ISEE practice, Grade 9

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Scholar Tests · Set 1

ISEE practice test, Grade 9

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. Apeaceable
    2. Bhostile
    3. Cgraceful
    4. Dnoisy
  2. 2.

    The two historians reached ______ conclusions, so their books are often read side by side as a debate.

    Which word best completes the sentence?

    1. Asimilar
    2. Bopposing
    3. Cmatching
    4. Dunanimous
  3. 3.

    The witness's account was ______ with the security video in every detail, so the jury believed her.

    Which word best completes the sentence?

    1. Aunrelated
    2. Bconsistent
    3. Cinconsistent
    4. Dcontrasting
  4. 4.

    AUSTERE

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

    1. Aawkward
    2. Bplain
    3. Chungry
    4. Dnervous
  5. 5.

    The ancient manuscript was so ______ that scholars handled it only with gloves, fearing it might ______.

    Which pair of words best completes the sentence?

    1. Asturdy . . . last
    2. Bsturdy . . . crumble
    3. Cfragile . . . endure
    4. Dfragile . . . crumble
  6. 6.

    NEFARIOUS

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

    1. Acareless
    2. Bvirtuous
    3. Cwicked
    4. Dnervous
  7. 7.

    PLACATE

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

    1. Aprovoke
    2. Bborrow
    3. Cdecorate
    4. Dsoothe
  8. 8.

    The ______ of fresh water on the ship forced the crew to ______ every drop.

    Which pair of words best completes the sentence?

    1. Asurplus . . . ration
    2. Bshortage . . . ration
    3. Csurplus . . . squander
    4. Dshortage . . . waste
  9. 9.

    VENERATE

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

    1. Aventilate
    2. Brevere
    3. Cscorn
    4. Dimitate
  10. 10.

    The professor's ______ lectures, full of jokes and stories, were always crowded.

    Which word best completes the sentence?

    1. Atedious
    2. Bengaging
    3. Cmonotonous
    4. Ddreary

Quantitative Reasoning

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

  1. 1.

    n is the least of three consecutive integers. Which expression is the sum of the three integers?

    1. A3n + 3
    2. Bn + 3
    3. C3n + 6
    4. D3n
  2. 2.

    Carlos has 5 times as many marbles as Isaac. After Carlos gives Isaac 4 marbles, they have the same number of marbles. How many marbles did Isaac have at first?

    1. A1
    2. B6
    3. C10
    4. D2
  3. 3.

    Column A: |−7 − (−9)|
    Column B: |−7| − |−9|

    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.
  4. 4.

    A pair of boots costs $480. Its price is raised by 50% and the new price is then reduced by 40%. What is the final price?

    1. A$288
    2. B$48
    3. C$432
    4. D$720
  5. 5.

    How many whole numbers from 1 to 72 are multiples of 4 or multiples of 10, or both?

    1. A22
    2. B3
    3. C24
    4. D25
  6. 6.

    A bag holds 8 red marbles and 8 blue marbles. One marble is taken at random.
    Column A: The probability that the marble is red
    Column B: 3/5

    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 bag holds 9 red marbles and 7 blue marbles. One marble is taken at random.
    Column A: The probability that the marble is red
    Column B: 1/3

    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.
  8. 8.

    A taxi ride costs a starting fee plus the same amount for each mile. A 2-mile ride costs $6, and an 8-mile ride costs $18. How much does an 11-mile ride cost?

    1. A$33
    2. B$22
    3. C$24
    4. D$26
  9. 9.

    A factory cuts metal rods that should be 490 millimeters long. A rod is accepted if its length is within 15% of 490 millimeters, either longer or shorter. What is the difference between the greatest and the least possible length of an accepted rod, in millimeters?

    1. A73.5
    2. B30
    3. C147
    4. D563.5
  10. 10.

    A line passes through the points (−4, −1) and (−3, −6).
    Column A: The slope of the line
    Column B: −1/2

    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.

Reading Comprehension

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

  1. Four in the Morning, the Bakery

    The street is still a held breath, every window dark, when the baker turns her key and lets the light out first. Flour rises from the sacks like weather in a jar, a small snow falling only in this room. She sinks her wrists into the dough the way a swimmer tests the lake before the plunge, then folds it, turns it, folds it, patient as a tide that knows exactly where the shore will be. The ovens breathe their orange through the glass. The loaves come up like hills after a rain, their crusts cracked open into small brown maps of countries no one living has explored. I used to think the city woke itself, that morning simply happened, like the sun, a gift that no one had to wrap or carry. But here is morning, wrapped in paper bags, still warm, and carried out the door by hand, and here is someone who began it in the dark so that the rest of us could wake to bread.

    1.

    What is the poem mainly about?

    1. AA swimmer's memories of a cold lake she visited as a child before a storm
    2. BA baker's struggle to keep her shop open in a city that ignores her and her bread
    3. CA baker's early work, which leads the speaker to see the hidden labor behind ordinary mornings
    4. DA speaker's longing to leave the city and explore faraway, unknown countries
  2. 2.

    In the poem, the flour rising from the sacks is compared to

    1. Aa held breath on the street
    2. Ba tide that knows the shore
    3. Chills that rise after a rain
    4. Da small snow falling inside the room
  3. 3.

    The line "a gift that no one had to wrap or carry" suggests that the speaker once believed

    1. Amornings arrived on their own, without anyone's effort
    2. Bbread ought to be delivered rather than carried home
    3. Cthe baker gave her bread away without asking payment
    4. Dgifts mean more when they are wrapped with great care
  4. 4.

    As it is used in the poem, the word "tests" most nearly means

    1. Astrains the patience of
    2. Btries out cautiously
    3. Ccompetes against
    4. Dchemically analyzes
  5. 5.

    The images of the loaves as "hills after a rain" and their crusts as "small brown maps" mainly serve to

    1. Ashow that the baker is careless when she shapes her loaves
    2. Bpresent the bread as something wondrous rather than merely ordinary
    3. Cexplain the exact steps the baker uses to shape dough
    4. Dsuggest that the bakery is located far outside the city
  6. 6.

    Where does the poem's main shift occur?

    1. AIn the third stanza, when the ovens fail and the loaves of bread do not rise
    2. BIn the second stanza, when the baker begins to worry that morning will come too soon
    3. CIn the last stanza, when the speaker turns from describing the bakery to reflecting on an old belief
    4. DIn the final line, when the baker locks the door and goes home to sleep at last

  7. The Case Against Library Fines

    For generations, the overdue fine has been as much a part of the public library as the card catalog once was. A book comes back late, and the borrower pays a few cents for each day of delay. The practice seems harmless, even fair: a small penalty to encourage people to share. Yet a growing number of libraries have abandoned fines altogether, and I believe the rest should follow.

    Begin with what a public library is for. It exists to give everyone, regardless of income, access to books, information and a quiet place to learn. Fines work directly against that purpose. For a family with money to spare, a few dollars owed is a minor irritation. For a family without it, the same amount can mean a blocked card, and a blocked card can mean a child who stops borrowing at the very age when reading habits form. Librarians in many cities have noticed that accounts blocked for unpaid fines tend to be concentrated in the neighborhoods that most need the library. A policy that pushes away the people a library was built to serve is not harmless, however small each fine may be.

    Consider, too, what fines actually accomplish. Their defenders claim that the threat of a penalty is what brings books back. But libraries that have eliminated fines have generally reported that most materials are still returned. Some found that former patrons, who had stayed away for years out of embarrassment over an old debt, came back once the debt was forgiven. The money collected, meanwhile, usually makes up only a small share of a library's budget, and some of it is consumed by the staff time spent tracking and collecting it.

    The strongest objection deserves a fair hearing. Without some consequence, critics say, a minority of borrowers will simply keep what they take, and the shelves will slowly empty at the expense of everyone else. This concern is reasonable, but it argues for a different tool, not for fines. A library can still require a borrower to pay for an item that is truly lost, and it can pause borrowing until a long-overdue item comes back. These measures protect the collection without charging people for being a few days late, which is the offense fines most often punish. Reminders by text message and email, now cheap and nearly universal, do more to prompt returns than a charge most people never notice until it has grown.

    A library fine is a small thing, and that is precisely the problem: its benefits are small, while its costs fall on the patrons least able to bear them. Libraries pride themselves on being open to all. Ending late fines is one simple way to make that promise true.

    7.

    Which choice best states the author's central claim?

    1. APublic libraries should be funded mainly by the fines that they collect.
    2. BPublic libraries should stop charging overdue fines because the fines do more harm than good.
    3. CPublic libraries should raise their fines so that borrowers return books on time.
    4. DPublic libraries should replace most of their printed books with digital materials.
  8. 8.

    According to the author, what happened at some libraries that eliminated fines?

    1. AThe libraries' budgets shrank by more than half.
    2. BFormer patrons who had avoided the library over old debts came back.
    3. CMost borrowers stopped returning materials on time.
    4. DText message reminders were no longer needed.
  9. 9.

    The author suggests that a blocked card is especially harmful to a child because

    1. Achildren are more likely than adults to lose books
    2. Bchildhood is when lasting reading habits are formed
    3. Cchildren rarely use libraries after they turn twelve
    4. Dchildren are not allowed to pay fines themselves
  10. 10.

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

    1. Aresponsibility
    2. Bfee
    3. Caccusation
    4. Dcommand

Mathematics Achievement

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

  1. 1.

    What is the value of 5⁻²?

    1. A−25
    2. B25
    3. C−10
    4. D1/25
  2. 2.

    Which expression is equal to (x + 6)(x + 2)?

    1. Ax² + 12
    2. Bx² + 8x + 12
    3. Cx² + 12x + 8
    4. Dx² + 8x + 8
  3. 3.

    A circle has a radius of 21 cm. Taking π as 22/7, what is its area?

    1. A1,390 cm²
    2. B66 cm²
    3. C1,386 cm²
    4. D5,544 cm²
  4. 4.

    Mateo spent 3/4 of his money on art supplies. Then he spent 1/3 of the money he had left on a bus pass. He had $10 left. How much money did Mateo have at the start?

    1. A$30
    2. B$15
    3. C$40
    4. D$60
  5. 5.

    Ben puts $600 in an account that earns 2% simple interest each year. How many years will it take for the account to earn $48 in interest?

    1. A12 1/2
    2. B24
    3. C4
    4. D8
  6. 6.

    Triangle ABC is dilated by a scale factor of 2 with the origin as the center. Which statement about its image, triangle A′B′C′, is true?

    1. AIt is similar to triangle ABC, but not congruent.
    2. BIt is congruent to triangle ABC.
    3. CIts sides are the same lengths as triangle ABC's, but its angles are different.
    4. DIts angles match triangle ABC's, but it is not similar to it.
  7. 7.

    A parallelogram has an area of 209 square meters. One base is 19 meters long, and the slanted side next to it is 15 meters long. What is the height of the parallelogram to that base, in meters?

    1. A15
    2. B13 14/15
    3. C11
    4. D22
  8. 8.

    The box plots show how many minutes students in two grades spent reading on Saturday. Which statement is true?

    1. AGrade 7 has the greater range.
    2. BGrade 6 has the greater maximum.
    3. CThe two interquartile ranges are equal.
    4. DGrade 6 has the greater interquartile range.
  9. 9.

    Relationship A is y = 2x. Relationship B is shown in the table. Which statement is true?

    1. ARelationship B has the greater rate of change.
    2. BNeither relationship is proportional.
    3. CRelationship A has the greater rate of change.
    4. DThe two relationships have the same rate of change.
  10. 10.

    The equation of a line of best fit for some data is y = −5x + 55, where x is the number of hours of screen time each day and y is the number of minutes spent reading each day. Use the equation to predict the time spent reading each day when x = 8.

    1. A−40
    2. B95
    3. C15
    4. D400

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.