Stanford Achievement Test Stanford Achievement (Language Arts) 3

Question 1

Which sentence uses an apostrophe correctly?

Accepted Answer

The dog's bone was buried in the yard.

Answer

An apostrophe followed by 's' shows singular possession; 'dog's' means the bone belongs to one dog.

Question 2

Which of the following is an example of figurative language using personification?

Accepted Answer

The river swallowed the fallen leaves whole.

Answer

Personification gives human qualities to a non-human thing; 'swallowed' attributes a human action to the river.

Question 3

What does the root word 'aud' mean in the word 'auditory'?

Accepted Answer

hear

Answer

The Latin root 'aud' means 'to hear,' as seen in words like auditorium, audience, and auditory.

Question 4

Which sentence correctly uses a semicolon?

Accepted Answer

I studied hard; I still failed.

Answer

A semicolon joins two related independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction.

Question 5

A reader encounters an unfamiliar word. Which strategy should she try FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Use surrounding sentences to figure out its meaning

Answer

Using context clues from surrounding text is the most immediate and practical strategy for determining word meaning.

Stanford Achievement Test Practice Test