CBEST Audio Crash Course Educational

CBEST Audio Crash Course

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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 What is the CBEST? ................................................................................................................... 1 General Test-Taking Strategies ................................................................................................. 2 READING ................................................................................................................................. 5 Comprehension ....................................................................................................................... 11 Analysis and Evaluation .......................................................................................................... 40 Research Skills ......................................................................................................................... 58 Key Take-Aways ...................................................................................................................... 62 Quiz ......................................................................................................................................... 63 MATHEMATICS ...................................................................................................................... 69 Measuring and Estimating ...................................................................................................... 74 Statistics .................................................................................................................................. 79 Computation ........................................................................................................................... 83 Numbers and Graphs ............................................................................................................ 100 Key Take-Aways .................................................................................................................... 107 Quiz ....................................................................................................................................... 108 WRITING.............................................................................................................................. 119 General Guidelines................................................................................................................ 119 Expressive Writing ................................................................................................................ 138 Expository Writing ................................................................................................................ 141

Key Take-Aways .................................................................................................................... 144 Quiz ....................................................................................................................................... 145 PRACTICE TEST..................................................................................................................... 152 Reading ................................................................................................................................. 152 Math ...................................................................................................................................... 169 Writing .................................................................................................................................. 182

INTRODUCTION Welcome to this guide to the CBEST. The CBEST is taken by people in California or Oregon who want to become public school teachers. This test is supposed to measure your ability to understand what you read, to do basic math, and to write well. This guide will prepare you to do your best on this exam. In this introductory chapter, we will provide an overview of the exam and general strategies that you can use to earn the best possible score. Let’s begin by learning more about the exam.

WHAT IS THE CBEST? The test itself is divided into three sections. These are called Reading, Mathematics, and Writing. The good news is that you do not have to pass all three sections at once. When you take the test, you are allowed to take one, two, or three sections of the exam. This exam is given in English; there is no option to take the test in another language. If your English skills are weak, you should work on those skills in addition to preparing for the test itself, especially since you need to write essays for the CBEST Writing section.

You have the option to take a computer-based version of the test or a paper-based version.

Both tests will have the same content and time limits. You have a bit more flexibility with the computer-based version in the sense that there are more time slots available for you to take the test, so it will be easier to find a time that works well for you. On the other hand, if you choose the paper-based version, you are limited to only a few dates and times each year when you can take the test. As you decide which version to take, remember that you will need to write two essays for this exam. You may be more comfortable writing on a computer than by hand or vice-versa. Only you can decide which version of the test is better for you.

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The scoring for this test is a bit complicated. For each of the three sections, your score will be reported on a scale of twenty to eighty. If you get a score on any section that is less than thirtyseven, you will not pass that section. You can pass the entire test if your total score is one hundred and twenty-three or higher. That works out to an average of forty-one on each section.

You will need to go to the CBEST website to register to take the exam.

GENERAL TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES Here are some strategies to help you do your best on this test.

First, work carefully through this guide. Pause as you encounter questions in this guide and think about how you would answer them before you read the answer in the guide. This will help you assess what you already know and what you need to work on more. Treat incorrect answers as an indication that you need to study the topic a bit more. Seek out resources that will help you improve on your weaker areas.

Second, if you are concerned that you may not pass the test, it might be to your advantage to take the three sections of the test at three separate times. This will allow you to focus your study sessions on just one section of the test.

Third, studies show that you will learn more if you study for shorter amounts of time each day than if you try to study for fewer, longer study sessions. So, look at your calendar and plan as many study sessions as possible between now and when you plan to take the test—but keep those study sessions short.

Fourth, at the CBEST website, you can take a practice exam. This can be done in a computerized version or in a paper version. There is no charge for this. You should take this exam after you have completed this guide. Also, you should try to take it under conditions similar to the actual test. This will give you the best information about how prepared you are for the test. Use your results on the practice test to figure out what areas need more practice and study.

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Fifth, do not try to cram right before the exam. On the night before you take the test, gather the materials you need for the test, but, otherwise, relax. Here is what you should prepare before the exam: One. You will need to take a photo ID. Two. You should prepare clothes to wear that allow you to dress in layers, since you do not know if the exam room will be hot or cold, and either one can be distracting.

Three. Plan your route and transportation to the testing center and allow yourself extra time to get there.

Four. You cannot bring electronics, food, drinks, packages, bags, hats, or printed materials to the testing site, so plan on being without these items during the test.

Five. Set an alarm for the morning and get a good night’s sleep.

Six. Plan a healthy breakfast. Don’t skip breakfast; eat something that has some fat and some protein, but don’t eat a meal that is too heavy.

Sixth, here are some general test-taking strategies.

One. In the past, you may have taken tests where you lost points for incorrect answers. But the CBEST is not like this. This means that it is to your advantage to answer every single question, even if you have to guess. Be sure that you allow yourself enough time to answer all of the questions.

Two. If you are not sure of an answer, you can use the process of elimination. This means that you rule out answers that you know are wrong and you guess from the remaining answers.

Because this is a multiple-choice test, you will sometimes be able to get the correct answer using the process of elimination. And, sometimes, it is easier to identify incorrect answers than it is to find the correct answers. Remember: the correct answer to the question is right there in

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front of you—and you may have an easier time finding it if you cross off the wrong answers. So, if you get stuck, look for wrong answers and eliminate them.

Three. Relax. If you have been successfully completing your college coursework, the odds are that you will do quite well on the CBEST. Remember, this is a test of basic skills. So if your reading, writing, and math skills are carrying you through your college classes with passing grades, you are probably well on the road to passing the CBEST. Work through this guide for a review of anything that you might be a bit rusty on—particularly if you are not preparing to be a math teacher and it has been awhile since you have had a math class—or if you are preparing to be a math teacher and it has been awhile since you’ve done intensive writing courses.

This concludes the introduction to this guide. Next, we’ll review for the Reading portion of the CBEST.

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READING The Reading portion of the CBEST will assess your ability to understand what you have read.

This might sound like a fairly simple skill, but there are some nuances to it that might be unfamiliar to you, especially on a standardized test. In this section of the guide, we will review the skills, concepts, and techniques that will help you earn the highest possible score on this section of the test.

The test itself will consist of fifty multiple-choice questions. Each one will have five answer options. Remember, there is no penalty for guessing, so you should answer every single question. And if you can eliminate one or two or three of the possible answers, your odds of answering the question correctly—even if you are not entirely sure of the answer—will be pretty good. So remember to use the process of elimination.

In the Reading section, you will be given short passages or graphics, followed by one or more questions. You should know that this is not a test of your background knowledge—it is a test of your ability to understand what you read. Here is why that fact is important: some students will see that a passage is about, for example, the outbreak of a new disease. And they’ll panic a bit if they have never heard of this disease or if they don’t consider themselves good at science or if they have never taken a microbiology class. But try to avoid this reaction. This isn’t a science test—it’s a reading test. The questions are designed so that you can answer them correctly even in situations where the subject is entirely unfamiliar to you. All of the information that you need to answer the questions correctly will be found in the passage. You don’t need to already know about the topic in order to answer the questions correctly. So here’s the important point to remember: don’t be intimidated by reading passages on topics that are unfamiliar to you.

You are still capable of answering all of the questions on these passages correctly.

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And there is another important point here: sometimes, the outside knowledge that you have about a topic can actually get in the way of your ability to answer the question correctly.

Imagine that there was a reading passage about child development. You have probably had to do some reading in this area in your preparation to become a teacher. However, the question is not testing your outside knowledge—it is testing your ability to comprehend the passage. And, sometimes, many of the answer choices contain factually correct information, but they are still the wrong answer to the question. This is not typical in most high school and college tests, so it might be unexpected. But you need to remember that just because an answer choice contains information that you know is factually correct does not mean that it is the correct answer to the question. So, to continue our example, if you already know some things about child development, you might recognize that answer options A, C, and D contain factually accurate information. But they can’t all be the correct answer. Determining which answer is correct requires you to answer based on the information that is in the passage, not on what you know to be true from other reading and learning that you have experienced. To summarize, you will not be able to answer questions correctly based on what you already know about the topic of a passage. In fact, prior knowledge can make incorrect answers look more appealing. Instead, you need to be entirely focused on the information that is actually found in the passage. Let’s try a sample passage and question that illustrates this principle. Consider the following passage: During Lyndon Baines Johnson’s presidential term, pundits began to talk about a permanent Democratic majority. And, to be sure, it appeared that the G-O-P was in the wilderness. But that would change decisively with the election of Ronald Reagan in nineteen-eighty. His election was a harbinger of the ascendant conservative movement. With roots in southern California and a deeply-felt suspicion of Washington DC, this movement would reshape American politics well into the twenty-first century.

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Now consider this question: According to the passage, which of the following was a reason for the increased success of the conservative movement leading to Reagan’s presidency?

A. distrust of the federal government B. fears about communism C. increasing suburbanization D. a backlash against cultural change The correct answer to this question is option A, distrust of the government. But if you have studied modern American history, you probably know that all of the answer choices have been mentioned by at least some historians as factors that were part of the rise of the modern conservative movement. All of these answers are factually correct. But only one was mentioned in the passage. Again, this is quite different from a multiple-choice test that you might take in a history class, where the wrong answers are, in fact, factually wrong. In this case, the wrong answers are factually accurate. Remember, this is a reading test—not a test of history or science or any other subject. The goal here is to assess your ability to understand what you read. And, in this sample passage, there was reference to the “deeply-felt suspicion of Washington DC.” Not one of the other answer choices was mentioned in the passage, so they can’t be the correct answer to this question, even though they contain factually accurate information. This is an important distinction, and it will save you from getting many questions wrong if you remember this principle: this is a reading test—not a subject matter test. Do not allow your prior learning on the topic of the reading passage to distract you from this important fact. As you encounter questions on the reading test, you will need to ask yourself: can I defend my answer with information found in the passage? If you cannot, then it is not the correct answer to the question, even if it is factually correct.

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There are two more test-taking techniques that you can learn from our sample question.

First, did you notice that the first words of the question were “according to the passage”? This is an important reminder to very carefully read every word in the question. In this case, the phrase “according to the passage” would have helped you remember that you needed to answer based on what was contained in the passage and not on your prior knowledge. In other cases, the question might contain words such as “least,” “not,” “except,” “only,” or “unless” that drastically change the type of material that you are looking for in a correct answer. Of course, if you accidentally skip over these little words, you will be unlikely to answer the question correctly. You should always be sure to carefully read each and every word in the question. You may have gotten into the habit of skimming as you read social media feeds, but you need to break that habit for this test. It is important to focus closely on each word in the question.

Second, did you notice that the correct answer choice was “distrust of the federal government” and it referred to part of the passage that read, “a deeply-felt suspicion of Washington DC”?

Sometimes, students stumble because the wording in the answer choices differs from the wording in the passage. But, as you can see in this instance, this is not necessarily a problem. It is entirely possible for the correct answer choice to be worded differently than the passage.

And, it is possible for an incorrect answer choice to use wording that is directly quoted from the passage but is still wrong. The point here is that you need to focus on what the question is asking and look for an answer choice that reflects that answer, even if the wording is different from the question. Do not be tempted by an answer choice just because the wording sounds familiar because you remember those words from the passage. It does not mean that that answer choice is correct. Instead, focus on finding the best answer—whether that answer uses the same wording or different wording than the passage used.

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Before we look at the specific types of questions that you may encounter on the CBEST reading exam, let’s consider two more aspects of your strategy on this exam.

First, test-takers often wonder if they should read the passage first or the questions first. There is no one right answer to this question. There are advantages and disadvantages either way.

Let’s consider the potential advantages and disadvantages. Some people prefer to read the passage first and then read the questions. One advantage of this is that it makes it easier to focus on the passage itself. Also, when you proceed in order, you are less likely to skip passages or questions. On the other hand, there will only be one, two, or three questions for each passage. So an advantage of reading the questions first is that it can help you focus on the material that you will actually need to know from the passage, which can make your reading of the passage more focused and help you to answer the questions more quickly and with greater accuracy. Ultimately, you are the only one who can determine which system works better for you. As you take the quiz and practice test in this book, you can experiment with both approaches and determine which one works better for you. Once you decide on an approach, stick with it. That will help you to develop your test-taking skills so that you can do your best on the exam.

Second, you should be aware of a common mistake that test-takers make: they read the passage too slowly. Now, on the one hand, you do not want to read so quickly that you miss important details. But, on the other hand, this is a timed test, and you cannot afford to read so slowly that you do not have time to properly answer all of the questions. The best strategy is to use a middle-paced reading speed. This will be different from how you scan social media—you can’t afford to just skim. But it will also be different than how you read a textbook where you are attempting to read slowly enough to remember all of the information that you read. That is not how you want to approach the reading passages. Remember that you can always return to the reading passages to check for details, so there is no point in trying to memorize the passage. That approach would only waste your time. Plus, you will only be asked a few questions about each passage, which means that there is no need to memorize every detail of the passage. That is of no benefit to you. It will likely just cause you unnecessary stress and

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waste your time. Again, you want to aim for a middling reading pace: not slow enough to memorize, not fast enough to skim.

Here is one way to think about the reading task: imagine that you were playing a party game where you had to find an object in a home that you were unfamiliar with as quickly as you could. Before the game begins, you have two minutes to walk around the house. What would you do during those two minutes? One approach is to open every single drawer in the kitchen and try to memorize what it contains, but if you do that, you are unlikely to have time to visit every room in the house before your time is up and the game begins. So, this would not be a very good strategy. And, it is possible that the object you are asked to find isn’t even in the kitchen. If you are asked to find a bath towel, you’ll be in trouble. This approach to the game compares to trying to memorize the reading passage: it is a waste of your time, it leaves you poorly prepared, and it is likely to stress you out. So don’t do it. Another approach to playing this game is to use your two minutes of preparation time to walk through the entire house. You won’t have time to open any cabinets or drawers or to look in any closets, but you will at least know where all of the rooms are located. Then, if the game asks you to find the laundry detergent, you’ll at least know where the laundry room is. You can then go in there and start opening cabinets until you find the detergent. This approach is most likely to lead to your success in the game. Similarly, when you approach the reading passages on the CBEST, you should read the first passage the same way that you would walk through the house: you aren’t looking for details; you are looking for big ideas and organization. Then, when you are asked a question about the reading passage, you will remember how the passage was organized and you will know where in the passage to look for specific details, words, or ideas, just as in the game, once you are familiar with the layout of the house, you will know where in general you should look for specific items.

In conclusion, your approach to the passages should be to read at a middling pace—neither too fast nor too slow. Only you can determine what exactly that pace is, and practicing with sample questions will help you develop a sense of what the right pace is for you. You should not try to memorize everything you read. Rather, you should look for the big picture of the passage. Then,

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when you are focused on a specific question, you can return to the passage for the specific information that you need—and you’ll know where to look.

The next step is to prepare for the specific reading skills that will be tested on the CBEST reading test. The test makers have divided the skills needed to perform well on the Reading test into three separate areas. The first concerns your ability to analyze and evaluate what you read; the second focuses on your ability to comprehend what you read; and the third is concerned with research skills. In this guide, we’ll take an in-depth look at each of these three broad areas and the specific skills that are in each one. Let’s begin with comprehension skills. These skills form the backbone of your ability to read a passage or study a graphic and understand the meaning of what you read.

COMPREHENSION The CBEST reading test divides reading comprehension skills into fourteen subskills. You don’t need to remember this list, and you may not even be aware of which specific skill is being tested as you take the test. In fact, sometimes various skills are combined into one question. So don’t worry about memorizing the list of skills. But you do need to be able to use each of these skills. Let’s review each one and look at how it might appear in a question on the CBEST. First, you need to be able to describe the relationship between main ideas and details. You are probably already familiar with the concept of main ideas and details: the main idea is the overall purpose or theme of a piece of writing. If you are ever struggling to determine what the main idea is, imagine this situation. The reading passage in question was a homework assignment for a class you are taking and over which you are going to have a quiz. Just before class begins, a friend asks you, “My kid was sick last night, and I didn’t have time to do the reading—what was it about?” Your answer to that question will, naturally and without any specific effort on your part, relate the main idea of the reading. You know that you just don’t have time to get into the details—class is about to begin, and your friend is not likely to remember everything anyway. You need to focus on the big picture in order to give your friend

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a chance to do his or her best on the quiz. So you automatically relate the main idea of the reading.

The details are there to support the main idea. Sometimes test takers get confused as to what is a detail and what is the main idea. There is a quick test that you can apply if you find yourself in this situation. Ask yourself this question: what would happen to the meaning of the passage if this information was removed? If you remove the main idea, you have an entirely different passage. The main focal point is gone. On the other hand, if you remove a detail, you do not have an entirely different passage. You just have less support for the main idea than you had previously. So, if you find yourself unsure about whether an idea is a detail or the main idea, you can find the answer by asking yourself what would happen if you removed that idea from the passage.

Another skill that might be assessed in this area is specifically how it is that a detail in a passage relates to the main idea in the passage. Here, you are being asked to explain why it is that an author chose a particular detail in order to support the main idea. Obviously, answering this question requires you to identify the main idea. But it also goes a step further in that you need to be able to explain how it is that a detail is used to support the main idea. Consider this sample passage: If you were born in the nineteen seventies, you may have noticed that a disproportionate share of your friends have names that begin with the letter J. This is not your imagination. Rather, in data gathered by researchers at the University of Chicago, it was found that first names beginning with the letter J were more common than first names beginning with any other letter between nineteen twenty-five and the year two thousand, with a distinct peak around nineteen seventy-five, when nearly one in five babies were given names that began with the letter J.

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Now think about this sample question: Why does the writer mention people born in the nineteen seventies?

A. to question their ability to observe naming trends B. to show how they are an exception to the rule C. to provide an example of an age cohort with many names that begin with “J” D. to contrast to the data gathered by researchers at the University of Chicago The correct answer to this question is option C. The main idea of this passage is that names beginning with the letter “J” have been very popular for most of the twentieth century. This passage has a lot of details, including numbers, that can be hard to remember. But, again, you don’t need to memorize all of the details when you read the passage. Had there been a question that asked about the most popular baby name in nineteen forty, you could have returned to the passage to double-check that information. Instead, on your first reading of the passage, you want to focus on the main idea, which is the popularity of names beginning with “J.” The sample question is asking you how a detail in the passage related to the main idea. The detail concerns people born in the nineteen seventies. This age group is mentioned at the beginning of the passage. Your task is to determine how this detail functions in the passage.

While all of the answer options are theoretically possible, in this particular passage, the reference to the people born in the seventies is meant to show how a group of people have experienced something that data shows to be true: a lot of people that age have names that begin with the letter “J.” Let’s take a closer look at one of the incorrect answers, option D. Did you notice that it includes, word-for-word, a long phrase from the passage? And it is still an incorrect answer. Remember the rule that just repeating words found in the passage does not make an answer correct. This is a trap that some test-takers fall into. Don’t let your familiarity with the wording mislead you. Option D is not the correct answer because the detail about people born in the seventies doesn’t contradict the data found by the researchers. Instead, it supports what the researchers found.

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Let’s move on to the second skill that will be tested by the reading comprehension questions.

There will be questions that assess your ability to identify the steps in a series or the order of events. For example, you might have a passage that describes how to change the oil in your car.

And one of the questions might ask you what should be done immediately after you unscrew the oil drain plug. Remember, you won’t need to know anything about cars or have any experience in changing the oil in order to be able to answer this question correctly. You’ll just need to look closely at the passage and see which step of the process should happen right after you unscrew the oil drain plug. This should be a pretty straightforward process, and these questions should not be particularly difficult as long as you look closely at the passage in order to be sure that you have not skipped any steps. There is one possible complication that you should be aware of that can make answering these questions a bit more difficult, however.

Let’s look at a sample passage that illustrates it.

Consider this passage: If you have never used a rice cooker before, you are in for a revelation in the kitchen. Instead of fussing over pots and pans and wondering if your rice is burning on the bottom, a rice cooker allows you to press one button, walk away, and have perfect rice when you hear the beep.

Here’s how to use a rice cooker. First, you need to measure the rice into the container. Be aware that almost all rice cookers do not use standard measuring cups but rather their own measuring system. This means that you cannot replace the measuring cup that came with your rice cooker and expect to have good results. Always use the measuring cup that comes with your cooker. Then, add water to the fill line that corresponds to the number of cups of rice that you have added. But before you do this, you’ll want to rinse your rice. This removes excess starch and gives you a chance to check for small pebbles or other debris. Once that’s done, place the lid on top and just press the button for white rice and let it be until it is ready.

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Question: What step comes immediately after you rinse the rice?

A. A. measure the rice B. B. add the lid C. C. press the start button D. D. add water Answer: the correct answer is option D, add water. The reason that this question is a bit tricky is that the passage provides the steps to follow out of order. Did you notice that when you read the passage? The passage tells you to add water, but then the directions backtrack and state that you should have rinsed the rice before you add the water. If you were reading carefully, you would notice this, and it would be clear that the step after rinsing the rice is to add the water. But if you did not notice that the passage was a bit out of order, then you might have thought that the step after rinsing the rice was to add the lid to its proper place, and you might have chosen option B. If you chose option A or C, then you need to develop a different strategy for answering this type of question. Here is a suggestion: you could quickly jot down the steps to making rice. Then, when answering the question, you could take a look at your list to be sure that you are selecting the correct step in the process.

The third skill that you will find tested on the reading portion of the CBEST is your ability to identify the organization or outline of a passage. Let’s review the five main ways that a passage could be organized.

One. Sequence. A passage that is organized in a sequence will be similar to the passage that we just considered about how to cook rice in a rice cooker. It will present events in chronological order. You can often identify passages that use this organizational structure because they contain words such as “next,” “then,” or “finally.” Passages about events in history are often written using a sequential pattern of organization.

Two. Cause and effect. The second pattern you might see is a cause and effect pattern. For example, if a passage discusses the increase in levels of lead due to leaded gasoline and then explores how that correlates with increased cognitive problems for children, the passage will 15

have a cause-and-effect structure. In this case, the cause is the increase in lead levels, and the effect is the increase in children’s neurological issues. This organizational structure is commonly found in reading passages about scientific topics when something is described and then the results of it are described. You should know that sometimes, the pattern changes a bit in that the effect is described first, and then the cause is given. For example, the passage about lead may begin with a discussion of cognitive problems in children and then describe the cause of these problems. This is still considered a cause-and-effect organization.

Three. Problem and solution. In this organizational structure, the passage presents a problem and then its solution. For example, the passage could begin by discussing the increasing rate of students who drop out of high school. Then, the passage could discuss how online credit recovery courses help these students to complete their high school diplomas. This passage would have the problem and solution format. The problem is an increased rate of high school drop-outs, and the solution is online courses. As with the cause and effect organizational structure that we already discussed, it is possible for the elements of the problem and solution organizational structure to appear in the opposite order. That is, the solution could be given first and then the problem. To continue with out example, the passage could explain what credit recovery classes are and then explain how these courses can help decrease the rate of students who drop out. The problem and solution would be reversed, but the passage would still have the same organizational structure.

Four. Compare and contrast. In this organizational structure, two or more things are compared, contrasted, or both compared and contrasted. For example, if a passage discusses the different kinds of arms used in World War Two and in the Vietnam War, the structure of that passage would be considered a compare and contrast structure. You can often identify this structure because it uses words and phrases such as, “on the other hand,” “in contrast,” “similarly,” or “also.”

Five. Description. A passage with the descriptive organizational structure simply describes the topic. If you read a passage that describes the streets of London experienced by a tourist, then the passage is likely to be a description. These passages can sometimes be hard to identify 16

according to their organizational structure since the structure is usually not as obvious as the other four types. The best way to identify them is to ask yourself if the passage is primarily concerned with reporting or relating information that tells you more about the topic.

Use Figure One to review these organizational structures.

FIGURE ONE: ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERNS FOR TEXTS

Sequence Cause and Effect Problem and Solution Compare and Contrast Description

Lists events in order Common in histories and biographies

Presents a cause-and-effect relationship Note that the effect might be presented before the cause

Presents a problem and its solution Note that the solution might be presented before the problem

Two or more items are compared, contrasted, or both Look for words and phrases such as "on the other hand," "in

Describes an event, item, etc.

May be difficult to recognize

Keep in mind that you don’t need to memorize these organizational structures. You should just be aware of them so that, when you encounter a passage and are thinking about how it is organized, you have some ideas about the variety of different ways that a passage might be organized and you are familiar with the most common organizational patterns.

You may be asked a question that requires you to identify the correct outline for a reading passage. As long as you understand how the passage is organized, this kind of question should pose no problem. Or, you might be asked to identify which graphic shows the organization of 17

the passage. Again, the key to answering correctly will be for you to identify how the passage is organized. If you can do that, you should have no trouble identifying an outline or a graphic that corresponds to the passage.

Consider this passage: The vast majority of scientists believe that, unless immediate action is taken, climate change poses a near-existential threat to human flourishing. Estimates indicate that millions of people could be displaced by rising waters, forced off of drought-plagued farmland, or crowded into scorching cities. But convincing people to take action—especially when that action is likely to be costly and inconvenient—is not an easy task. Recent research suggests one possible way out of this impasse: a game. Surprising as it might sound, playing a game that allowed the player to simulate controlling the global economy and environment led to marked improvements in the player’s willingness to support significant action. They also became more emotionally invested in protecting the planet.

Question: Look at Figure Two, which shows five options for graphics that outline the passage.

Which one is correct, option A, B, C, D, or E?

FIGURE TWO: SAMPLE QUESTION

Description of Climate rising waters

increased drought

A.

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hotter cities

Comparison people who played the game

Contrast

Problem: Climate Change

Solution: Game

people who did not play the game

B.

Rising Waters Droughts Increased Temperature

Sequence of Events

C.

Rising Waters

Increased Support for Action Increased Emotional Investment

Increased Droughts

D.

Cause: Droughts

Effect: Hotter Cities

Effect: Rising Waters

E.

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Increased Temperature s

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