions measure your ability to read and think carefully about a single reading passage or a pair of related passages.

Directions: The passage below is followed by questions based on its content; questions following a pair of related passages may also be based on the relationship between the paired passages. Answer the questions on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage and in any introductory material that may be provided.(Note: Passages on the PSAT are between 450 and 850 words long.)

hints:Here are some general hints for answering Critical Reading questions.

Don't skip introductions to passages.


Read each passage and any accompanying information carefully. Follow the author's reasoning and be aware of features such as assumptions, attitudes, and tone.


You may find it helpful to mark the passages as you are reading, but don't spend too much time making notes.


Read each question and all the answer choices carefully.


When a question asks you to compare an aspect of a pair of passages, don't be misled by choices that are correct for only one of the two passages.


Select the choice that best answers the question asked. Don't select a choice just because it is a true statement.


You may find it helpful to read the questions first to get an idea of what to look for. Or, you may prefer to read the passage and try to answer the questions.

American Indians are often thought of as one group, but they do not constitute a single, unified ethnic grouping. There are literally hundreds of cultural and linguistic--that is, ethnic--distinctions: the Navajo of Arizona, for example, have little in common with the Mohawks of New York. The Inuits and the Aleuts of Alaska are categorized as American Indians, but they are ethnically distinct from each other and from the American Indians of the contiguous states as well. It is estimated that from 300 to 550 different American Indian languages were in use in North America before European colonization; about 150 are still spoken today.

While the Ingalik language and culture differ from those of the Seminoles, there is a general history that all American Indians have in common: an origin in the prehistoric past somewhere in northeast Asia (their immigration to the Western Hemisphere, over a period of thousands of years, was an event so remote that evidence of it is lost in the strata of ancient rock or ice deposits) and, in more recent centuries, confrontation with European explorers and settlers followed by extreme social and economic discrimination by the European Americans.

For all American Indians, an integrated way of life was irrevocably upset by the arrival of Europeans and their expropriation of the land. The trauma of culture conflict had its origins in the very first contacts between the Europeans, who could not comprehend the American Indians' attitude toward land as an everlasting resource for common use, and the American Indians, who could not comprehend the notion of land as private property that could be sold and lost forever.

Most estimates of American Indian population at the time of the European arrival hover around the one million mark. However, for a number of reasons it is believed likely that the population might have been two or more times that. The Europeans introduced not only conflicting ways of life, but diseases to which the American Indians had no resistance, and whole populations died. By 1860 there were only about 340,000 American Indians in the contiguous states and by 1910 some 220,000. Improvement in medical care even on remote reservations at about that time resulted in a decline in the death rate, and the American Indian population started to grow. The Census Bureau records that from 1950 to 1970 this population more than doubled, from 357,000 to 793,000.

question 1 of 10

As used in the third paragraph, the word common most nearly means
(A) coarse
(B) familiar
(C) mediocre
(D) plain
(E) shared


(from the October 1996 test)

Correct Answer: E
Explanation: You have to choose the meaning of "common" that most nearly fits the sense of the word as it's used in the passage. The American Indians are described as viewing "land as an everlasting resource for common use," as opposed to the European view of land as private property. The American Indians, in other words, view land as a resource to be shared by all members of the community. (A), (B), (C), and (D) can therefore be eliminated. Choice (E), shared, is correct.

question 2 of 10

The author indicates that the trauma of culture conflict initially resulted from the
(A) migration of American Indians from northeast Asia to the Western Hemisphere
(B) linguistic and cultural differences between the various American Indian groups
(C) extreme social and economic discrimination practiced by European Americans
(D) different attitudes toward land held by Europeans and American Indians
(E) decline of the American Indian population after the arrival of the Europeans


(from the October 1996 test)

Correct Answer: D
Explanation: Since the "trauma of culture conflict" refers to the conflict between European culture and American Indian culture, choices (A), (B), and (E) can be eliminated. (C) refers to the conflict between the Europeans and the American Indians, but not the origins of the conflict according to the author. The correct choice (D) locates the origin of the conflict in differing attitudes toward land--like the sentence in the passage.

question 3 of 10

According to the passage, which is true of the number of American Indian languages currently in use in North America?
(A) It is at most one-half the number spoken before European colonization.
(B) It is nearly double the number spoken before European colonization.
(C) It is about the same as the number spoken before European colonization.
(D) It has been steadily increasing in the years since European colonization.
(E) It has only recently decreased significantly from the number spoken before European colonization.


(from the October 1996 test)

Correct Answer: A
Explanation: Find the sentence in the first paragraph that compares the number of Indian languages spoken in the past with today. This is the last sentence in the first paragraph: "It is estimated that from 300 to 550 different American Indian languages were in use in North America before European colonization; about 150 are still spoken today."

(B) and (C) and (D) can be eliminated because fewer Indian languages are spoken today (150) than before European colonization (300-550). Since the passage does not mention when the decrease occurred, (E) can also be eliminated. (A) is correct because the 150 languages spoken today are half of the 300 languages spoken in the past.

(Note: Passages on the PSAT are between 450 and 850 words long.)
I remember the summer of 1940 when I first left here. After my final school year my days had been reduced to waiting, anticipating the preinduction physical for the year of compulsory service required of all physically fit seventeen and eighteen year olds, both men and women. Although I wanted the medical reports to declare me perfectly fit and would have felt inferior if they had not, I was not looking forward to upcoming camp life. Yet without any say in my future, all I hoped to know was where and when. Then the paralyzing uncertainty ended. My orders to report to a never-heard-of location in Czechoslovakia even kindled a spark of anticipation for traveling to a foreign country and moving toward new experiences, whatever they might be. I was assigned to a camp that was an agricultural teaching facility, where I was expected to learn to run a large rural household. Like me, most of the girls at the camp enjoyed the hearty meals and learned to ignore our servant status. After years of having subsisted on ration diets in the cities, we blossomed into robust young women whose physical well-being countered surges of hurt pride, resentment, and periods of homesickness. And so began just one of the many disjointed and unpredictable periods I endured before the subsiding waves of war swept me an ocean away.

question 4 of 10

The author uses the phrase "disjointed and unpredictable" to describe
(A) her infrequent reunions with her family
(B) her plans for her life after the war
(C) the varied situations she experienced during the war
(D) her prior experiences with foreign travel
(E) her preparation for performing skilled labor


(from the October 18, 1997 test)

Correct Answer: C
Explanation: In the last sentence of the passage, the author states that the period described was one of the many "disjointed and unpredictable" periods she endured before the waves of war swept her an ocean away. Therefore, choice (C) is the correct answer.

question 5 of 10

The passage indicates that if the author had failed the preinduction physical, she would most likely have felt
(A) grateful for the excuse to spend more time with her family
(B) wistful about having missed the opportunity to travel
(C) upset that she was not classified as completely healthy
(D) dejected because her friends would be leaving without her
(E) unconcerned since she was already unable to control her destiny


(from the October 18, 1997 test)

Correct Answer: C
Explanation: The correct answer to this question is found in the sentence that begins in line 7: Although I wanted the medical reports to declare me perfectly fit and would have felt inferior if they had not . . . . In other words, the author would have been upset if the doctors had said she was less than perfectly healthy. Choice (C), therefore, is the correct answer.