Sample Questions: College Composition Modular

The following College Composition Modular 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

Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by five suggested answers or completions. Select the one that is best in each case.

Conventions of Standard Written English (10%)

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

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

1. A) One of the greatest athletes that the United States B) ever produced C) was Jim Thorpe, who was the first D) winning gold medals in both the pentathlon and decathlon. E) No error
2. In her A) studies of Polynesian cultures, Margaret Mead discovered that the difficulties many teenagers in the United States B) experience C) are neither typical D) or universal. E) No error

Revision Skills (40%)

Questions 3–6

3. To revise the state science standards is complicated, it involves a lengthy review process and the appointment of a committee of educators.
   1. To revise the state science standards is complicated, it involves a lengthy review process and the appointment of a committee of educators.
   2. Revising the state science standards is complicated, involving a lengthy review process and the appointment of a committee of educators.
   3. To revise the state science standards, which is complicated, that involves a lengthy review process and the appointment of a committee of educators.
   4. Revising the state science standards is complicated which involves a lengthy review process and the appointment of a committee of educators.
   5. Involving a revision of the state science standards which means a lengthy review process and the appointment of a committee of educators.
4. Some of Cicero’s letters have such simplicity and directness so that they can be used for first-year Latin students.
   1. have such simplicity and directness so that
   2. have so much simplicity and directness so
   3. being so simple and direct that
   4. are simple and direct to such an amount that
   5. are so simple and direct that

Questions 5–6 refer to the passage below:

(1) During the Second World War, the Japanese kept breaking the codes used by the United States military. (2) Trying to create unbreakable codes, they developed codes that were so complicated that messages took a long time to decode. (3) This is not good when information takes a long time to move. (4) Moreover, it took a long time to transmit the information, and the Japanese broke the new codes anyway. (5) This is the making of the Navajo code talkers.

(6) A man by the name of Philip Johnston was a veteran of the First World War, and he remembered that sometimes they used Native American languages as codes during the First World War. (7) Navajo is a Na-Dene or Athabascan language. (8) Johnston knew Navajo. (9) He advised the military that there were certain unique facts about the Navajo language, and it made them perfect to be the medium for encoding messages. (10) For instance, at the beginning of the war, only about 30 people outside the Navajo tribe knew the language.

(11) Navajo includes unusual dialects, its sentence structures are very complex, and the tones used in pronouncing words affect their meaning. (12) Moreover, Navajo was not a written language at the time. (13) No alphabet or any kind of written symbols.

(14) Convinced, the military leadership had a small group of Navajo soldiers create a code and then arranged for 400 Navajo Marines to be trained in it. (15) At least 300 of these Marines, the code talkers, were in the front lines of every battle. (16) The Japanese never broke the Navajo code.

5. Of the following, which is the best revision of sentence 5?
   1. This is the reason for why the Navajo code talkers came into being.
   2. This was why the Navajo code talkers were created, it was to find a solution to a serious situation.
   3. The Navajo code talkers, who formed for these important reasons, solved the problem.
   4. Because of this desperate predicament, a group of Marines, the Navajo code talkers, were turned to.
   5. In response to these problems, a group of Marines known as the Navajo code talkers was formed.
6. In context, which is the best place to put the following sentence?
   Johnston was able to demonstrate that Navajo speakers could send, receive, and translate a three-line message in 20 seconds, while a coding machine took 30 minutes.
   1. After sentence 4
   2. Before sentence 6
   3. After sentence 10
   4. After sentence 11
   5. Before sentence 14

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 7–8 refer to the sentences below:

(1) Research on early learning suggests that the process of making sense of the world begins at a very young age. (2) Children begin in preschool years to develop rudimentary understandings (whether accurate or not) of the phenomena around them (Wellman 1990). (3) Those initial understandings can have a powerful effect on the integration of new concepts and information. (4) Sometimes those understandings are accurate, providing a foundation for building new knowledge. (5) But sometimes they are inaccurate (Carey and Gelman 1991). (6) In science, older students often have misconceptions of physical properties that cannot be easily observed. (7) In humanities, their preconceptions often include stereotypes or simplifications, as when history is understood as a struggle between good guys and bad guys (Gardner 1991).

7. In sentence 5, the information in parentheses indicates that
   1. two books on the topic were published in 1991
   2. the information in the sentence was found in a source that has two authors
   3. Carey and Gelman are proponents of a theory that the writer wishes to discredit
   4. the sentence is a direct quote from a work by Carey and Gelman
   5. Carey and Gelman wrote a book on the topic
8. The purpose of sentence 3 is to
   1. paraphrase the information given in sentences 1 and 2
   2. summarize an argument made by Wellman
   3. introduce an example of a concept that is understood by young children
   4. point out an important implication of the information given in sentences 1 and 2
   5. present a subject not addressed by other researchers

Questions 9–10 refer to the essay below:

(1) It is difficult for consumers to evaluate the quality of unfamiliar products. (2) Short-lived products make the situation especially difficult, as consumers are faced with the additional challenge of making rapid decisions about which products to buy. (3) Joseph Lampel explains that, as a result, consumers rely on experts who specialize in evaluating product quality. (4) In turn, the credibility of the information providers depends on their independence: they must not have a financial interest in the success or failure of the products they review.

(5) This relationship between consumers, short-lived products, and product evaluators can be illustrated by the market for first-run movies. (6) The hypercompetitive film industry is one in which many “individual products must struggle to gain the attention of consumers, and they only have a short time during which to translate this attention into sales.” (7) As moviegoers have difficulty knowing whether they will enjoy a film before they see it, and because many new films are released each week, they need the services of product evaluators—professional movie reviewers—to help them make informed decisions. (8) Moreover, as Joseph notes, because positive reviews attract consumers (and negative reviews may keep them away), movie reviewers have considerable power in the movie industry.

9. Which of the following best describes the relationship between sentences 1 and 2?
   1. Sentence 1 presents a claim, and sentence 2 presents information to evaluate the claim.
   2. Sentence 1 describes a problem, and sentence 2 describes a situation in which the problem is particularly evident.
   3. Sentence 1 proposes a theory, and sentence 2 explains how that theory was developed.
   4. Sentence 1 reveals a surprising phenomenon, and sentence 2 elaborates on that phenomenon.
   5. Sentence 1 describes an approach to a problem, and sentence 2 presents an objection to that approach.
10. In context, the purpose of sentence 4 is to
    1. suggest that information providers take unfair advantage of consumer uncertainty
    2. point out that information providers lose credibility when the products they recommend do not sell well
    3. imply that information providers are usually unscrupulous
    4. highlight an important characteristic of information providers
    5. lead the reader to question the veracity of a statement about information providers

Answers

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