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Sample Writing Skills Test

Directions: In the passage that follows, certain words and phrases are highlighted and numbered. In the right-hand column, you will find alternatives for each bolded part. You are to choose the one that best expresses the idea, makes the statement appropriate for standard written English, or is worded most consistently with the style and tone of the passage as a whole. If you think the original version is best, choose "No Change." In the actual test, you will also find questions about a section of the passage, or about the passage as a whole. For each question in the test, choose the alternative you consider best.

Read each passage through once before you begin to answer the questions that accompany it. You cannot determine some answers without reading several sentences beyond the phrase in question. Be sure that you have read far enough ahead each time you choose an alternative.

Passage 1

In the end, everyone gives up jogging. Some find that their strenuous efforts to earn a living [1] drains away the energy necessary for running. Others [2] suffering from defeat by the hazards of the course, which can range from hard pavement to muddy tracks and from smog to sleet and snow. [3] Person's can also simply collapse in their sneakers. My experience [4] having been different, however; I had a revelation.

  1. NO CHANGE
    drain
    has drained
    is draining

  2. NO CHANGE
    suffered
    suffer
    suffering with

  3. NO CHANGE
    Still others
    One may also
    It's also possible to

  4. NO CHANGE
    being different,
    was a difference,
    was different,

Passage 2

It happened two summers ago up at Lake Tom, where I was vacationing with friends. I had been accustomed to running fairly regularly, but that whole week I decided to be lazy. I sailed, basked in the sun, and [5] ate wonderful: lobster, steak, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and ice cream. By the fourth day of this routine I had to face the [6] truth which my body was slowly changing to dough.

  1. NO CHANGE
    ate wonderfully
    eating wonderful
    eat wonderful

  2. NO CHANGE
    truth about
    truth:
    truth, which

Passage 3

So, filled with worthy ambition, I tied on my favorite pair of running shoes and loped out to the main road in search of a five-mile route. [7] Out of curiosity, I turned onto Lookout Hill Road, and soon discovered how the road had come by its name. I was chugging, at a painfully slow rate, up one of the [8] longest, steepest inclines in the region. Perched at the faraway top of the hill was a solitary house, and only a desire to get a closer look at the black kept me going.

  1. NO CHANGE
    Out of curiosity, Lookout Hill Road was turned onto
    Having become, curious, Lookout Hill Road was the road I turned onto
    Lookout Hill Road, having become curious, was the route I turned onto

  2. NO CHANGE
    longest, steepest,
    steepest longest
    longest and steepest

Passage 4

I was exhausted when, gasping and bedraggled, I reached the crest of the hill. There I found a native New Englander rocking tranquilly on the front porch of the [9] house, which was painted. "Mister," I panted, "you sure live on a big hill!"
  1. NO CHANGE
    house (painted)
    house, and it was painted
    house
Passage 5

He studied me closely for a moment and then responded, "Yep, and I've got the good sense not to run up it." That night I tied the [10] laces of my running shoes around a rock and pitched them into Lake Tom.
  1. NO CHANGE
    laces, of my running
    laces of my running,
    laces; of my running