Set-up
The amount of questions on the reading test.
What is 40 questions
Do this to help your comprehension of passages.
What is annotate
The main point of the highlighted paragraph is that:
A. modern Rembrandt tulips have been painted by many of today’s most famous artists.
B. compared to seventeenth-century broken tulips, today’s multicolored tulips are less visually appealing.
C. the tulip break known as Semper Augustus was a striking example of the seventeenth-century broken tulip.
D. Rembrandt was responsible for painting the most famous tulip breaks of his time.
The closest we have to a broken tulip today is the group known as the Rembrandts—so named because Rembrandt painted some of the most admired breaks of his time. But these latter-day tulips, with their heavy patterning of one or more contrasting colors, look clumsy by comparison, as if painted in haste with a thick brush. To judge from the paintings we have of the originals, the petals of broken tulips could be as fine and intricate as marbleized papers, the extravagant swirls of color somehow managing to seem both bold and delicate at once. In the most striking examples—such as the fiery carmine that Semper Augustus splashed on its pure white ground—the outbreak of color juxtaposed with the orderly, linear form of the tulip could be breathtaking, with the leaping, wayward patterns just barely contained by the petal’s edge.
What is B. compared to seventeenth-century broken tulips, today’s multicolored tulips are less visually appealing.
The time you have to take the test.
What is 35 minutes
What you should not do before reading a passage
What is read every question and answer choice
It can reasonably be inferred from the passage that some seventeenth-century tulip growers believed tulip breaks were mainly caused by:
A. suppliers’ storage conditions.
B. diseased tulip bulbs.
C. certain growing techniques.
D. certain weather patterns.
Anna Pavord recounts the extraordinary lengths to which Dutch growers would go to make their tulips break, sometimes borrowing their techniques from alchemists, who faced what must have seemed a comparable challenge. Over the earth above a bed planted with white tulips, gardeners would liberally sprinkle paint powders of the desired hue, on the theory that rainwater would wash the color down to the roots, where it would be taken up by the bulb. Charlatans sold recipes believed to produce the magic color breaks; pigeon droppings were thought to be an effective agent, as was plaster dust taken from the walls of old houses. Unlike the alchemists, whose attempts to change base metals into gold reliably failed, now and then the would-be tulip changers would be rewarded with a good break, inspiring everybody to redouble their efforts.
What is C. certain growing techniques
The amount of passages on the reading test.
What is 4 passages
What is skimming
The information in the highlighted text primarily functions to:
A. describe the range of potential tulip colors.
B. explain how the color variation in a broken tulip occurs.
C. argue that yellow and white are the only natural tulip colors.
D. indicate why broken tulips contain no anthocyanin.
The color of a tulip actually consists of two pigments working in concert—a base color that is always yellow or white and a second, laid-on color called an anthocyanin; the mix of these two hues determines the unitary color we see. The virus works by partially and irregularly suppressing the anthocyanin, thereby allowing a portion of the underlying color to show through.
What is B. explain how the color variation in a broken tulip occurs.
The number of questions per passage?
What is 10
Read these paragraphs in detail but skim the rest
What is the first and last paragraph
According to the passage, in the seventeenth century, the fact that broken tulip bulbs tended to produce fewer and smaller offsets compared to typical tulip bulbs resulted in:
A. a decrease in the demand for broken tulips.
B. a fear among growers that broken tulips were diseased.
C. an increase in prices for broken tulips.
D. a desire among growers to plant a wider variety of crops.
For the offsets of that bulb would inherit its pattern and hues and command a fantastic price. The fact that broken tulips for some unknown reason produced fewer and smaller offsets than ordinary tulips drove their prices still higher. Semper Augustus was the most famous such break.
What is C. an increase in prices for broken tulips.
The pacing for the reading test.
What is 8.5 minutes per passage
Answer this type of question if you are running out of time
What is questions that focus on a specific line or word in the passage
In the passage, the author compares broken tulips as they are represented in Rembrandt’s paintings to:
A. peach-tree blossoms.
B. paint powders sprinkled on the ground.
C. a painting hastily done with a thick brush.
D. intricately marbleized papers.
The closest we have to a broken tulip today is the group known as the Rembrandts—so named because Rembrandt painted some of the most admired breaks of his time. But these latter-day tulips, with their heavy patterning of one or more contrasting colors, look clumsy by comparison, as if painted in haste with a thick brush. To judge from the paintings we have of the originals, the petals of broken tulips could be as fine and intricate as marbleized papers, the extravagant swirls of color somehow managing to seem both bold and delicate at once.
What is D. intricately marbleized papers