Sample Questions: College Composition

The following College Composition sample questions aren’t used in actual CLEP exams and aren’t presented here as they will be on the test. Use them to get a sense of question format and difficulty level.

Directions

Some questions are stand-alone. Others refer to a brief passage or a single sentence from a passage. Read carefully and select the best answer.

Questions

Conventions of Standard Written English (10%)

Directions: Read each sentence carefully, paying particular attention to the bolded portions. Assume that elements of the sentence that aren’t bolded are correct and shouldn’t be changed. In choosing answers, follow the requirements of standard written English.

If there’s an error, select the section in bold that must be changed to make the sentence correct. If there’s no error, select No error.

1. Improbable as it A) may seem when B) one observes C) its awkwardness on land, penguins are D) extremely graceful swimmers. E) No error

Revision Skills (40%)

Directions: The following passage is an early draft of an essay. Read the passage and then answer the questions that follow. Some questions refer to particular sentences and ask you to improve sentence structure or diction (word choice). Other questions refer to the entire essay or parts of the essay and ask you to consider the essay’s organization, development, or effectiveness of language. In selecting your answers, follow the conventions of standard written English.

Questions 2–5 refer to the following passage:

(1) In observing a live performance such as a play or a stand-up routine, each individual member of the audience is affected by the group’s emotional response to the show.

(2) Some research shows that audience members are likely to laugh along with the laughter of others in the audience much more frequently than they would laugh at the same performance if viewing it alone.

(3) As performances moved to radio and television in the first half of the twentieth century, producers were well aware of the important role of this social laughter.

(4) Early radio and television comedies were broadcast live with a real audience in the studio to provide the reactions that helped at-home audiences feel connected to the performance.

(5) As advances in technology allowed performances to be prerecorded, edited, and enhanced for later broadcast, recorded laughter gained wider use.

(6) It can be called “canned laughter” or a “laugh track.”

(7) The laugh track gives producers the ability to create an audience response that aligns with the finished, edited performance.

(8) In live broadcasts, the show is performed from beginning to end without stopping, and live studio audiences have an authentic, if unpredictable, response to the performance, just like that of audiences listening or watching at home.

(9) In a recorded performance, though, directors are free to stop the scene, ask performers to redo a particular segment or have the crew switch equipment, and start again.

(10) This interrupted, disjointed style of performance makes it difficult for them to hold a live studio audience’s interest.

(11) Therefore, editors often add recorded laughter into the final edited version of the program.

(12) Highlighting each joke with just the right volume, duration, and quality of laughter to prompt audiences at home to laugh at the intended times.

(13) Although some contemporary television comedies do not use a laugh track, many programs for children and adults alike rely on recorded laughter to create a sense of audience participation.

2. Which of the following, if inserted immediately before sentence 1, would make the best introduction to the passage?
   1. There are actually scientists who study human laughter.
   2. The laughter you hear on many television comedies was probably prerecorded.
   3. The technology used to produce radio and television programs has advanced rapidly.
   4. Many people believe that comedy is less meaningful than drama, but both can evoke strong emotional responses.
   5. Shared laughter has a powerful influence on an audience’s relationship to a performance.
3. In context, which of the following is the best revision to the underlined opening of sentence 2 (reproduced below)?
   Some research shows that audience members are likely to laugh along with the laughter of others in the audience much more frequently than they would laugh at the same performance if viewing it alone.
   1. However, some
   2. Nonetheless, some
   3. In contrast, some
   4. In fact, some
   5. Conversely, some
4. Which of the following is the best way to combine sentences 5 and 6 (reproduced below)?
   As advances in technology allowed performances to be prerecorded, edited, and enhanced for later broadcast, recorded laughter gained wider use. It can be called “canned laughter” or a “laugh track.”
   1. As advances in technology allowed performances to be prerecorded, edited, and enhanced for later broadcast, recorded laughter gained wider use; it can be called “canned laughter” or a “laugh track.”
   2. As advances in technology allowed performances to be prerecorded, edited, and enhanced for later broadcast, recorded laughter—called “canned laughter” or a “laugh track”—gained wider use.
   3. As advances in technology allowed performances to be prerecorded, edited, and enhanced for later broadcast, recorded laughter, they call it “canned laughter” or a “laugh track,” which then gained wider use.
   4. As advances in technology allowed performances to be prerecorded, edited, and enhanced for later broadcast, “canned laughter” or a “laugh track” gained wider use; this is recorded laughter.
   5. As advances in technology allowed performances to be prerecorded, edited, and enhanced for later broadcast, recorded laughter having gained wider use, called “canned laughter” or a “laugh track.”
5. In context, which of the following is best to do with sentence 12 (reproduced below)?
   Highlighting each joke with just the right volume, duration, and quality of laughter to prompt audiences at home to laugh at the intended times.
   1. Insert a comma after “laughter” and change “to prompt” to “prompting.”
   2. Add “with the performance” at the end of the sentence.
   3. Add it to the end of sentence 11, using a comma before the word “highlighting.”
   4. Delete it from the passage.
   5. Leave it as it is.

Ability to Use Source Materials (25%)

Directions: The following questions test your familiarity with basic research, reference, and composition skills. Some questions refer to passages, while other questions are self-contained. For each question, choose the best answer.

Questions 6 refers to the following bibliographical citation:

Citation: Cramton, C. D., & Hinds, P. J. (2004). Subgroup dynamics in internationally distributed teams: Ethnocentrism or cross-national learning? Research in Organizational Behavior, 26, 231–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-3085(04)26006-3

6. The citation shown refers to
   1. a chapter in a book
   2. a conference paper
   3. a newspaper editorial
   4. an essay in an anthology
   5. a journal article

Questions 7 refers to the following Passage:

(1) In the typical movie theater in the United States, pricing is established by convention rather than by economic rationality: it costs as much to see an unpopular movie as it does to see a hugely popular one. (2) Although movie ticket prices varied somewhat in the early history of film (Bakker, 2008), most Americans are not aware of this, so the modern practice seems only natural. (3) But from an economic perspective, it makes little sense. (4) In any given week, some movies will be playing to packed houses, while others will be playing to vacant theaters. (5) As the economists Liran Einav and Barak Orbach (2001) have written, movie theaters “deny the law of supply and demand” (p. 29). (6) Normally, when demand is high and supply is low, companies raise prices, and when the situation is reversed, they lower prices. (7) But American movie theaters charge the same price for all movies regardless of popularity.

References
Bakker, Gerben. “The Economic History of the International Film Industry.” EH.Net Encyclopedia. February 10, 2008. https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-economic-history-of-the-international-film-industry/.
Orbach, Barak, and Einav, Liran. “Uniform Prices for Differentiated Goods: The Case of the Movie-Theater Industry.” Harvard John M. Olin Discussion Paper Series, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, paper 337, October 2001. http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/olin_center/papers/pdf/337.pdf.

7. In sentence 5, the author cites Einav and Orbach most likely to
   1. Indicate that convention often plays a role in the prices of goods and services
   2. Provide support for the assertion that movie ticket prices do not make sense economically
   3. Point out that some movies are extremely popular, while others are playing to empty houses
   4. Challenge the claim that movie ticket prices are based on convention
   5. Explain the advantages of using the same ticket prices for all movies

Rhetorical Analysis (25%)

Directions: The following questions test your ability to analyze writing. Some questions refer to passages, while other questions are self-contained. For each question, choose the best answer.

Questions 8–10 refer to the following passage:

(1) For a time, the railroads competed for travelers out of pride.

(2) They streamlined their locomotives, air-conditioned their coaches.

(3) The advent of the diesel streamliner in 1934 inaugurated a new era of faster and more attractive railroad passenger service.

(4) But the great distances between cities in the United States made reductions in railroad travel times seem trivial when compared with flight, and the amenities that railroads hoped would woo travelers away from the airlines—luxurious new coaches, elegant dining cars, attentive service—proved ruinously expensive.

(5) Moreover, passengers were demanding.

(6) They complained if the track was bumpy.

(7) They complained if the train was slow.

(8) They complained if the coaches were too hot or too cold.

(9) They demanded comfortable stations and helpful ticket agents.

(10) They wanted porters and redcaps, dining-car waiters and stewards.

(11) Freight, on the other hand, never complained.

8. Sentences 2 and 3 serve primarily to?
   1. offer reasons for the failure of railroad technology to advance
   2. present serious drawbacks associated with rail travel
   3. rationalize customers’ preferences for other means of travel
   4. provide examples of improvements that railroads hoped would attract passengers
   5. explain why the railroads felt pressure to improve their services to compete with airlines
9. The repetition of the word “complained” in sentences 6-8 serves to
   1. stress that passengers were frequently inconsiderate
   2. illustrate that most customers’ complaints were valid
   3. indicate that passengers were often difficult to control
   4. underscore the great number of customer complaints
   5. demonstrate that the railroads were tolerant of customers’ whims
10. In the last sentence of the passage, the author’s most likely purpose is to
    1. point out an important difference between passenger trains and freight trains
    2. employ humor to suggest a reason that the railroads might prefer to carry freight
    3. propose a possible cause for the decline of the railroads beginning in the 1930s
    4. use sarcasm to highlight the railroads’ reluctance to continue their passenger service
    5. suggest an overlooked reason that the railroads had difficulty retaining their passengers

Answers

1) C   2) E   3) D   4) B   5) C   6) E   7) B   8) D   9) D   10) B