PSAT/NMSQT Practice Test 2

Aug 29, 2026

Uploaded by Melati

Practice test focused on reading comprehension and vocabulary-in-context questions. The passages cover literary style comparison, community economic effects of local shopping incentives, the role of energy storage in mitigating solar variability, accessibility challenges for early internet-only artworks due to discontinued software, word-meaning inference from a novel excerpt, scientific explanations for extending soap bubble lifetime, and an example of migration delays tied to airborne pollutants. Additional historical reading details the creation of a medieval map collection by Muhammad al-Idrisi.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages56

Reading Time2 h 21 min

AccessFree to download

Reading Comprehension Questions

Text-based Vocabulary and Purpose Questions

2 Test begins on the next page. 1 Novelist Leon Forrest admired William Faulkner’s writing style. Forrest’s novel Divine Days contains along passage in tribute to Faulkner that is a perfect of Faulkner’s style: anyone familiar with Faulkner’s writing would see the resemblance. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? A) forgetting B) rejection C) imitation D) opinion 2 Shoppers can help keep money cycling within a community by making purchases at small local businesses instead of large retailers. Some cities are programs to encourage this behavior, establishing reward points and other incentives for shopping at small businesses. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? A) instituting B) occupying C) underestimating D) encountering Unauthorized copying or reuse of any part of this page is illegal. 2 ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Economists often assert that countries looking to increase their reliance on solar energy should expand their capacity for storage; having an ample reserve of stored energy can mitigate the effects of solar energy collection caused by unpredictable shiftsin cloud cover and haze. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? A) developments of B) fluctuations in C) calibrations with D) incentives for CONTINUE 4 As discussed by scholar Anna Mladentseva, many artworks produced in the mid-1990s to the early 2000s exclusively for exhibition on the internet, such as Sinae Kim’s Genesis (2001), have become inaccessible because viewing them requires the use of software (most notably Adobe Flash, discontinued in 2021) . Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? A) defunct B) arcane C) ubiquitous D) extraneous 5 The following text is from the 1989 novel The Ancient Child by Kiowa writer N. Scott Momaday. The main character has achieved tremendous commercial success as a painter. More and more often he was asked to compromise his art or himself in one way or another, and more often than not he did so, for he was inclined to be passive and naïve; it was difficult for him to say no. Those who exhibited his work, who praised and purchased it, and who demanded its proliferation began to determine it. ©1989 by N. Scott Momaday As used in the text, what does the word “determine”most nearly mean? A) Conclude B) Dictate C) Evaluate D) Select Unauthorized copying or reuse of any part of this page is illegal. 3 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Ordinary soap bubbles usually exist for a minute or less before popping due to either a rupture forced by gravity-induced drainage or the evaporation of the liquid from which the bubble is composed. But physicist Aymeric Roux and colleagues discovered ways to mitigate these factors, resulting in bubbles that can last for a year or more. For example, glycerol tends to adhere to water molecules, so a bubble with a shell that contains both water and glycerol is able to draw additional water molecules from the surrounding air and thereby compensate for evaporation. Which choice best states the purpose of the underlined portion in the text as a whole? A) It describes the effects ofa process devised by researchers that increases the longevity of an object discussed in the text. B) It details the circumstances that prompted the research discussed in the text. C) It presents a reason why the p

FAQs

What question types appear in the PSAT/NMSQT practice test?

The test presents multiple-choice reading comprehension items, including word-meaning in context and questions about the purpose or function of an underlined portion.

How does one of the passages ask students to interpret vocabulary?

One passage asks what a specific word (determine) most nearly means, selecting the closest definition among four choices.

What kind of reasoning do “purpose/function of the underlined portion” questions require?

Students identify how the underlined text contributes to the overall passage—such as describing effects, prompting circumstances, explaining an outcome, or presenting a reason to avoid an inevitability.

Aug 29, 2026

Uploaded by Melati