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Mixed skills
10 original practice questions · Untimed · Follow each question’s response instructions
1. Paragraph 1. A maker space recorded twenty tool loans during Saturday’s morning session. Six of those tools were returned before the end of that session. No return data were collected for the afternoon session. Which sentence reports the result precisely without making a claim about unobserved loans?
ae-112. Paragraph 1. [1] A theater offers a low-cost way to fill seats that would otherwise stay empty. [2] Its same-day ticket program is called Rush. [3] Rush tickets go on sale an hour before curtain. [4] A separate student discount is available a week before a show. Where should the writer add this sentence so it explains the name immediately after its first mention? “The name refers to how little time buyers have to plan before the performance.”
ae-093. Paragraph 1. A repair clinic gives loaner bicycles to customers while their bikes are in the shop. [[Loaners are free of charge at no cost to customers who return them by Saturday.]] Customers who return them later pay a fee. Which replacement for the bracketed sentence is most concise while preserving its meaning?
ae-034. Paragraph 1. The volunteer crew installed a larger sign because the small one was hard to read from the street. During daylight, the new sign was easy to read from the street. [[____]] at night it remained hard to see because the entrance had no lamp. Which phrase most clearly signals how the last sentence relates to the preceding sentence?
ae-085. Paragraph 1. At a trail shelter, the guide met the park photographer. They discussed an overnight closure. The author knows that only the guide gave the visitors the closure notice. Which next sentence most clearly reports who gave the notice?
ae-176. Paragraph 1. The depot’s only water tank is already identified. The writer wants to add its shape as a brief aside. The sentence says that the tank holds enough water for both cleaning bays. Which version correctly sets off the aside with commas?
ae-137. Paragraph 1. A neighborhood seed library asks borrowers to put the plant name and harvest date on each packet. [[Two envelopes labeled “basil” contained seeds collected four years apart.]] The labels help volunteers decide which packets to test for germination first. What is the main function of the sentence in brackets?
ae-018. Paragraph 1. A repair station is listing the items in a tool pouch. Which sentence uses a colon correctly to introduce the list?
ae-149. Paragraph 1. Only the shelves with blue labels hold returned items. The room also has shelves with yellow and green labels. Which sentence correctly uses punctuation to give the same instruction to new staff?
ae-1510. Paragraph 1. A field report records two completed events from last Friday. When the crew arrived at noon, the bridge was already closed. A ranger had put up the notice that morning. Which sentence uses the past perfect to mark posting the notice as complete before the crew arrived?
ae-18Answers & reasoning
1. Six of the twenty tools loaned Saturday morning were returned before that session ended. · Choice C
Keep the group and the observation window separate. The group is twenty morning loans, and the six returns happened before that session ended. This wording preserves both boundaries. A shorter summary about the whole day or closing time would give readers more information than the records support.
ae-112. Immediately after sentence 2. · Choice B
The name first appears in sentence 2. The phrase the name in the new sentence points back to Rush. Placing it directly after sentence 2 makes that connection clear before the next sentence uses Rush again. The sentence about the separate discount can stay at the end.
ae-093. Loaners are free for customers who return them by Saturday. · Choice A
Free of charge and at no cost express the same price. One instance of free is enough. The phrase by Saturday defines who qualifies. Keeping the return condition and the same inclusive deadline preserves the fact that late returns carry a charge.
ae-034. Even so, · Choice D
The previous sentence gives a favorable result. The next sentence identifies a condition under which that success does not carry over. Even so tells the reader to expect a qualification or contrast. It leaves the reason for the nighttime problem with the missing lamp.
ae-085. The guide handed the visitors the closure notice. · Choice D
The two people were both involved in the discussion. A plural pronoun can refer back to them together, and an indefinite phrase does not identify either one. The writer knows which person acted. Repeat the noun guide so the reader can recover the intended actor without guessing.
ae-176. The depot’s only water tank, a tall steel cylinder, holds enough water for both cleaning bays. · Choice D
The depot has one water tank. The reader can identify it before learning that it is a cylinder. The middle phrase adds a description that can be set aside. Use both commas so that the main subject and verb read directly together when the aside is removed.
ae-137. It gives a concrete example of information the plant name alone leaves out. · Choice B
The paragraph explains why the library records two pieces of information. Compare the envelopes: the plant name is the same, while harvest dates differ. That difference illustrates what the name alone cannot tell the volunteers. The last sentence connects the dates to the order of testing.
ae-018. The pouch holds three tools: a wrench, a scraper, and a brush. · Choice B
Read only the words before the colon. The pouch holds three tools contains a subject, a verb, and its complete object. The list then names the three tools. In the other choices, the colon appears where the reader still needs the rest of the sentence to complete the lead-in.
ae-149. Use the shelves that have blue labels for returned items. · Choice C
There are several sets of shelves. The blue label condition determines which shelves receive returned items. Keep that identifying clause integrated with shelves. The instruction means use that subset for the specified purpose, rather than treating the label color as an aside.
ae-1510. By the time the crew arrived, the ranger had posted the notice. · Choice B
Both events are past, and the crew’s arrival is the later reference point. The earlier posting was complete by then. Had posted is the past perfect form. It marks completion relative to that past point, while was posting describes an ongoing action. The writer can still use simple past to report the arrival.
ae-18Original selected foundation practice. Educator review is pending. Not an official exam paper.