1. ROY HIGH SCHOOL MRS. HARTNETT 2016-17
ACT PREPARTION
ROY HIGH SCHOOL
MRS. HARTNETT

2. Reading Passage Tips
Skim the passage for general comprehension – all the way through – before answering the questions (~ 3 minutes)
What is the speaker’s main point?
Is the tone of the passage positive or negative?
Notice the flow of the story or argument (cause/effect; chronological; compare/contrast; flashback/forward; general to specific )
PRETEND YOU ARE FASCINATED WITH THE CONTENT
Do not scan the questions first – that is a waste of time
Try to answer the questions without looking back at the text.
If you do think you need to go back and look at the text, read the response choices first and see if you can eliminate two of them.
Look for key words in the question to help you focus and answer correctly
If part of an answer is wrong (even a single word), the answer is entirely wrong. There is only one 100% correct answer.

3. 5 TYPES OF QUESTIONS ON ACT READING
Big Picture/Main Point:
What is the main point of the passage or paragraph?
Little Picture/Detail:
What does this small detail mean?
Where in the passage was the following detailed mentioned?
Inference:
What would the author most likely feel about the following hypothetical scenario?
Vocabulary in Context:
What does this word or phrase mean in the context of the passage?
Author Method:
How does the author construct the passage?
What is the author's purpose in utilizing the following method?

4. Multiple Choice Strategy
Understand why the wrong answers are wrong
Answer Choice
Reason to Eliminate
1. Too narrow
Too small a section of selection covered
2. Too broad
An area wider that the selection covered
3. Irrelevant
Nothing to do with the passage
Relevant to selection, but not the question
4. Incorrect
Distortion of the facts in the selection
Contradiction of the facts in the selection
5. Illogical
Not supported by the facts in the passage
Not supported by cited passage from the selection
6. Similar Choices
GO BACK AND TEASE OUT THE DIFFERENCES
7. Not/Except
Answer that correctly represent the selection

5. 5 MOST COMMON MISTAKES Misread question Misread answer(s)
Missed LEAST / EXCEPT / NOT
Read too quickly
Misread answer(s)
Did not read all choices
Did not go back to the passage (particularly for vocabulary)
Did not tease out differences between two answers
Picked an answer that was relevant to passage, but not this particularly sentence or paragraph

6. Reading Passage 1
PROSE FICTION: This passage is adapted from the novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie (©1999 by Salman Rushdie)

7. ACT Reading – Practice 1
1. The passage as a whole can be primarily characterized as the narrator’s:
A. explanation of the relationship the narrator and his parents had with the city of Bombay.
B. description of important buildings and locations in Bombay.
C. argument for Bombay’s prominence in the world of architecture.
D. concerns about the emotional environment in which the narrator was raised.
Which English skill is being tested?
What process must you follow to correctly answer this question?
Which words can you cross out in the wrong answers that identify why they are wrong?
Reading Response Tip:
1. Big Picture/Main Point: What is the main point of the passage or paragraph?
Little Picture/Detail: What does this small detail mean? Where in the passage was the following detailed mentioned?
Inference: What would the author most likely feel about the following hypothetical scenario?
Vocabulary in Context: What does this word or phrase mean in the context of the passage?
Author Method: How does the author construct the passage? What is the author's purpose in utilizing the following method?.

8. ACT Reading – Practice 2
2. The narrator describes the photos by Bombay’s first great photographers as primarily inspiring the narrator to:
F. turn away from a career in photography
G. create grand panoramas of the new Bombay.
H. produce images that his father would add to his collection.
J. photograph subjects that depict everyday life on Bombay’s streets.
Which English skill is being tested?
What process must you follow to correctly answer this question? ?
Reading Response Tip:
1. Summarize the point of the passage and determine if the final sentence supports this purpose.
2. Look at the passage title to help you determine the subject matter and message or point.

9. ACT Reading – Practice 3
3. In lines 25-31, that narrator muses over, then rejects, the notion that:
A. Merchant & Merchant played an important role in the building of Bombay
B. he started paying attention to Bombay at a young age
C. his anticipated birth was one of the causes of the rush to finish the building of Bombay
D. Bombay had been a gigantic building site in the years before he was born
Which English skill is being tested?
What process must you follow to correctly answer this question? ?
Reading Response Tip:
1. Summarize the point of the passage and determine if the final sentence supports this purpose.
2. Look at the passage title to help you determine the subject matter and message or point.

10. ACT Reading – Practice 4
4. In lines 32-43, the narrator uses which of the following literary devices to describe Bombay:
F. Alliteration
G. Allusion
H. Personification
J. Simile
Which English skill is being tested?
What process must you follow to correctly answer this question? ?
Reading Response Tip:
1. Summarize the point of the passage and determine if the final sentence supports this purpose.
2. Look at the passage title to help you determine the subject matter and message or point.

11. ACT Reading – Practice 5 Which English skill is being tested?
5. Which of the following statements best captures how the narrator’s parents balanced their parental duties with their work at the construction company?
A. The narrator’s mother did the majority of the work at the construction company, while the father took care of the narrator
B. The narrator’s parents traded off responsibility for taking care of the narrator and working at the construction company
C. The father worked at his designing boards, while the mother took the narrator to building sites
D. The parents both worked at the construction company while the narrator stayed home with a babysitter.
Which English skill is being tested?
What process must you follow to correctly answer this question? ?
Reading Response Tip:
1. Summarize the point of the passage and determine if the final sentence supports this purpose.
2. Look at the passage title to help you determine the subject matter and message or point.

12. ACT Reading – Practice 6
6. As it is used in line 9, the word sweep most nearly means:
F. overwhelming victory
G. wide-ranging search
H. completed removal
J. broad area
Which English skill is being tested?
What process must you follow to correctly answer this question?
Reading Response Tip:
1. Summarize the point of the passage and determine if the final sentence supports this purpose.
2. Look at the passage title to help you determine the subject matter and message or point.

13. ACT Reading – Practice 7
7. In the context of the passage, the primary function of lines 6-10 is to:
A. compare architectural landmarks in Bombay to those elsewhere
B. help illustrate how the term “art deco” was derived
C. contradict the idea that Bombay was in its golden age when the narrator was a child
D. provide examples of “Bombay style architecture” in Rome.
Which English skill is being tested?
What process must you follow to correctly answer this question?
Reading Response Tip:
1. Summarize the point of the passage and determine if the final sentence supports this purpose.
2. Look at the passage title to help you determine the subject matter and message or point.

14. ACT Reading – Practice 8
8. The narrator as a child viewed the work his parents did for Merchant & Merchant with a strong sense of:
F. joy; the work provided the family with enough money to live extravagant lives
G. fear; the narrator knew his parents were often so exhausted they were careless about safety.
H. jealousy; the work pulled the narrator’s parents away from him and directed their attention to the city.
J. respect; his parents were known for their quality workmanship throughout the city.
Which English skill is being tested?
What process must you follow to correctly answer this question?
Reading Response Tip:
1. Summarize the point of the passage and determine if the final sentence supports this purpose.
2. Look at the passage title to help you determine the subject matter and message or point.

15. ACT Reading – Practice 9
9. As it is used in line 38, the phrase drew up most nearly means:
A. extended
B. prepared
C. approached
D. straightened
Which English skill is being tested?
What process must you follow to correctly answer this question?
Reading Response Tip:
1. Summarize the point of the passage and determine if the final sentence supports this purpose.
2. Look at the passage title to help you determine the subject matter and message or point.

16. ACT Reading – Practice 10
10. In the last paragraph, the narrator’s father shows the narrator the photos of storefronts and piers in order to:
F. teach the narrator about the commercial progress the people who work in Bombay have made.
G. convince the narrator that Dayal and Haseler were Bombay’s first great photographers.
H. clarify his claim that his photo collection was not about modern-day Bombay but rather about the early twentieth century.
J. illustrate that photos of places can reveal as much about the people who spent time there as photos of the people themselves.
Which English skill is being tested?
What process must you follow to correctly answer this question?
Reading Response Tip:
1. Summarize the point of the passage and determine if the final sentence supports this purpose.
2. Look at the passage title to help you determine the subject matter and message or point.