Two Tests: One for Admission, One for Graduation

(Below are two tests. One is an entrance examination; the other is California’s high school exit examination which is objected to by its critics as too difficult and an unfair condition of graduation.)

 1. Name four leading nations interested in the New World in exploring days. Name an explorer from each and give a good sketch of one of his explorations.

2. Draw a map of North America locating the following: Ten important rivers, Alaska, Canada, united State, Mexico, the Republicas of Central America and the Panama Canal.

3. The area of the gable of a house is 878 square feet, the bawe being 14 yards. What is the height of the ridge?

4. Write in sentences the possessive singular and ;oessessive plural of each of the following words: They, child, John, dog, deer.

5. Write a sentence containing a noun clause. One containing an infinitive phrase. One containing a predicate nominative.

6. Give 20 products of South America and tell in what country each is produced.

7.Mention five important battles of the Civil War and the generals engaged in them.

8. In what time will $625 amount to $775 at 5 percent?

*****

1.Randy got the following test scores in science class: 76, 98, 78, 80, and 54. What is the median test score? 

A: 77 

B: 98 

C: 54 

D: 78

2. If a recipe for cookies calls for ¾ of a cup of sugar and you want to quadruple the recipe, how many cups of sugar will you need? 

A: 3 cups

B: 4 cups

C: 2 ¾ cups 

D: 3 ½ cups

3. If Ted runs at 8 miles an hour, which computation would you use to determine how far Ted runs in 15 minutes? 

A: 8 x 15 

B: 8 x 25 

C: 8 x.15 

D: 8 x .25

*****

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow. Daniel Boone will always occupy a unique place in our history as the archetype of the hunter and wilderness wanderer. He was a true pioneer, and stood at the head of that class of Indian-fighters, game-hunters, forest-fellers, and backwoods farmers who, generation after generation, pushed westward the border of civilization from the Alleghenies to the Pacific. As he himself said, he was “an instrument ordained of God to settle the wilderness.” Born in Pennsylvania , he drifted south into western North Carolina , and settled on what was then the extreme frontier. There he married, built a log cabin, and hunted, chopped trees, and tilled the ground like any other frontiersman. The Alleghany Mountains still marked a boundary beyond which the settlers dared not go; for west of them lay immense reaches of frowning forest, uninhabited save by bands of warlike Indians. Occasionally some venturesome hunter or trapper penetrated this immense wilderness, and returned with strange stories of what he had seen and done.

1. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A: ‘The Birth of Daniel Boone’ 

B: ‘The Great American Pioneers’ 

C: ‘The Life of Daniel Boone’ 

D: ‘Daniel Boone’s Parents’

2. Who is the most likely author of this passage? 

A: Indian 

B: American folklorist 

C: Newspaper columnist 

D: Poet

3. What literary device is the author using in the phrase ‘frowning forest’? 

A: personification

B: simile 

C: metaphor 

D: motif

4. What does the word ‘game-hunter’ mean about Boone? 

A: He loved to play in the woods. 

B: He hunted animals.

C: He was an excellent chess player. 

D: He was always ready for action.

5. Based on the passage, which is the most likely birth year for Daniel Boone?

A: 1476 

B: 1734 

C: 1945 

D: 1850

The second eight questions are samples from California’s high school exit exam, which is multiple choice.

The first eight questions are some of the more than 68 questions – not counting an essay — that pupils had to pass in the state of Washington in order to be admitted to the Eighth Grade. This particular test was administered May 16 and May 17, 1907.

The complete copy of the Eighth Grade Admission test follows.

Answers to the Exit Exam math questions: D, A, D. The reading questions: C, B, A, B, B

-30-