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College Board PSAT-READING Exam Questions
Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test - Reading (Page 5 )

Updated On: 21-Feb-2026
Page 5 of 53
PDF with 256 Questions

Like Truman, who was never considered a major national figure until Roosevelt's death made him president, Ford attained national prominence only after ____________ thrust him into the presidency.

  1. personal ambition
  2. outside circumstances
  3. popular acclaim
  4. political intrigue
  5. public demand

Answer(s): B

Explanation:

Obviously, the structure of this sentence is similarity. We want a phrase to fit in the blank that will match the description of how both Truman and Ford attained prominence. You don't need to know history; just realize that Ford's case must have resembled Truman's, in which pure accident (or "outside circumstances") made him president.



Thus far, predictions that global ____________ would lead to mass starvation have proven false; however, in the years to come, population ____________ may yet prove to be one of the world's greatest problems.

  1. pollution . . expansion
  2. overcrowding . . growth
  3. poverty . . density
  4. deforestation . . control
  5. warfare . . stabilization

Answer(s): B

Explanation:

The word "however" tells you that the two halves of the sentence contrast with one another. The first half says that "predictions" of "mass starvation have proven false"; the second half says that, in the future, (something) "may yet prove to be one of the world's greatest problems." Thus, the contrast involves the idea that a problem which doesn't exist now may come to exist in the future; the same problem is being discussed in the both parts of the sentence. Choice (B), then, makes sense because "global overcrowding" and "population growth" describe the same problem.



Amelia Earhart's hope of being the first woman to fly around the globe was ____________ when she disappeared in the middle of her ____________ journey.

  1. thwarted . . ill-fated
  2. realized . . triumphant
  3. fulfilled . . historic
  4. controversial . . hazardous
  5. postponed . . famous

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

If she disappeared during the journey, then clearly her hope of flying around the globe was "thwarted," choice A. "Ill-fated" is the logical word to use to describe a trip that ends this way (worse than losing your luggage).



The idea of "children's literature" ____________ in the late eighteenth century, when educators first decided that children needed special ____________ of their own.

  1. emerged . . books
  2. changed . . reading
  3. grew . . treatment
  4. developed . . training
  5. receded . . teaching

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

If it wasn't until the late eighteenth century that educators decided children needed books of their own, then that must have been when the idea of children's literature "emerged," choice (A).



In some of the poorest neighborhoods of New York City, community gardens are springing up as ____________ the filth and desolation of their urban surroundings.

  1. an affirmation of
  2. a validation of
  3. a reaction to
  4. an amplification of
  5. a celebration of

Answer(s): C

Explanation:

C). Only "reaction" makes sense as a description of the relationship between a garden and surroundings that are full of "filth and desolation."






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