ISEE practice, Grade 11

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Scholar Tests · Set 3

ISEE practice test, Grade 11

Name ______________________ Date ____________

Verbal Reasoning

Circle the letter of the best answer. About 5 minutes.

  1. 1.

    BELLIGERENT

    Which word means most nearly the same as the word in capital letters?

    1. Afragile
    2. Bgraceful
    3. Chostile
    4. Dpeaceable
  2. 2.

    INSOLENT

    Which word means most nearly the same as the word in capital letters?

    1. Arespectful
    2. Brude
    3. Ccurious
    4. Dlazy
  3. 3.

    The speaker's ______ remarks wandered so far from the topic that the audience lost interest.

    Which word best completes the sentence?

    1. Aconcise
    2. Bfocused
    3. Cpointed
    4. Ddigressive
  4. 4.

    The author's early poems were ______ and imitative, but her later work is strikingly ______.

    Which pair of words best completes the sentence?

    1. Apolished . . . original
    2. Bclumsy . . . original
    3. Cshort . . . longer
    4. Dpolished . . . awkward
  5. 5.

    OBDURATE

    Which word means most nearly the same as the word in capital letters?

    1. Aobscure
    2. Bstubborn
    3. Cdurable
    4. Dcareless
  6. 6.

    Rising sea levels pose an ______ threat to the island, which sits barely a yard above the tide.

    Which word best completes the sentence?

    1. Aimaginary
    2. Bminor
    3. Cimminent
    4. Ddistant
  7. 7.

    ENERVATE

    Which word means most nearly the same as the word in capital letters?

    1. Airritate
    2. Binvigorate
    3. Cweaken
    4. Ddecorate
  8. 8.

    Though the hike was ______, the view from the top made every ______ step worthwhile.

    Which pair of words best completes the sentence?

    1. Aeasy . . . pleasant
    2. Bgrueling . . . exhausting
    3. Cshort . . . brief
    4. Dgrueling . . . effortless
  9. 9.

    RELEGATE

    Which word means most nearly the same as the word in capital letters?

    1. Adelegate
    2. Bimitate
    3. Cdemote
    4. Ddecorate
  10. 10.

    Her argument was so ______ that even those who disagreed admitted it was well made.

    Which word best completes the sentence?

    1. Acompelling
    2. Btrivial
    3. Ccareless
    4. Dflimsy

Quantitative Reasoning

Circle the letter of the best answer. About 9 minutes.

  1. 1.

    A right triangle has legs of length 6 and 8.
    Column A: The length of the hypotenuse
    Column B: 10

    Compare the quantity in Column A with the quantity in Column B.

    1. AColumn A is greater.
    2. BColumn B is greater.
    3. CThe two quantities are equal.
    4. DIt cannot be decided from the information given.
  2. 2.

    Ethan is now 3 times as old as Lucas. In 7 years Ethan will be 2 times as old as Lucas. How old is Ethan now?

    1. A21
    2. B14
    3. C7
    4. D22
  3. 3.

    The same whole number is added to the top and to the bottom of 22/37. The fraction this makes is exactly 5/8. What number was added?

    1. A3
    2. B25
    3. C5
    4. D15
  4. 4.

    A right triangle has legs of length 8 and 15.
    Column A: The length of the hypotenuse
    Column B: 16

    Compare the quantity in Column A with the quantity in Column B.

    1. AColumn A is greater.
    2. BColumn B is greater.
    3. CThe two quantities are equal.
    4. DIt cannot be decided from the information given.
  5. 5.

    A circle has radius 3. A square has sides of length 3.
    Column A: The area of the circle
    Column B: The area of the square

    Compare the quantity in Column A with the quantity in Column B.

    1. AColumn A is greater.
    2. BColumn B is greater.
    3. CThe two quantities are equal.
    4. DIt cannot be decided from the information given.
  6. 6.

    a and b are positive whole numbers, and a + b = 10.
    Column A: a
    Column B: b

    Compare the quantity in Column A with the quantity in Column B.

    1. AColumn A is greater.
    2. BColumn B is greater.
    3. CThe two quantities are equal.
    4. DIt cannot be decided from the information given.
  7. 7.

    A phone plan costs $19 a month and includes 4 gigabytes of data. Each gigabyte used over 4 costs $6 more. What is the bill for a month in which 6 gigabytes are used?

    1. A$55
    2. B$12
    3. C$37
    4. D$31
  8. 8.

    A factory cuts metal rods that should be 230 millimeters long. A rod is accepted if its length is within 4% of 230 millimeters, either longer or shorter. What is the least possible length of an accepted rod, in millimeters?

    1. A239.2
    2. B9.2
    3. C220.8
    4. D226
  9. 9.

    The sum of three consecutive odd integers is 33. What is the greatest of the three integers?

    1. A12
    2. B15
    3. C13
    4. D11
  10. 10.

    Two whole numbers multiply together to make 75, and one of them is 3 times the other. What is the larger number?

    1. A19
    2. B15
    3. C25
    4. D17

Reading Comprehension

Circle the letter of the best answer. About 10 minutes.

  1. Looking Back in Time

    On a clear night, the stars seem to hang in a single moment, as if the sky were a photograph taken just now. In fact, it is something stranger: a collage assembled from many different pasts. Every point of light you see left its source long ago, and each has been traveling for a different length of time.

    The reason is that light, though astonishingly fast, is not instantaneous. In empty space it covers about 186,000 miles every second. That speed is so great that for much of history people assumed light arrived the instant it was given off. One of the first serious challenges to that idea came in the 1670s, when the Danish astronomer Ole Romer noticed that the eclipses of Jupiter's moon Io came earlier or later than predicted, depending on whether Earth was moving toward Jupiter or away from it. The most reasonable explanation was that light needed extra time to cross the extra distance. Light, in other words, had a finite speed, and that speed could be measured.

    Once that was established, distance and time became two ways of describing the same thing. Sunlight takes a little more than eight minutes to reach Earth, so we always see the Sun as it was about eight minutes earlier. For greater distances, astronomers use the light-year, a unit that sounds like a measure of time but is actually a measure of length: the distance light travels in one year, nearly six trillion miles.

    Finding out how far away a particular star is proved far harder. The method that finally worked is called parallax. Hold a finger at arm's length and look at it first with one eye and then with the other; the finger appears to jump against the background. Astronomers do the same thing on an enormous scale, observing a nearby star from opposite sides of Earth's orbit, six months apart, and measuring how much it seems to shift against far more distant stars. The shift is tiny, much smaller than the unaided eye can detect, and it was not measured successfully until 1838, when Friedrich Bessel reported the distance to a star called 61 Cygni.

    The results were humbling. The nearest star beyond the Sun, Proxima Centauri, is a little more than four light-years away, so its light is over four years old when it arrives. The Andromeda Galaxy, often described as the most distant object visible without a telescope, is about 2.5 million light-years away. The faint smudge it makes on a dark autumn night is light that set out before modern humans existed.

    This delay is not merely a curiosity; it is one of astronomy's most powerful tools. Because light from remote objects is old, telescopes that gather extremely faint light are, in effect, looking into the past. By studying galaxies at greater and greater distances, astronomers can observe the universe at earlier stages of its history, much as a geologist reads older rock in deeper layers. The night sky, it turns out, is less a picture than an archive.

    1.

    Which best states the main idea of the passage?

    1. ABecause Jupiter's moons move quickly, their eclipses are the best way to measure any distance.
    2. BBecause stars are so remote, astronomers have largely given up on measuring how far away they are.
    3. CBecause parallax is so difficult, the distances to most nearby stars are still unknown to science.
    4. DBecause light travels at a finite speed, starlight shows the past, which lets astronomers study cosmic history.
  2. 2.

    According to the passage, what did Ole Romer notice?

    1. AJupiter's moon Io disappeared whenever Earth was on the far side of the Sun.
    2. BThe timing of Io's eclipses depended on whether Earth was moving toward or away from Jupiter.
    3. CA nearby star appeared to shift against more distant stars over six months.
    4. DSunlight took a little more than eight minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth.
  3. 3.

    Which conclusion is best supported by the passage?

    1. ALight slows down noticeably whenever it passes close to a planet.
    2. BAstronomers in the 1600s already knew how far away Proxima Centauri was.
    3. CA star seen tonight might have changed greatly since its light first set out.
    4. DParallax can be used to measure the distance to Andromeda directly.
  4. 4.

    As it is used in the passage, the word "observing" most nearly means

    1. Ahonoring the memory of
    2. Bwatching carefully
    3. Ccelebrating a festival
    4. Dobeying the rules of
  5. 5.

    Why does the author describe holding a finger at arm's length?

    1. ATo suggest that readers can measure star distances at home
    2. BTo explain why Romer's measurements of Io were inaccurate
    3. CTo prove that the Sun is closer to Earth than any other star
    4. DTo illustrate the principle behind parallax with a familiar experience
  6. 6.

    How does the final paragraph relate to the rest of the passage?

    1. AIt introduces a new claim that contradicts the explanations given earlier in the passage.
    2. BIt gives a detailed history of how the first telescopes were designed and built.
    3. CIt moves from explaining the delay of starlight to showing why that delay is valuable to science.
    4. DIt questions whether light really travels at a speed that can be measured.

  7. The Honey Table

    Every Saturday from June to September, Teo's grandfather set up a folding table at the end of the market row, between a man who sharpened knives and a woman whose goat cheese drew a line by eight o'clock. The table held thirty jars of honey arranged by color, from a pale gold that was almost white to a brown so dark it looked like coffee held up to a window.

    Teo was fifteen, and he had agreed to help for one reason: his grandfather paid in cash. He had not counted on how visible the end of the row would be. Anyone walking from the parking lot to the bakery passed within six feet of him, and by the second week he had developed a habit of studying his phone whenever a group of teenagers drifted by.

    His grandfather noticed, of course. He noticed everything about bees, and Teo suspected he had long ago stopped distinguishing between bees and grandsons. But he said nothing. He only talked, in his slow and steady way, to whoever stopped. He explained that the pale honey came from clover in early summer and the dark from buckwheat in August. He let children hold a jar up to the light. He told one woman that honey almost never spoils, and when she looked doubtful, he did not argue; he simply handed her a spoon.

    Teo heard all of it whether he wanted to or not.

    In late July, Dani Ortiz from his chemistry class stopped at the table with her older sister. Teo felt his face grow warm. He considered pretending to be a stranger who happened to be standing there.

    "Why are they all different colors?" Dani's sister asked, pointing. "Is the dark one burnt or something?"

    Teo's grandfather was bent over the cash box, counting change. He did not look up.

    Teo heard himself answer. "It depends on the flowers," he said. "The bees go wherever things are blooming. Clover in June is light. Buckwheat later is dark, and it tastes almost like molasses." He paused, then picked up a spoon. "You can try it. People either love it or think it tastes like a barn."

    The sister tried it and made a face, and Dani laughed and tried it and bought a jar. When they had gone, Teo realized he had not once reached for his phone.

    His grandfather closed the cash box. "Barn," he said thoughtfully, as if testing the word. "That is not how I would describe it."

    "It's how she would," Teo said.

    The old man considered this, then nodded once, the way he nodded when a hive turned out to be healthier than he had feared. The next Saturday, without being asked, Teo arrived early and arranged the jars himself, from lightest to darkest.

    7.

    Which choice best describes what happens in the passage?

    1. AA teenager who is embarrassed to work at a market stall begins to take quiet ownership of the job.
    2. BA teenager tries to impress a classmate by pretending to know more about honey than he does.
    3. CA grandfather scolds his grandson for ignoring customers and teaches him how to sell honey.
    4. DTwo sisters argue at a farmers market about which kind of honey tastes better.
  8. 8.

    According to the passage, why does the honey on the table vary in color?

    1. AThe bees gather nectar from different flowers at different times of the year.
    2. BOlder honey slowly darkens as it sits on the shelf.
    3. CThe hives are kept in places with different amounts of sun.
    4. DThe grandfather mixes molasses into the darker kinds.
  9. 9.

    Teo's habit of studying his phone whenever teenagers pass most likely suggests that he

    1. Ais checking the time so he knows when his shift will end
    2. Bis bored because very few people walk past the table
    3. Cis texting his grandfather about how sales are going
    4. Dwants to avoid being recognized as the one working the stall
  10. 10.

    As it is used in the passage, the word "drew" most nearly means

    1. Asketched
    2. Battracted
    3. Cbreathed in
    4. Dpulled out

Mathematics Achievement

Circle the letter of the best answer. About 9 minutes.

  1. 1.

    A circle with a diameter of 14 cm fits exactly inside a square, touching all four sides. Taking π as 22/7, how much of the square is NOT covered by the circle?

    1. A42 cm²
    2. B154 cm²
    3. C39 cm²
    4. D46 cm²
  2. 2.

    A bag holds 4 letter tiles marked M, N, P, and Q. Isaac picks two of them at random at the same time. He records the two letters, and the order does not matter, so MN and NM are the same outcome. Which list shows every possible outcome, each one once?

    1. AMN, MP, MQ, NP, NQ, PQ
    2. BMM, MN, MP, MQ, NN, NP, NQ, PP, PQ, QQ
    3. CMN, MP, MQ, NM, NP, NQ, PM, PN, PQ, QM, QN, QP
    4. DMN, MP, MQ, NP, PQ
  3. 3.

    Which expression is equal to (x − 7)²?

    1. Ax² + 49
    2. Bx² − 7x + 49
    3. Cx² − 14x + 49
    4. Dx² − 14x − 14
  4. 4.

    Grace spent 1/2 of her money on art supplies. Then she spent 1/5 of the money she had left on a bus pass. She had $16 left. How much money did Grace have at the start?

    1. A$40
    2. B$32
    3. C$48
    4. D$20
  5. 5.

    The formula V = lwh gives the volume of a box. Which equation is the formula solved for w?

    1. Aw = Vlh
    2. Bw = V − lh
    3. Cw = lh ÷ V
    4. Dw = V ÷ (lh)
  6. 6.

    A ramp's sloping surface is 26 feet long, and it covers a level distance of 24 feet. How high does the ramp rise?

    1. A2 feet
    2. B10 feet
    3. C100 feet
    4. D50 feet
  7. 7.

    For all nonzero values of a, b, and c, which expression is equal to (3b²c²) × (c³/a)?

    1. Aa/(3b²c⁵)
    2. B3b²c⁵/a
    3. C3b²c⁵
    4. D3ab²/c
  8. 8.

    Some students were asked, "Do you have a part in the school play?" The two-way table shows the results. Of the students who answered yes, what fraction are in Grade 6?

    1. A9/19
    2. B2/11
    3. C10/19
    4. D2/5
  9. 9.

    The angles of a triangle measure 2x°, 3x° and (x + 30)°. What is the measure of the largest angle?

    1. A25°
    2. B75°
    3. C165°
    4. D50°
  10. 10.

    Ava puts $600 in an account that earns 6% simple interest each year. How many years will it take for the account to earn $72 in interest?

    1. A3
    2. B8 1/3
    3. C2
    4. D12

Written by Scholar Tests in the style of the published ISEE question types. Not a real ISEE test, and a practice score is not a real score.