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

Updated On: 1-Feb-2026
Page 5 of 53
PDF with 256 Questions

(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862.
(2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen.
(3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days.
(4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs.
(5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth.
(6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty-nine thousand feet.
(7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant."
(9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide.
(10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo.
(11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers.
(12) All of whom returned safely.
(13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot-air balloon would become a form of common transportation. Which of the following sentences in the first paragraph appears to be out of order?

  1. There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days.
  2. They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs.
  3. Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth.
  4. Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of 29 thousand feet.
  5. Many believe they got 8 thousand feet higher before they began to descend.

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

Doesn't sentence 2 seem too specific? It is really an explanation for why the men couldn't use their limbs.
It should therefore follow sentence 4. The answer is (A).



(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862.
(2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen.
(3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days.
(4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs.
(5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth.
(6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty-nine thousand feet.
(7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant."
(9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide.
(10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo.
(11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers.
(12) All of whom returned safely.
(13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot-air balloon would become a form of common transportation. Which of the following is the best way to combine sentences 9 and 10? The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide. It could handle four and a half tons of cargo.

  1. The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide, which could handle four and a half tons of cargo.
  2. The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide, handling four and a half tons of cargo.
  3. The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide; it could handle four and a half tons of cargo.
  4. The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide, and it could handle four and a half tons of cargo.
  5. The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide, but it could carry four and a half tons of cargo

Answer(s): C

Explanation:

Sentence combination is huge in this section. This example is trickier than most. It already has an and in the first sentence, so if you use and again your sentence will start to sound like a run-on. Here, too, the 2ing verb is imprecise. Which should really go very close to the noun it modifies, so eliminate (A). But implies a contrast, when all of these ideas are similar, so you can eliminate (E). Go with the semicolon (C).



(1) An incredible hot-air balloon exhibition happened on September 5, 1862.
(2) It was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two Englishmen.
(3) There was no compressed oxygen for them to breathe in those days.
(4) They got so high that they couldn't use their limbs.
(5) Coxwell had to open the descending valve with his teeth.
(6) Before Glaisher passed out, he recorded an elevation of twenty-nine thousand feet.
(7) Many believe they got eight thousand feet higher before they began to descend, making their ascent the highest in the nineteenth century.
(8) Now the largest balloon to go up in the nineteenth century was "The Giant."
(9) The balloon held 215,000 cubic feet of air and was 74 feet wide.
(10) It could carry four and a half tons of cargo.
(11) Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers.
(12) All of whom returned safely.
(13) The successful trip received a great deal of national and international press because many thought the hot-air balloon would become a form of common transportation. Which of the following is the best way to revise sentences 11 and 12? Its flight began in Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers. All of whom returned safely.

  1. Replace "whom" with "who."
  2. Make the second sentence read "Who all returned safely."
  3. Delete "of"
  4. Replace the period at the end of sentence 11 with a comma.
  5. Delete the period at the end of sentence 11 and change "returned" to "returning

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

All of whom returned safely is not a complete sentence. It modifies "passengers" in the preceding sentence. Only D. addresses that major problem!



(1) On my nineteenth birthday, I began my trip to Mali, West Africa.
(2) Some 24 hours later I arrived in Bamako, the capital of Mali.
(3) The sun had set and the night was starless.
(4) One of the officials from the literacy program I was working was there to meet me.
(5) After the melee in the baggage claim, we proceeded to his car.
(6) Actually, it was a truck.
(7) I was soon to learn that most people in Mali that had automobiles actually had trucks or SUVs.
(8) Apparently, there not just a convenience but a necessity when you live on the edge of the Sahara.
(9) I threw my bags into the bed of the truck, and hopped in to the back of the cab.
(10) Riding to my welcome dinner, I stared out the windows of the truck and took in the city.
(11) It was truly a foreign land to me, and I knew that I was an alien there.
(12) "What am I doing here?" I thought.
(13) It is hard to believe but seven months later I returned to the same airport along the same road that I had traveled on that first night in Bamako, and my perspective on the things that I saw had completely changed.
(14) The landscape that had once seemed so desolate and lifeless now was the homeland of people that I had come to love.
(15) When I looked back at the capital, Bamako, fast receding on the horizon, I did not see a city foreboding and wild in its foreignness.
(16) I saw the city which held so many dear friends.
(17) I saw teadrinking sessions going late into the night.
(18) I saw the hospitality and open-heartedness of the people of Mali.
(19) The second time, everything looked completely different, and I knew that it was I who had changed and not it.
Which of the following is revision of sentence 4?
One of the officials from the literacy program I was working was there to meet me.

  1. As it is now.
  2. One of the literacy program I was working's officials was there to meet me.
  3. There, was one of the officials from the literacy program I was working to meet me.
  4. One of the officials from the literacy program where I worked had been there to meet me.
  5. One of the officials from the literacy program where I would be working was there to meet me.

Answer(s): E

Explanation:

What's missing in this sentence is where. As it stands now, it implies that literacy program is the direct object of working. Choices D. and E. correct the error, but D. makes undesirable changes to the verb tenses. E. is the best answer.



(1) On my nineteenth birthday, I began my trip to Mali, West Africa.
(2) Some 24 hours later I arrived in Bamako, the capital of Mali.
(3) The sun had set and the night was starless.
(4) One of the officials from the literacy program I was working was there to meet me.
(5) After the melee in the baggage claim, we proceeded to his car.
(6) Actually, it was a truck.
(7) I was soon to learn that most people in Mali that had automobiles actually had trucks or SUVs.
(8) Apparently, there not just a convenience but a necessity when you live on the edge of the Sahara.
(9) I threw my bags into the bed of the truck, and hopped in to the back of the cab.
(10) Riding to my welcome dinner, I stared out the windows of the truck and took in the city.
(11) It was truly a foreign land to me, and I knew that I was an alien there.
(12) "What am I doing here?" I thought.
(13) It is hard to believe but seven months later I returned to the same airport along the same road that I had traveled on that first night in Bamako, and my perspective on the things that I saw had completely changed.
(14) The landscape that had once seemed so desolate and lifeless now was the homeland of people that I had come to love.
(15) When I looked back at the capital, Bamako, fast receding on the horizon, I did not see a city foreboding and wild in its foreignness.
(16) I saw the city which held so many dear friends.
(17) I saw teadrinking sessions going late into the night.
(18) I saw the hospitality and open-heartedness of the people of Mali.
(19) The second time, everything looked completely different, and I knew that it was I who had changed and not it.
Which of the following is the best way to revise sentence 7 (reproduced below)? I was soon to learn that most people in Mali that had automobiles actually had trucks or SUVs.

  1. Change "I was soon to learn" to "I was soon learning"
  2. Change "that had automobiles" to "who had automobiles"
  3. Replace "or" with "and"
  4. Add commas after "Mali" and "automobiles"
  5. Add an apostrophe to make "SUVs" read "SUV's

Answer(s): B

Explanation:

That had automobiles should not be separated by commas because it is an integral part of the category being described, not an added description. But it isn't correct in written English to write people that. It has to be people who (or people whom if what follows positions the people as the object of a verb). The answer is (B).



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