ASVAB Paragraph Comprehension Practice Test

Answer: B

Correct answer: The shuttle bus. The question asks about cost, so compare the four prices: train $14, shuttle bus $9, ride-share about $30, taxi about $45. The shuttle bus is the cheapest; being fastest is the train's feature.

• A: The train is the fastest way downtown, but at $14 it costs more than the shuttle bus.
• B (correct): At $9, the shuttle bus is the lowest fare of the four, as the passage says outright.
• C: At about $45, the taxi is the most expensive choice; its special feature is help with heavy bags.
• D: At about $30, the ride-share costs more than both the shuttle bus and the train.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The supply room is carefully organized and well maintained. A descriptive passage chooses details to create one impression. Labeled shelves, sorted boxes, marked bins, matching hooks, and a checklist all point to the same picture: an orderly, well-kept supply room.

• A: Nothing in the passage suggests crowding; the details describe careful arrangement, not a lack of space.
• B: The passage mentions batteries once and never compares how often supplies are used.
• C (correct): Labels, sorted rows, matching hooks, and an inventory list all build this single impression of order.
• D: This is one detail; it helps create the impression but does not state it.

Answer: B

Correct answer: To explain how a refrigerator removes heat from its interior. To find purpose, ask what the writer is doing in every sentence. Here each sentence describes one stage of how heat leaves the cabinet, from evaporation to the coils, so the action is explaining. Nothing argues, warns, or makes a full comparison.

• A: The passage never recommends a purchase or mentions energy efficiency.
• B (correct): Each sentence describes a step in moving heat out of the cabinet, so the writer is explaining a process.
• C: The passage notes the air behind the unit feels warm but gives no warning of danger.
• D: The sweat comparison is a single analogy used to explain one step, too narrow to be the purpose.

Answer: D

Correct answer: The spilled fuel did not reach the storm drain or the creek. Words like "kept from," "prevented" and "stopped" describe something that did not happen. The officer says the response kept the fuel from reaching the drain, so the outcome is that neither the drain nor Cedar Creek was reached.

• A: This reverses the prevention; the passage says the response stopped the fuel before it reached the drain.
• B: The crack was reported before the valve was shut, and the valve was closed to stop the leak, so this reverses cause and effect.
• C: The passage reports no closing of the fuel farm; this adds an event.
• D (correct): "Kept the spilled fuel from reaching" describes prevention, so the drain and the creek stayed free of the fuel.

Answer: A

Correct answer: reports rising traffic and a forecast of more growth without recommending any action. Watch the verbs and the attributions. Expect and "if current trends continue" signal a prediction, the call for more gates is credited to the director, and the board has not even discussed a plan. The author's own sentences only report and predict, so the passage recommends nothing.

• A (correct): The author gives past numbers and the planners' prediction; the only call for change comes from the director and is attributed to her, and no plan has been decided.
• B: That view belongs to the director, credited with "has said"; the author never adopts the call for more gates and security space as his or her own.
• C: The passage says the board has not yet discussed expansion, so treating it as an approved decision misreads it.
• D: Neighborhoods and harm are never mentioned; this adds a claim the passage does not make.

Answer: B

Correct answer: The drop in cooling use among enrolled homes may have had more than one cause. The passage gives two possible influences on lower cooling use: thermostats that raise the setting on hot afternoons and a cooler summer. The best-supported statement keeps both possibilities open. Choices that name a single cause, add a percentage or describe homes the passage never mentions all go past the evidence.

• A: The newsletter says only that use fell noticeably; this percentage appears nowhere in the passage.
• B (correct): The passage mentions both the thermostat settings and cooler weather, so either or both could have contributed.
• C: The passage gives the thermostats as a second possible factor, so a single cause is not supported.
• D: The passage says nothing about homes that were not enrolled.

Answer: C

Correct answer: holding attention completely. Instead sets riveting against dull, so it must be a strong positive. The evidence that no one checked a phone for an hour and students stayed after the bell confirms the meaning: holding attention completely.

• A: This is the shop meaning of riveting, which fits steel plates on a submarine, not a talk.
• B: The fire story is dramatic, but the students' eager questions show interest, not distress.
• C (correct): Students never checked their phones and stayed after the bell, which shows the talk held their full attention.
• D: This is what the students expected; Instead signals that the talk turned out the opposite of dull.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Process order, explaining the steps for sharpening a blade. Focus on the framework, not a passing detail. After a brief historical note, the passage gives repeatable steps marked by before you begin, then and finish. Instructions that anyone can follow in order make this process order, and the date in the opening does not make it chronological.

• A: The history is mentioned only in the first sentence as a minor detail; it does not organize the passage.
• B: No other sharpening tool is mentioned, so nothing is compared.
• C (correct): Nearly every sentence gives a step the reader can repeat, in the order needed: soak, set, sharpen, finish.
• D: The passage never explains what makes a blade dull; it tells how to sharpen one.

Answer: D

Correct answer: The summit wind never went above 40 miles per hour. Work backward with negation. No red flag means the upper chairlift was never shut down, because every shutdown requires a flag. If the upper lift was never shut down, the summit wind never exceeded 40 mph, because high wind would have forced a shutdown. Reading the rules forward from a flag to high wind is the one-way trap, and the lower lift's motor problem has nothing to do with the wind rules.

• A: The passage gives a mechanical reason for the lower lift's closing, and the wind rules apply only to the upper lift.
• B: The rules show only that the summit wind stayed at or below 40 mph; that is not the same as calm everywhere.
• C: This reverses the chain; a flag follows any shutdown of the upper lift, and a shutdown could have a cause other than wind.
• D (correct): No flag means the upper lift was never shut down, and an unshut upper lift means the wind never passed the 40 mph trigger.

Answer: A

Correct answer: A drop in chlorine below the minimum sets off the control room alarm. The rule runs one way: if chlorine drops below the minimum, then the alarm sounds. Reversing it fails because the passage gives another reason for the alarm, the monthly test. Read the fifteen-minute requirement exactly: it concerns taking a sample.

• A (correct): This restates the if-then rule in its original direction: a low chlorine level leads to the alarm.
• B: This reverses the conditional; the passage says the alarm also sounds during the monthly test, when chlorine may be normal.
• C: The fifteen-minute rule is for collecting a test sample, not for correcting the chlorine level.
• D: The passage says nothing about chlorine levels during the test, so this claim is unsupported.