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Test Prep CLEP Composition and Literature Exam
CLEP Composition and Literature: American Literature, English Literature, Humanities (Page 3 )

Updated On: 30-Jan-2026
Page 3 of 44
PDF with 213 Questions

(1) Education long been viewed as a tool for solving social problems.
(2) Many people consider a school to be responsible for taking young people from diverse backgrounds and turning them into law-abiding citizens.
(3) An important question arises.
(4) If education is the answer to social problems, how can schools themselves be a social problem?
(5) According to many critics, the answer is that schools are not performing their job good enough.
(6) The above notion is tied to the belief that there is a serious problem with America’s education system.
(7) According to noted scholars, schooling in the United States lacks one essential ingredient for success.
(8) This key factor is the involvement of the community.
(9) Many are familiar with the old African proverb: “It takes a whole village to raise a single child.”
(10) Hence, one is surprised that education in America survives at all without it.
(11) Education is considered a cure for societal problems, schools are often blamed for those same problems.
(12) Yet the roots of failure start not in the classrooms but in the broader fabric of society; the workplace, city streets, and the home.
(13) This was made evident by dramatic changes in American society over the last few decades. (14) First, economic growth has come at a tremendous cost to the nation’s most disadvantaged citizens.
(15) Second, the number of people who vote has declined.
(16) Finally, there has been a noticeable rise in single parent homes, and there has been a noticeable rise in homes in which both parents have entered the workforce.

Which of the following is the best way to revise the underlined portion of sentence 1 reproduced below? Education long been viewed as a tool for solving social problems.

  1. been viewed long
  2. having long been viewed
  3. has long been viewed
  4. been viewed Longley
  5. being long viewed

Answer(s): C

Explanation:

The original sentence is a fragment because it lacks a complete verb structure; it requires some form of the verb “to have.” A rearranges the words of the original but does not include a form of “to have.” A similar problem exists in D and E, both of which are sentence fragments. B does include a form of the expected verb, but “having” does not satisfy the need for a complete sentence. Only C, by using the verb structure “has been viewed,” forms a complete sentence. The word “long” acts as an adverb because “longly” is not a word.



(1) Education long been viewed as a tool for solving social problems.
(2) Many people consider a school to be responsible for taking young people from diverse backgrounds and turning them into law-abiding citizens.
(3) An important arises.
(4) If education is the answer to social problems, how can schools themselves be a social problem?
(5) According to many critics, the answer is that schools are not performing their job good enough.
(6) The above notion is tied to the belief that there is a serious problem with America’s education system.
(7) According to noted scholars, schooling in the United States lacks one essential ingredient for success.
(8) This key factor is the involvement of the community.
(9) Many are familiar with the old African proverb: “It takes a whole village to raise a single child.”
(10) Hence, one is surprised that education in America survives at all without it.
(11) Education is considered a cure for societal problems, schools are often blamed for those same problems.
(12) Yet the roots of failure start not in the classrooms but in the broader fabric of society; the workplace, city streets, and the home.
(13) This was made evident by dramatic changes in American society over the last few decades. (14) First, economic growth has come at a tremendous cost to the nation’s most disadvantaged citizens.
(15) Second, the number of people who vote has declined.
(16) Finally, there has been a noticeable rise in single parent homes, and there has been a noticeable rise in homes in which both parents have entered the workforce.

Which of the following would be most appropriate to insert at the beginning of sentence 3?

  1. In light of this,
  2. Fortunately,
  3. In other words,
  4. On the other hand,
  5. Overall,

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

The first two sentences establish the common view of the role of schools in society. The third sentence abruptly sets up a theoretical question. An appropriate insert would be one that links sentence 3 to the previous sentences. A pulls the sentences together by raising the question in light of the discussion that has already ensued. B is inappropriate; even though the author does see a problem with the common view of schools, she has not yet established this problem in the first paragraph. The fact that a question arises is not a restatement of the first two sentences, so C is incorrect. D does not work either; this choice indicates that the first two sentences contradict the fact that a question arises. Finally, E indicates a summation of what has been said so far, and sentence 3 does not perform this function.



(1) Education long been viewed as a tool for solving social problems.
(2) Many people consider a school to be responsible for taking young people from diverse backgrounds and turning them into law-abiding citizens.
(3) An important question arises.
(4) If education is the answer to social problems, how can schools themselves be a social problem?
(5) According to many critics, the answer is that schools are not performing their job good enough.
(6) The above notion is tied to the belief that there is a serious problem with America’s education system.
(7) According to noted scholars, schooling in the United States lacks one essential ingredient for success.
(8) This key factor is the involvement of the community.
(9) Many are familiar with the old African proverb: “It takes a whole village to raise a single child.”
(10) Hence, one is surprised that education in America survives at all without it.
(11) Education is considered a cure for societal problems, schools are often blamed for those same problems.
(12) Yet the roots of failure start not in the classrooms but in the broader fabric of society; the workplace, city streets, and the home.
(13) This was made evident by dramatic changes in American society over the last few decades. (14) First, economic growth has come at a tremendous cost to the nation’s most disadvantaged citizens.
(15) Second, the number of people who vote has declined.
(16) Finally, there has been a noticeable rise in single parent homes, and there has been a noticeable rise in homes in which both parents have entered the workforce.

The writer of this passage could best improve sentence 7 by

  1. acknowledging that there are many lacking ingredients for success.
  2. including a personal view on the subject at hand
  3. stating the opinion of people who disagree with the noted scholars
  4. naming some of the noted scholars
  5. removing the reference to noted scholars.

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

In an academic essay of this type, it is important to establish the support of experts in the field, but doing so is much less effective without naming those references. A would confuse the argument – the author effectively ramps up to discuss one lacking element of success, so introducing other ingredients would not work out well. The author references the view of noted scholars, so the personal opinion in B would not be effective. C may be appropriate further along in the essay, but disagreeing opinions here would scuttle the author’s thesis. E is incorrect because the reference to noted scholars strengthens the author’s argument.



(1) Education long been viewed as a tool for solving social problems.
(2) Many people consider a school to be responsible for taking young people from diverse backgrounds and turning them into law-abiding citizens.
(3) An important arises.
(4) If education is the answer to social problems, how can schools themselves be a social problem?
(5) According to many critics, the answer is that schools are not performing their job good enough.
(6) The above notion is tied to the belief that there is a serious problem with America’s education system.
(7) According to noted scholars, schooling in the United States lacks one essential ingredient for success.
(8) This key factor is the involvement of the community.
(9) Many are familiar with the old African proverb: “It takes a whole village to raise a single child.”
(10) Hence, one is surprised that education in America survives at all without it.
(11) Education is considered a cure for societal problems, schools are often blamed for those same problems.
(12) Yet the roots of failure start not in the classrooms but in the broader fabric of society; the workplace, city streets, and the home.
(13) This was made evident by dramatic changes in American society over the last few decades. (14) First, economic growth has come at a tremendous cost to the nation’s most disadvantaged citizens.
(15) Second, the number of people who vote has declined.
(16) Finally, there has been a noticeable rise in single parent homes, and there has been a noticeable rise in homes in which both parents have entered the workforce.

In context, the best phrase to replace “it” in sentence 10 is

  1. the old African proverb
  2. the involvement of the community
  3. a single child
  4. education in America
  5. a cure for societal problems

Answer(s): B

Explanation:

In sentence 8, the author writes: “This key factor is the involvement of the community.” Community involvement is the topic of the paragraph and the key to the author’s argument. Therefore, it is surprising, in the author’s opinion, how the education system can survive at all without the support of the community. A is too literal – the purpose of the proverb is to highlight a longstanding tradition of having community involvement in education. C and D do not make sense in the context of the paragraph. E may be tempting, but it pulls text from the paragraph that follows, and it does not support the author’s main idea of community support.



(1) Education long been viewed as a tool for solving social problems.
(2) Many people consider a school to be responsible for taking young people from diverse backgrounds and turning them into law-abiding citizens.
(3) An important question arises.
(4) If education is the answer to social problems, how can schools themselves be a social problem?

(5) According to many critics, the answer is that schools are not performing their job good enough.
(6) The above notion is tied to the belief that there is a serious problem with America’s education system.
(7) According to noted scholars, schooling in the United States lacks one essential ingredient for success.
(8) This key factor is the involvement of the community.
(9) Many are familiar with the old African proverb: “It takes a whole village to raise a single child.”
(10) Hence, one is surprised that education in America survives at all without it.
(11) Education is considered a cure for societal problems, schools are often blamed for those same problems.
(12) Yet the roots of failure start not in the classrooms but in the broader fabric of society; the workplace, city streets, and the home.
(13) This was made evident by dramatic changes in American society over the last few decades. (14) First, economic growth has come at a tremendous cost to the nation’s most disadvantaged citizens.
(15) Second, the number of people who vote has declined.
(16) Finally, there has been a noticeable rise in single parent homes, and there has been a noticeable rise in homes in which both parents have entered the workforce.

Which of the following is the best revision of the underlined portion of sentence 11 reproduced below? Education is considered a cure for societal problems, schools are often blamed for those same problems.

  1. (No change)
  2. societal problems, schools were
  3. societal problems; schools
  4. societal problems, such as schools being
  5. societal problems, and schools are

Answer(s): E

Explanation:

The original sentence A. features a comma splice, making for a long run-on sentence. Both sides of the comma are independent clauses that could stand alone as separate sentences. Look for an answer choice that fixes this problem with either a semicolon in place of the comma or the addition of a conjunction. The splice remains in B, which changes the sentence from present tense to past tense. C replaces the comma with a semicolon, but it also incorrectly removes the verb from the second part of the sentence. D is awkward and breaks the logic of the sentence. The best choice is E, which inserts the conjunction “and” to make a complete sentence.



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