PC · Practice test

Paragraph Comprehension Practice Test 2

Practice Test 2 puts author purpose and point of view up front, asking why a writer wrote a passage and how they feel about the subject. Main idea and supporting details follow closely, and the form also covers inference, sequence and cause and effect, words in context, compare and contrast, passage organization and timed evidence-based reading.

10 questions
27 minutes
Every answer explained

Start with the 27-minute timer Start untimed

Pick your answers. You can change them until you check.
Check my answers scores the test by subtest and opens every explanation.

0 / 10 answered

Paragraph Comprehension

10 questions · 27 min on the real test

Question 1 · PC · easy

The Driftline 10 is a sit-on-top kayak made of molded plastic. It is 10 feet long, 31 inches wide and weighs 38 pounds. A padded seat with an adjustable backrest sits in the middle of the deck, and there is a sealed storage hatch at the bow and an open cargo well with bungee cords at the stern. Two molded handles, one at each end, are used for carrying, and a paddle holder runs along the left side.

What is the main purpose of the passage?

Show the answer

Answer: D

Correct answer: to describe the features of a kayak. Describing tells what something is like; evaluating judges it. Every sentence here gives a measurement or a part (10 feet, 38 pounds, seat, hatch, handles), and no word judges whether the kayak is good, so the purpose is to describe it.

A: No judgment words like best, worth or should appear, so the passage does not evaluate or persuade.
B: No steps for paddling are given; the passage only tells what the kayak is like.
C: No person or event appears, so nothing is narrated.
D (correct): The passage lists size, weight, seat, storage and handles, all features, with no judgment about quality.

Question 2 · PC · easy

In March, the copier on the second floor jammed during a rush order for the training office. In April, it stopped printing in color two days before a briefing. In May, it overheated and shut down twice in one afternoon, and a repair technician needed a week to get the right part. After three breakdowns in three months, it is clear that the office needs a more reliable copier.

What does the last sentence of the passage do?

Show the answer

Answer: B

Correct answer: It draws a general conclusion from the specific cases described before it. The first three sentences describe specific breakdowns. The last sentence pulls them together into a general conclusion: the office needs a more reliable copier. This is the pattern of examples first and a general point at the end.

A: The last sentence reports no new breakdown; it sums up the three already described.
B (correct): After three separate breakdowns are described, the last sentence states the broad point they support.
C: No repair steps are listed; the sentence states a conclusion about reliability.
D: Nothing in the sentence concedes anything; it states the writer's own conclusion.

Question 3 · PC · medium

Members of the Harlan Volunteer Ambulance Squad answered 1,150 emergency calls last year, more than three a day, and each volunteer completed about 120 hours of unpaid training. They respond at all hours from their own homes, often leaving family dinners and warm beds to reach car wrecks and heart attacks within minutes. Yet the squad's entire share of the town budget is a single line item that barely covers fuel for its two ambulances. Work this important deserves far more support than the town has been willing to give it.

Which statement best describes the passage?

Show the answer

Answer: B

Correct answer: It is told in the third person and argues that the squad deserves more funding. Two different meanings of point of view are tested here. Grammatically, the narration is third person (they, their). For the author's stance, look at the unattributed closing judgment: the work "deserves far more support," so the passage argues for more funding.

A: No I or we appears; the volunteers are described from outside as they, so the narration is third person.
B (correct): The writer uses they and their for the volunteers, and the final sentence states the writer's own judgment that the squad deserves more support.
C: Third person is right, but the last sentence clearly takes a side, so the passage is not neutral.
D: The passage never addresses the reader as you and gives no steps to follow.

Question 4 · PC · medium

The city bus had been parked in Bay 3 of the transit garage since morning with a loose rear wheel. Late that afternoon, the shop foreman handed two apprentices a torque wrench and a box of new lug nuts. The wrench had just come back from the calibration lab. They used it to tighten each nut to the setting listed in the service manual, while the bus driver waited in the break room. Afterward, the foreman checked their work and signed the repair order.

According to the passage, who tightened the lug nuts on the bus?

Show the answer

Answer: B

Correct answer: The two apprentices. The sentence that answers the question begins with "They." Look back for the nearest sensible plural noun that could use a wrench: the two apprentices. The foreman, the driver and the lab are all mentioned, but each is tied to a different action.

A: The foreman handed out the tools and later checked the work, but he did not tighten the nuts himself.
B (correct): "They" in the fourth sentence points back to the two apprentices, who used the wrench to tighten each nut.
C: The passage says the driver waited in the break room while the work was done.
D: The lab is mentioned only as the place the wrench came back from; nobody from the lab did the repair.

Question 5 · PC · medium

Missed medical appointments waste doctors' time and delay care for other patients. At two Army posts, clinics began letting service members book and cancel appointments through a website instead of only by phone. At the first post, missed appointments fell by about a fifth over the next year. At the second, the clinic reported a similar drop, and the open slots from early cancellations were often filled by patients who needed care quickly. Officials at both clinics said online booking seemed to make it easier for busy soldiers to manage their schedules.

Which statement best expresses the main idea of the passage?

Show the answer

Answer: B

Correct answer: Online scheduling at two clinics was followed by fewer missed appointments. The passage gives two examples of the same change followed by the same kind of result. The main idea should generalize only as far as those examples allow: online scheduling was followed by fewer missed appointments at these clinics, not a guaranteed fix everywhere.

A: Two examples support a modest conclusion; they do not prove every clinic will see the same result, and "end" overstates a drop of about a fifth.
B (correct): This stays the same size as the passage: two clinics, one change, and the reported result, without promising the same everywhere.
C: The passage never says phone booking causes missed appointments; this invents a cause.
D: This is a detail from the second clinic, not the point that ties the whole passage together.

Question 6 · PC · medium

For two months, the electricians had planned how to rewire the old warehouse, choosing every cable route and panel location. On Thursday, the city inspector rejected the plan because the building's new sprinkler pipes ran through several of the same spaces. With their drawings now useless, the crew was back to square one and spent Friday measuring the building all over again.

What does the phrase back to square one mean in the passage?

Show the answer

Answer: D

Correct answer: forced to start over from the beginning. Interpret the idiom as a unit, using the clues around it. The plan was rejected, the drawings became useless, and the crew spent Friday measuring "all over again," so back to square one means they had to start the work over from the beginning.

A: This decodes the words literally; nothing in the passage mentions a first room or a square space.
B: The crew went right back to work on Friday, so no break is described.
C: The plan was just rejected, so the crew is farther from approval, not closer.
D (correct): The drawings became useless and the crew began measuring all over again, which shows they had to restart the planning.

Question 7 · PC · medium

At Camp Ridgeway, the dining facility serves breakfast to one company at a time so the lines stay short. Alpha Company eats at 0600, Bravo Company at 0615, and Charlie Company at 0630, and the same 15-minute spacing continues for each remaining company in the order listed on the duty roster. Each company has 25 minutes to finish its meal. On field training days, the entire breakfast schedule moves 30 minutes earlier.

Delta Company is listed right after Charlie Company on the roster.

At what time does Delta Company eat breakfast on a field training day?

Show the answer

Answer: D

Correct answer: 0615. First extend the pattern: 0600, 0615, 0630, so Delta, the next company, normally eats at 0645. Then apply the condition for field training days, 30 minutes earlier: 0645 minus 30 minutes is 0615.

A: This is Delta's time on a normal day, but it forgets that the schedule moves 30 minutes earlier on field training days.
B: This adds the 30 minutes instead of subtracting them; "earlier" means the time moves back.
C: This subtracts 30 minutes from Charlie Company's normal time instead of Delta's.
D (correct): Delta normally eats 15 minutes after Charlie at 0645, and moving 30 minutes earlier gives 0615.

Question 8 · PC · medium

A warehouse is choosing between two forklifts. Inside the building, managers prefer the electric forklift because it gives off no exhaust and runs quietly near workers. When lifting loads heavier than 5,000 pounds, the propane forklift holds its speed better than the electric one, which slows noticeably near its weight limit. The salesperson's report gives purchase prices for both machines but says nothing about how they compare on lighter loads.

Which statement is supported by the passage?

Show the answer

Answer: C

Correct answer: The propane forklift's speed advantage is described only for loads over 5,000 pounds. Keep the condition attached to each comparison. The propane forklift's speed edge is stated only for loads over 5,000 pounds, and the electric forklift is preferred only for indoor work. Lighter loads are never compared, so that cell of the grid is empty.

A: This stretches a comparison stated only for loads over 5,000 pounds to all loads.
B: The preference for the electric forklift is stated for work inside the building, not outdoors.
C (correct): The passage limits the speed comparison to heavy loads and says nothing about lighter ones.
D: The report says nothing about lighter loads, so a difference there cannot be assumed.

Question 9 · PC · hard

Late Wednesday, the Hollis County emergency dispatch center lost all of its computer screens for nearly an hour. A summer thunderstorm caused a brief flicker in the building's power. The backup battery unit, which is supposed to keep the computers running until the generator starts, shut down within seconds. A technician later found that the unit's batteries were eleven years old, well past their rated life. Their replacement had been requested in each of the last three yearly budgets, but the request was never approved. Dispatchers took calls on paper until power was steady again.

Which choice best describes the underlying cause of the outage?

Show the answer

Answer: A

Correct answer: Worn-out batteries that were never replaced because funding was not approved. An immediate cause is the last event that directly produces a result; an underlying cause is a deeper condition that made the result likely. Here the storm's flicker triggered the outage, but the batteries had been past their rated life for years and their replacement was never funded. That neglected condition is the underlying cause.

A (correct): This is the deeper condition: years of aging, with replacement repeatedly denied, left the backup unit unable to do its job when it was needed.
B: The flicker is the immediate cause, the final event that set off the outage, not the long-standing condition behind it.
C: Taking calls on paper was a response to the outage, so naming it as the cause reverses the arrow.
D: The passage never says the generator failed; it says the batteries gave out before the generator's role came into play.

Question 10 · PC · hard

A regional delivery company installed tire-pressure sensors on half of its 60 vans last year. Over the next six months, the vans with sensors needed about 30 percent fewer roadside tire repairs than the vans without them. In her report, the fleet manager pointed out that the vans chosen for sensors were also the newest in the fleet, and that most of them drove highway routes rather than city streets full of potholes and curbs.

Which conclusion is best supported by the passage?

Show the answer

Answer: D

Correct answer: The sensors may have helped, but the vans' age and routes could also explain part of the difference. The passage compares two groups that differ in three ways: sensors, vehicle age and route type. Because the comparison never separates these factors, it shows an association, not proof of a single cause. The best answer keeps the sensors as a possible factor while leaving room for the others.

A: This credits the whole 30 percent gap to the sensors, ignoring the newer vans and easier routes the manager pointed out.
B: This swaps one single cause for another; the passage does not rule out the sensors any more than it proves them.
C: The passage reports results only and mentions no plan, so this is an unsupported prediction.
D (correct): The manager names two other differences between the groups, so the sensors are one possible factor among several, which this choice keeps.

Finished?

See your score by subtest, which questions you missed and the lesson to review for each one.

About this test

The format matches the other PC forms: 10 questions, 27 minutes, with 2 easy, 6 medium and 2 hard items. All passages and questions are original ASVAB-style material, and none of them reappears in another practice test, so this form gives you a fresh read on your skills.

Paragraph Comprehension feeds the AFQT, so tone and purpose questions are worth practicing until they feel routine. Take the test in one sitting and resist rereading whole passages; go back only for the evidence you need. Afterward, compare your reasoning with the explanation for each item and revisit the lesson behind any repeated mistake. The percentage is a measure of practice accuracy only.

Take it with you: the free app

The same 124 lessons, 6,516 questions and 82 timed practice tests on your phone, plus flashcards with spaced review and progress tracking. Free to download, and it works offline.

Works offline
Spaced-review flashcards
Progress for every subtest
Menus in 59 languages

Get it on Google Play