AP® practice test

Free AP® English Literature and Composition Practice Test

This is a set of 25 original practice questions that follow the official AP® English Literature and Composition multiple-choice skill categories and their weights, each with a short explanation. As on the real exam, the questions come in sets built on short prose fiction passages and poems, all written for this test.

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25 questions

Question 1 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "My grandmother kept the piano long after anyone could play it. It stood against the parlor wall under a lace runner, its keys yellowed like old teeth, and every Sunday she dusted it with the same gray cloth. When I was nine I asked her why she didn't sell it, since nobody used it. She looked at me as if I had asked why she didn't sell the windows. 'Somebody might,' she said, and went back to dusting. I thought then that she meant me, and I spent a miserable winter of lessons proving her wrong. Only years later, sorting her papers, did I find the concert programs from 1951, her name printed in small type at the bottom of each one. I understood, too late to tell her, that the somebody she had meant was herself." The narrator's perspective is best described as that of
Question 2 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "My grandmother kept the piano long after anyone could play it. It stood against the parlor wall under a lace runner, its keys yellowed like old teeth, and every Sunday she dusted it with the same gray cloth. When I was nine I asked her why she didn't sell it, since nobody used it. She looked at me as if I had asked why she didn't sell the windows. 'Somebody might,' she said, and went back to dusting. I thought then that she meant me, and I spent a miserable winter of lessons proving her wrong. Only years later, sorting her papers, did I find the concert programs from 1951, her name printed in small type at the bottom of each one. I understood, too late to tell her, that the somebody she had meant was herself." The comparison in "She looked at me as if I had asked why she didn't sell the windows" suggests that the grandmother sees the piano as
Question 3 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "My grandmother kept the piano long after anyone could play it. It stood against the parlor wall under a lace runner, its keys yellowed like old teeth, and every Sunday she dusted it with the same gray cloth. When I was nine I asked her why she didn't sell it, since nobody used it. She looked at me as if I had asked why she didn't sell the windows. 'Somebody might,' she said, and went back to dusting. I thought then that she meant me, and I spent a miserable winter of lessons proving her wrong. Only years later, sorting her papers, did I find the concert programs from 1951, her name printed in small type at the bottom of each one. I understood, too late to tell her, that the somebody she had meant was herself." In context, the phrase "proving her wrong" suggests that the narrator
Question 4 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "My grandmother kept the piano long after anyone could play it. It stood against the parlor wall under a lace runner, its keys yellowed like old teeth, and every Sunday she dusted it with the same gray cloth. When I was nine I asked her why she didn't sell it, since nobody used it. She looked at me as if I had asked why she didn't sell the windows. 'Somebody might,' she said, and went back to dusting. I thought then that she meant me, and I spent a miserable winter of lessons proving her wrong. Only years later, sorting her papers, did I find the concert programs from 1951, her name printed in small type at the bottom of each one. I understood, too late to tell her, that the somebody she had meant was herself." The discovery of the concert programs near the end of the passage functions mainly to
Question 5 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "My grandmother kept the piano long after anyone could play it. It stood against the parlor wall under a lace runner, its keys yellowed like old teeth, and every Sunday she dusted it with the same gray cloth. When I was nine I asked her why she didn't sell it, since nobody used it. She looked at me as if I had asked why she didn't sell the windows. 'Somebody might,' she said, and went back to dusting. I thought then that she meant me, and I spent a miserable winter of lessons proving her wrong. Only years later, sorting her papers, did I find the concert programs from 1951, her name printed in small type at the bottom of each one. I understood, too late to tell her, that the somebody she had meant was herself." The grandmother's habit of dusting the piano every Sunday mainly reveals
Question 6 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "My grandmother kept the piano long after anyone could play it. It stood against the parlor wall under a lace runner, its keys yellowed like old teeth, and every Sunday she dusted it with the same gray cloth. When I was nine I asked her why she didn't sell it, since nobody used it. She looked at me as if I had asked why she didn't sell the windows. 'Somebody might,' she said, and went back to dusting. I thought then that she meant me, and I spent a miserable winter of lessons proving her wrong. Only years later, sorting her papers, did I find the concert programs from 1951, her name printed in small type at the bottom of each one. I understood, too late to tell her, that the somebody she had meant was herself." Which interpretation of the passage as a whole is best supported by the text?
Question 7 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "My grandmother kept the piano long after anyone could play it. It stood against the parlor wall under a lace runner, its keys yellowed like old teeth, and every Sunday she dusted it with the same gray cloth. When I was nine I asked her why she didn't sell it, since nobody used it. She looked at me as if I had asked why she didn't sell the windows. 'Somebody might,' she said, and went back to dusting. I thought then that she meant me, and I spent a miserable winter of lessons proving her wrong. Only years later, sorting her papers, did I find the concert programs from 1951, her name printed in small type at the bottom of each one. I understood, too late to tell her, that the somebody she had meant was herself." The phrase "too late to tell her" in the last sentence conveys the narrator's
Question 8 of 25Read this poem, "The Heron" (a slash marks a line break): "At dawn the heron stands in the shallows / as still as a nail driven into the river. / The mist goes on moving; the reeds go on moving; / the minnows go on threading their silver. / I have spent this whole year hurrying, / to trains, to deadlines, to the next thing, the next, / and I came here meaning to hurry past this too, / but the heron has not moved, and so I stop. / Now one leg lifts. The river does not notice. / The bird strikes once, and the water heals behind it. / I would like to learn that kind of waiting, / the kind that does not look like waiting at all." The simile "as still as a nail driven into the river" mainly emphasizes the heron's
Question 9 of 25Read this poem, "The Heron" (a slash marks a line break): "At dawn the heron stands in the shallows / as still as a nail driven into the river. / The mist goes on moving; the reeds go on moving; / the minnows go on threading their silver. / I have spent this whole year hurrying, / to trains, to deadlines, to the next thing, the next, / and I came here meaning to hurry past this too, / but the heron has not moved, and so I stop. / Now one leg lifts. The river does not notice. / The bird strikes once, and the water heals behind it. / I would like to learn that kind of waiting, / the kind that does not look like waiting at all." The words "and so I stop" mark a shift in the poem from
Question 10 of 25Read this poem, "The Heron" (a slash marks a line break): "At dawn the heron stands in the shallows / as still as a nail driven into the river. / The mist goes on moving; the reeds go on moving; / the minnows go on threading their silver. / I have spent this whole year hurrying, / to trains, to deadlines, to the next thing, the next, / and I came here meaning to hurry past this too, / but the heron has not moved, and so I stop. / Now one leg lifts. The river does not notice. / The bird strikes once, and the water heals behind it. / I would like to learn that kind of waiting, / the kind that does not look like waiting at all." The final two lines ("I would like to learn that kind of waiting, / the kind that does not look like waiting at all") show the speaker's attitude toward the heron to be
Question 11 of 25Read this poem, "The Heron" (a slash marks a line break): "At dawn the heron stands in the shallows / as still as a nail driven into the river. / The mist goes on moving; the reeds go on moving; / the minnows go on threading their silver. / I have spent this whole year hurrying, / to trains, to deadlines, to the next thing, the next, / and I came here meaning to hurry past this too, / but the heron has not moved, and so I stop. / Now one leg lifts. The river does not notice. / The bird strikes once, and the water heals behind it. / I would like to learn that kind of waiting, / the kind that does not look like waiting at all." In "The bird strikes once, and the water heals behind it," the word "heals" suggests that
Question 12 of 25Read this poem, "The Heron" (a slash marks a line break): "At dawn the heron stands in the shallows / as still as a nail driven into the river. / The mist goes on moving; the reeds go on moving; / the minnows go on threading their silver. / I have spent this whole year hurrying, / to trains, to deadlines, to the next thing, the next, / and I came here meaning to hurry past this too, / but the heron has not moved, and so I stop. / Now one leg lifts. The river does not notice. / The bird strikes once, and the water heals behind it. / I would like to learn that kind of waiting, / the kind that does not look like waiting at all." The lines "I have spent this whole year hurrying, / to trains, to deadlines, to the next thing, the next, / and I came here meaning to hurry past this too" reveal that the speaker
Question 13 of 25Read this poem, "The Heron" (a slash marks a line break): "At dawn the heron stands in the shallows / as still as a nail driven into the river. / The mist goes on moving; the reeds go on moving; / the minnows go on threading their silver. / I have spent this whole year hurrying, / to trains, to deadlines, to the next thing, the next, / and I came here meaning to hurry past this too, / but the heron has not moved, and so I stop. / Now one leg lifts. The river does not notice. / The bird strikes once, and the water heals behind it. / I would like to learn that kind of waiting, / the kind that does not look like waiting at all." Which statement best expresses a central idea of the poem?
Question 14 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "The bus let Marisol off at the edge of town, where the pavement gave up and became gravel. Behind her, the driver pulled the doors shut before she had both feet on the ground. The wind came across the wheat flat and steady, as if it had been blowing since before there were towns to blow through, and it pressed her new coat against her legs. Her aunt was supposed to be waiting. There was no one, only a grain elevator, a closed gas station, and a dog that watched her without getting up. Marisol set her suitcase on its end and sat on it. In the city she would have taken out her phone; here she looked at the empty road and tried, for the first time she could remember, simply to be where she was. Far off, a cloud of dust rose and began, slowly, to come toward her." The details of the town (the gravel road, the grain elevator, the closed gas station, the dog that does not get up) mainly establish
Question 15 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "The bus let Marisol off at the edge of town, where the pavement gave up and became gravel. Behind her, the driver pulled the doors shut before she had both feet on the ground. The wind came across the wheat flat and steady, as if it had been blowing since before there were towns to blow through, and it pressed her new coat against her legs. Her aunt was supposed to be waiting. There was no one, only a grain elevator, a closed gas station, and a dog that watched her without getting up. Marisol set her suitcase on its end and sat on it. In the city she would have taken out her phone; here she looked at the empty road and tried, for the first time she could remember, simply to be where she was. Far off, a cloud of dust rose and began, slowly, to come toward her." Marisol's choice to sit on her suitcase and look at the empty road instead of her phone mainly suggests that she
Question 16 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "The bus let Marisol off at the edge of town, where the pavement gave up and became gravel. Behind her, the driver pulled the doors shut before she had both feet on the ground. The wind came across the wheat flat and steady, as if it had been blowing since before there were towns to blow through, and it pressed her new coat against her legs. Her aunt was supposed to be waiting. There was no one, only a grain elevator, a closed gas station, and a dog that watched her without getting up. Marisol set her suitcase on its end and sat on it. In the city she would have taken out her phone; here she looked at the empty road and tried, for the first time she could remember, simply to be where she was. Far off, a cloud of dust rose and began, slowly, to come toward her." The comparison in "as if it had been blowing since before there were towns to blow through" suggests that
Question 17 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "The bus let Marisol off at the edge of town, where the pavement gave up and became gravel. Behind her, the driver pulled the doors shut before she had both feet on the ground. The wind came across the wheat flat and steady, as if it had been blowing since before there were towns to blow through, and it pressed her new coat against her legs. Her aunt was supposed to be waiting. There was no one, only a grain elevator, a closed gas station, and a dog that watched her without getting up. Marisol set her suitcase on its end and sat on it. In the city she would have taken out her phone; here she looked at the empty road and tried, for the first time she could remember, simply to be where she was. Far off, a cloud of dust rose and began, slowly, to come toward her." From what point of view is this passage told?
Question 18 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "The bus let Marisol off at the edge of town, where the pavement gave up and became gravel. Behind her, the driver pulled the doors shut before she had both feet on the ground. The wind came across the wheat flat and steady, as if it had been blowing since before there were towns to blow through, and it pressed her new coat against her legs. Her aunt was supposed to be waiting. There was no one, only a grain elevator, a closed gas station, and a dog that watched her without getting up. Marisol set her suitcase on its end and sat on it. In the city she would have taken out her phone; here she looked at the empty road and tried, for the first time she could remember, simply to be where she was. Far off, a cloud of dust rose and began, slowly, to come toward her." The final sentence ("Far off, a cloud of dust rose and began, slowly, to come toward her.") mainly serves to
Question 19 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "The bus let Marisol off at the edge of town, where the pavement gave up and became gravel. Behind her, the driver pulled the doors shut before she had both feet on the ground. The wind came across the wheat flat and steady, as if it had been blowing since before there were towns to blow through, and it pressed her new coat against her legs. Her aunt was supposed to be waiting. There was no one, only a grain elevator, a closed gas station, and a dog that watched her without getting up. Marisol set her suitcase on its end and sat on it. In the city she would have taken out her phone; here she looked at the empty road and tried, for the first time she could remember, simply to be where she was. Far off, a cloud of dust rose and began, slowly, to come toward her." The detail that the driver "pulled the doors shut before she had both feet on the ground" mainly suggests
Question 20 of 25Read this poem, "Inventory" (a slash marks a line break): "Here is the kitchen my mother painted yellow / the summer my father left. Here is the chair / she stood on to reach the ceiling, humming / as if the brush could hold a tune. Here is the yellow, / still bright above the stove, though the rest of the house / has gone the gray of a long sentence. / I used to think she painted to forget him. / Now that I am the age she was, I think / she painted to remember she could choose a color." The repetition of "Here is" gives the poem the structure of
Question 21 of 25Read this poem, "Inventory" (a slash marks a line break): "Here is the kitchen my mother painted yellow / the summer my father left. Here is the chair / she stood on to reach the ceiling, humming / as if the brush could hold a tune. Here is the yellow, / still bright above the stove, though the rest of the house / has gone the gray of a long sentence. / I used to think she painted to forget him. / Now that I am the age she was, I think / she painted to remember she could choose a color." The last three lines ("I used to think she painted to forget him. / Now that I am the age she was, I think / she painted to remember she could choose a color.") show that the speaker
Question 22 of 25Read this poem, "Inventory" (a slash marks a line break): "Here is the kitchen my mother painted yellow / the summer my father left. Here is the chair / she stood on to reach the ceiling, humming / as if the brush could hold a tune. Here is the yellow, / still bright above the stove, though the rest of the house / has gone the gray of a long sentence. / I used to think she painted to forget him. / Now that I am the age she was, I think / she painted to remember she could choose a color." The phrase "the gray of a long sentence" mainly suggests that the rest of the house
Question 23 of 25Read this poem, "Inventory" (a slash marks a line break): "Here is the kitchen my mother painted yellow / the summer my father left. Here is the chair / she stood on to reach the ceiling, humming / as if the brush could hold a tune. Here is the yellow, / still bright above the stove, though the rest of the house / has gone the gray of a long sentence. / I used to think she painted to forget him. / Now that I am the age she was, I think / she painted to remember she could choose a color." The mother, as the speaker remembers her, is best described as
Question 24 of 25Read this poem, "Inventory" (a slash marks a line break): "Here is the kitchen my mother painted yellow / the summer my father left. Here is the chair / she stood on to reach the ceiling, humming / as if the brush could hold a tune. Here is the yellow, / still bright above the stove, though the rest of the house / has gone the gray of a long sentence. / I used to think she painted to forget him. / Now that I am the age she was, I think / she painted to remember she could choose a color." Which interpretation is best supported by the poem?
Question 25 of 25Read this passage from a short story: "My grandmother kept the piano long after anyone could play it. It stood against the parlor wall under a lace runner, its keys yellowed like old teeth, and every Sunday she dusted it with the same gray cloth. When I was nine I asked her why she didn't sell it, since nobody used it. She looked at me as if I had asked why she didn't sell the windows. 'Somebody might,' she said, and went back to dusting. I thought then that she meant me, and I spent a miserable winter of lessons proving her wrong. Only years later, sorting her papers, did I find the concert programs from 1951, her name printed in small type at the bottom of each one. I understood, too late to tell her, that the somebody she had meant was herself." Which best describes the grandmother as she appears in the passage?

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