Free TEAS 7 Reading Practice Test 9 — 30 Questions With Full Explanations
Test 9 of this set covers key ideas & details, craft & structure, integration. Answer all 30 questions, then read the explanation for each one - including why each wrong option fails. Take it interactively with instant scoring: Reading practice. Every question is original and written to the published blueprint split for the Reading section (45 questions on exam day).
Passages
Passage P1
Most people picture quicksand as a bottomless pit that swallows whatever steps into it, but the reality is far less dramatic. Quicksand forms where water saturates loose sand, usually along riverbanks, lake edges, or tidal flats. The water lifts the grains apart so that the mixture behaves more like a thick liquid than a solid. Because sand is heavier than water, the mixture is roughly twice as dense as the human body, so a person cannot sink completely; the body floats partway in the soupy sand, much as it floats in seawater. The real danger is not sinking but struggling. Quick, panicked movements churn the mixture and make it thinner, pulling the legs deeper, while slow, patient movements allow the sand to thicken again around the trapped limb. A calm person can lean back to spread their weight, work one leg free at a time, and crawl or roll onto firmer ground. Most deaths blamed on quicksand are actually drownings: an animal or person stuck at low tide is overtaken by rising water. Understanding the physics of the mixture, not the folklore, is what saves lives.
Passage P2
That summer, twelve-year-old Toby spent his Saturdays behind the projection booth of the Sunset Drive-In, learning the trade from Mr. Delgado, who had run the machine for thirty-eight years. The booth smelled of dust, popcorn oil, and hot lamps. Mr. Delgado showed Toby how the reels were loaded in a precise order, how the carbon arc lamp burned brighter than the sun, and how a single skipped frame could make the whole picture stutter. On the last Saturday of August, the owners posted a sign: the drive-in would close at the end of the month, and the land would become a storage yard. Toby expected Mr. Delgado to be angry. Instead, the old projectionist threaded the final reel slowly, patted the machine, and said, 'It gave people a place to rest their eyes together. That is not nothing.' Toby said nothing, but he watched the beam of light carry the picture out across the dark field of parked cars and decided that the story was like the machine: delicate, hot, and worth protecting. He took one of the old film canisters home, empty, and kept it on his desk.
Passage P3
To all shelter staff: This memo updates the morning care procedures for the intake ward. Effective immediately, the morning shift begins at 6:30 a.m. with a walk-through of every kennel and cage. Staff must check each animal's water bowl and refill it before handling food, because a dehydrated animal may refuse to eat. Between 7:00 and 8:00, distribute the morning meals according to the feeding chart posted on the ward door; the chart lists each animal by intake number, and no animal is to receive food intended for another. A dog that refuses its breakfast must be reported to the shift supervisor on the clipboard log before 8:30, along with the amount left uneaten. Cats are not to be given dry food after 8:15, when the medication round begins. During the medication round, only the senior technician may unlock the medicine cabinet; other staff record the doses in the log but do not handle the bottles. An animal showing discharge from the eyes or nose must be moved to the isolation kennels, and staff must wash their hands with the disinfectant at the sink before returning to the ward. The walk-through, feeding, and logging steps must all be finished by 9:00 a.m.
Passage P4
The liver is the body's largest internal organ and its busiest chemical factory. It sits in the upper right of the abdomen, and nearly every nutrient absorbed from food passes through it first. The liver filters toxins and waste from the blood, breaks down old red blood cells, stores sugar in a form the body can release between meals, and produces bile, a yellow fluid that helps digest fats. Because it receives blood from two sources, the hepatic artery and the portal vein, it can process both oxygen-rich blood and blood freshly loaded with digested food. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the liver is its ability to regenerate: if disease or injury removes a large portion of the organ, the remaining tissue can grow back to nearly full size within months, a capacity almost unknown elsewhere in the adult human body. Damage often accumulates more slowly than symptoms appear; fatty buildup and scarring can develop for years without pain, which is why routine blood tests that measure liver enzymes are important. Protecting the liver means moderating alcohol, maintaining a healthy weight, and avoiding unnecessary medications, because the organ must process whatever enters the blood.
Passage P5
In 1862, in the middle of the Civil War, Congress authorized the building of a railroad from the Missouri River to the Pacific coast. Two companies took on the task from opposite ends. The Union Pacific built westward across the flat plains, laying track quickly, while the Central Pacific worked eastward through the Sierra Nevada, where crews tunneled through solid granite in brutal conditions. Thousands of workers came from Ireland and, on the Central Pacific, from China, where recruiters sought laborers willing to take on the most dangerous jobs. The two lines raced toward each other, and the government paid each company by the mile of track laid, an incentive that encouraged speed over caution. On May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit in Utah, the two crews met and drove a golden spike to mark the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. The consequences were swift. A journey that had taken months by wagon was reduced to about a week, freight rates fell sharply, and western towns grew at rates that surprised even their founders. The railroad also opened vast lands to settlement, changed how food and livestock reached eastern cities, and hastened the decline of the buffalo herds and the displacement of Native peoples who had lived on those lands.
Passage P6
Mary Anning was born in 1799 in the seaside town of Lyme Regis, England, where the cliffs along the coast are packed with the fossilized remains of creatures that swam in warm Jurassic seas. Her father took her hunting for curiosities on the beach and taught her to split the soft shale with a hammer. After his death, when Mary was eleven, the family supported itself by selling fossils to collectors, and Mary became the family's best finder. In 1811 she uncovered the skeleton of an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile with a long snout and paddle-like limbs; later she found the first complete plesiosaur and the first pterosaur ever discovered in Britain. Her finds reshaped scientific ideas about the past, proving that the earth had once been inhabited by creatures unlike any alive today. Yet the scientific establishment treated her as an outsider. Because she was a woman and a working-class tradesperson, she was not admitted to the learned societies where gentlemen discussed her specimens, and much of her work was credited to the men who published descriptions of her discoveries. She was honored publicly only late in life, and modern paleontologists regard her as one of the finest fossil hunters who ever lived.
All 30 questions with answers
Question 1. Key Ideas & Details easy
Where does the passage say quicksand is most likely to form?
See passage P1 above.
- A. Along riverbanks, lake edges, and tidal flats, where water saturates loose sand. (correct)
- B. On the steep slopes of desert dunes.
- C. At the bottom of deep mountain lakes.
- D. Far beneath the surface of the open ocean.
Explanation: The passage states that quicksand forms where water saturates loose sand, usually along riverbanks, lake edges, or tidal flats. The other options name environments the passage never mentions as places where quicksand develops, so they are not supported by the text.
Question 2. Key Ideas & Details medium
What happens when a person trapped in quicksand makes slow, patient movements?
See passage P1 above.
- A. The mixture becomes thinner and pulls the legs deeper into the sand.
- B. The sand thickens again around the trapped limb, allowing the leg to be worked free. (correct)
- C. The person floats upward and is carried to the surface.
- D. The water drains away and the sand hardens like concrete.
Explanation: The passage explains that panicked movements churn the mixture and make it thinner, while slow, patient movements allow the sand to thicken again around the trapped limb. Only that response helps a person work a leg free; the other options describe sinking or effects the passage does not support.
Question 3. Key Ideas & Details hard
According to the passage, why are most deaths blamed on quicksand actually drownings?
See passage P1 above.
- A. Victims panic and exhaust themselves, so they lose consciousness.
- B. The soupy sand gradually absorbs the whole body.
- C. An animal or person stuck at low tide can be overtaken by rising water. (correct)
- D. Victims refuse to lean back and spread their weight.
Explanation: The passage closes by stating that most deaths blamed on quicksand are drownings, because an animal or person stuck at low tide is overtaken by rising water. Panic is described as a danger that pulls legs deeper, not as the recorded cause of death, so the other choices do not match the text.
Question 4. Craft & Structure medium
The author calls the image of quicksand as a bottomless pit folklore. This word choice suggests that the common picture of quicksand is
See passage P1 above.
- A. an accurate scientific model of how sand behaves.
- B. a warning supported by measurements from rescue crews.
- C. the safest way to think about the hazard.
- D. a dramatic belief that does not match the physics described in the passage. (correct)
Explanation: By labeling the bottomless-pit image folklore, the author sets it against the passage's explanation that quicksand is denser than the human body and cannot swallow a person whole. The word choice marks the popular belief as exaggerated and unsupported, while the other options treat it as accurate or useful.
Question 5. Integration of Knowledge & Ideas medium
Which action does the passage recommend for a hiker whose boots begin to sink into a patch of water-soaked sand?
See passage P1 above.
- A. Kick hard and run for firm ground as fast as possible.
- B. Lean back to spread the weight, move slowly, and work the feet free one at a time. (correct)
- C. Dive forward and swim across the patch.
- D. Hold still and wait for the sand to drain away.
Explanation: The passage advises a calm person to lean back, spread their weight, work one leg free at a time, and crawl or roll onto firmer ground, noting that slow movements let the sand thicken. Kicking and running would churn the mixture thinner, which the passage identifies as the real danger.
Question 6. Key Ideas & Details easy
Why does the Sunset Drive-In close at the end of August?
See passage P2 above.
- A. Mr. Delgado decides to retire from running the projector.
- B. Toby stops spending his Saturdays at the booth.
- C. The owners posted a sign saying the land would become a storage yard. (correct)
- D. The carbon arc lamp burns out and cannot be replaced.
Explanation: The passage says the owners posted a sign announcing that the drive-in would close at the end of the month and that the land would become a storage yard. The other options name events that either do not happen or are not given as the reason for the closing.
Question 7. Craft & Structure medium
Toby's decision to keep the empty film canister on his desk most likely symbolizes
See passage P2 above.
- A. his anger at the owners for selling the land.
- B. his plan to return the canister to Mr. Delgado.
- C. his belief that films are worth more than machines.
- D. his quiet wish to preserve something from a place and an experience he valued. (correct)
Explanation: The canister is empty, so its value to Toby is not practical; it stands for the drive-in itself, which he had decided was delicate, hot, and worth protecting. Keeping it on his desk shows he wants to hold onto what the experience meant, not that he is angry or planning to give it back.
Question 8. Craft & Structure hard
When Mr. Delgado says the drive-in gave people a place to rest their eyes together, he most likely means that the drive-in
See passage P2 above.
- A. let strangers share a single experience in the dark, which was worth something. (correct)
- B. offered seats more comfortable than those indoors.
- C. was a place where audiences could sleep during films.
- D. made its money by keeping the field open at night.
Explanation: Mr. Delgado speaks as the projector beam carries the picture out over the parked cars, and his words emphasize togetherness: many separate people watching one image at once. His tone is affectionate, not practical, so the statement is about shared experience rather than comfort, sleep, or profit.
Question 9. Key Ideas & Details easy
Which detail about the projector does Toby learn from Mr. Delgado?
See passage P2 above.
- A. A single skipped frame can make the whole picture stutter. (correct)
- B. The machine runs on batteries when the power fails.
- C. The booth must be cleaned every hour during a show.
- D. The lamp burns cooler than an ordinary kitchen bulb.
Explanation: The passage lists three things Mr. Delgado shows Toby: how the reels are loaded in a precise order, how the carbon arc lamp burns brighter than the sun, and how a single skipped frame can make the picture stutter. Only the stutter detail appears among the answer choices; the rest are not in the passage.
Question 10. Integration of Knowledge & Ideas medium
Which attitude does Toby's thinking at the end of the passage best reflect?
See passage P2 above.
- A. Old machines are obsolete and should be replaced quickly.
- B. The drive-in was worth protecting even after it closed for good. (correct)
- C. The owners were right to sell the land for storage.
- D. Films are only entertainment and leave nothing behind.
Explanation: Toby watches the beam carry the picture across the cars and decides the story is like the machine: delicate, hot, and worth protecting. He then keeps the empty canister as a keepsake. This points to the idea that the drive-in mattered, not that it was obsolete, a wise sale, or merely entertainment.
Question 11. Key Ideas & Details easy
During the morning walk-through, what must staff do before handling food?
See passage P3 above.
- A. Unlock the medicine cabinet and count the bottles.
- B. Move every animal to the isolation kennels.
- C. Check each animal's water bowl and refill it. (correct)
- D. Record the doses in the log and initial the chart.
Explanation: The memo says the shift begins with a walk-through and that staff must check each animal's water bowl and refill it before handling food, because a dehydrated animal may refuse to eat. The other actions belong to later steps such as the feeding chart or the medication round.
Question 12. Key Ideas & Details medium
What does the memo require a staff member to do when a dog refuses its breakfast?
See passage P3 above.
- A. Withhold water from the dog for the rest of the day.
- B. Move the dog to the isolation kennels immediately.
- C. Give the refused food to another animal on the chart.
- D. Report it to the shift supervisor on the clipboard log before 8:30, along with the amount left uneaten. (correct)
Explanation: The memo states that a dog refusing its breakfast must be reported to the shift supervisor on the clipboard log before 8:30, together with the amount left uneaten. Withholding water, isolation, and passing the food to another animal are never instructed and would contradict the memo's rules.
Question 13. Integration of Knowledge & Ideas medium
While the senior technician verifies doses at the sink, a newer staff member stands at the locked medicine cabinet. Which action by the newer staff member would the memo allow?
See passage P3 above.
- A. Unlocking the cabinet with the key to save time.
- B. Recording the doses in the log after the technician reads them out. (correct)
- C. Handling the bottles while the technician is busy.
- D. Moving dogs into isolation without a supervisor.
Explanation: The memo says only the senior technician may unlock the medicine cabinet and that other staff record the doses but do not handle the bottles. Recording doses is exactly the job assigned to non-senior staff, while unlocking the cabinet, handling bottles, and unsupervised moves are not permitted.
Question 14. Craft & Structure medium
The memo states that no animal is to receive food intended for another. The main reason for this rule is most likely to
See passage P3 above.
- A. make the feeding round take longer so staff stay busy.
- B. reduce how much food the shelter must buy each week.
- C. keep each animal on the diet and medication schedule listed for it on the chart. (correct)
- D. ensure every animal eats at the same time of day.
Explanation: Because the feeding chart lists each animal by intake number and cats are later cut off from dry food when the medication round begins, swapping meals could give an animal the wrong food at the wrong time. The rule protects the diet and medication schedule, not staff workload, cost, or identical feeding times.
Question 15. Integration of Knowledge & Ideas hard
A staff member notices a cat with discharge from its eyes during the morning round. What does the memo require the staff member to do?
See passage P3 above.
- A. Feed the cat dry food before the medication round begins.
- B. Refill every water bowl and then record the dose.
- C. Wait until the shift supervisor arrives and decide together.
- D. Move the cat to the isolation kennels and wash hands with the disinfectant before returning to the ward. (correct)
Explanation: The memo directs that any animal showing discharge from the eyes or nose must be moved to the isolation kennels, and that staff must wash with the disinfectant before returning to the ward. Feeding, water checks, and waiting are not the required response for an animal that may be ill.
Question 16. Key Ideas & Details easy
According to the passage, the liver sits in which part of the body?
See passage P4 above.
- A. In the upper right of the abdomen. (correct)
- B. In the lower left of the abdomen.
- C. Behind the left lung beside the spine.
- D. Just beneath the collarbone.
Explanation: The passage states plainly that the liver sits in the upper right of the abdomen and that nearly every nutrient absorbed from food passes through it first. The other locations never appear in the passage and contradict its description of the organ's position.
Question 17. Key Ideas & Details medium
What does the liver do with sugar, according to the passage?
See passage P4 above.
- A. Stores it in a form the body can release between meals. (correct)
- B. Converts it directly into bile for digesting fats.
- C. Removes it from the blood permanently and forever.
- D. Turns it into red blood cells for oxygen transport.
Explanation: The passage lists the liver's jobs and says it stores sugar in a form the body can release between meals. Bile is produced to help digest fats, and old red blood cells are broken down, so the other options mix up functions the passage keeps separate.
Question 18. Key Ideas & Details hard
Why can liver damage go unnoticed for years, according to the passage?
See passage P4 above.
- A. The liver has no blood supply, so tests cannot find damage.
- B. Fatty buildup and scarring can develop for years without pain. (correct)
- C. The liver never changes size, so nothing seems wrong.
- D. Routine blood tests cannot measure anything about the liver.
Explanation: The passage says damage often accumulates more slowly than symptoms appear, because fatty buildup and scarring can develop for years without pain. The liver does receive blood, and the passage says routine tests that measure liver enzymes are important, so the other choices contradict the text.
Question 19. Craft & Structure medium
The passage calls the liver the body's busiest chemical factory. This description mainly emphasizes
See passage P4 above.
- A. how large the organ is compared with the other organs.
- B. how dark the liver's color becomes with use.
- C. how many different substances the liver produces and processes. (correct)
- D. how far the liver is from the stomach.
Explanation: The factory image points to production and processing: the liver filters toxins, breaks down old red blood cells, stores sugar, and makes bile, all chemical jobs. It does not primarily comment on size, color, or position, which the passage addresses separately or not at all.
Question 20. Integration of Knowledge & Ideas hard
A blood test reveals high levels of a substance that the liver normally filters out of the blood. What does the passage suggest about the liver in this situation?
See passage P4 above.
- A. It is producing extra bile to digest fat.
- B. It has already grown back to full size.
- C. It is storing too much sugar between meals.
- D. It may not be filtering the blood as it should. (correct)
Explanation: Because the passage says the liver filters toxins and waste from the blood and that routine tests are important when damage is silent, a buildup of a substance the liver should filter points to filtering that is not doing its job. Bile, regrowth, and sugar storage do not explain the finding.
Question 21. Key Ideas & Details easy
Which two companies built the transcontinental railroad from opposite ends?
See passage P5 above.
- A. The Northern Pacific and the Great Northern.
- B. The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific. (correct)
- C. The Erie and the Pennsylvania.
- D. The Atchison, Topeka, and the Southern Pacific.
Explanation: The passage names the two companies explicitly: the Union Pacific built westward across the plains while the Central Pacific worked eastward through the Sierra Nevada. The other railroad names do not appear anywhere in the passage and are not part of its account.
Question 22. Integration of Knowledge & Ideas medium
The government paid each company by the mile of track laid. Which outcome would this arrangement most directly encourage?
See passage P5 above.
- A. Companies sharing their workers to speed up a rival's line.
- B. Engineers slowing down so each mile paid more.
- C. Crews rushing to lay track quickly even if the work was less careful. (correct)
- D. Companies abandoning the route before it was finished.
Explanation: The passage says the per-mile payment was an incentive that encouraged speed over caution, and that the two lines raced toward each other. Paying by the mile rewards quick construction, not sharing workers, slowing work, or quitting the route, so the rush outcome follows directly.
Question 23. Key Ideas & Details hard
Which group of workers does the passage say took on the most dangerous jobs on the Central Pacific?
See passage P5 above.
- A. Irish laborers who crossed the plains.
- B. Civil War veterans hired in Missouri.
- C. Local farmers along the Sierra Nevada.
- D. Chinese laborers brought in by recruiters. (correct)
Explanation: The passage says thousands of workers came from Ireland and, on the Central Pacific, from China, where recruiters sought laborers willing to take on the most dangerous jobs. Only the Chinese laborers are linked in the text to the hiring of workers for the most dangerous work.
Question 24. Craft & Structure medium
In the passage, the golden spike driven at Promontory Summit is best understood as
See passage P5 above.
- A. a ceremonial nail that marked where the two rail lines met. (correct)
- B. a sudden rise in the price of railroad freight.
- C. a warning signal placed along the finished track.
- D. a post used to anchor tents for the workers.
Explanation: The passage says the crews met and drove a golden spike to mark the completion of the first transcontinental railroad, so the spike is a ceremonial fastener signifying the joining of the lines. It is not a price change, a warning, or a tent anchor in the context given.
Question 25. Integration of Knowledge & Ideas hard
Before the railroad, crossing the continent by wagon took months; after 1869 the same journey took about a week. What does this contrast most directly show?
See passage P5 above.
- A. Wagon travel remained the fastest option available.
- B. The railroad radically shortened cross-country travel time. (correct)
- C. Freight rates rose sharply after the line was joined.
- D. The golden spike was worth more than the rails.
Explanation: The passage states that the journey dropped from months by wagon to about a week and that freight rates fell sharply, so the contrast documents a dramatic reduction in travel time. The other options reverse or ignore the passage's stated effects of the railroad.
Question 26. Key Ideas & Details medium
How did Mary Anning learn to find fossils as a child?
See passage P6 above.
- A. Professors at the learned societies gave her lessons.
- B. She read about fossils in books from London.
- C. Her father took her hunting on the beach and taught her to split the soft shale with a hammer. (correct)
- D. Collectors paid her to study their specimens.
Explanation: The passage says her father took her hunting for curiosities on the beach and taught her to split the soft shale with a hammer. The learned societies excluded her, and reading and paid study are never mentioned as sources of her training.
Question 27. Craft & Structure medium
After her father's death, the family supported itself by selling fossils to collectors. This detail most clearly suggests that
See passage P6 above.
- A. fossil collecting was only a pleasant hobby for the family.
- B. the family became wealthy from a single sale.
- C. Mary refused to sell anything she found herself.
- D. Mary's skill at finding fossils also helped provide the family's income. (correct)
Explanation: Because the family supported itself by selling fossils, the finds were not just recreation but a livelihood, and the passage immediately adds that Mary became the family's best finder. That makes her hunting economically important; the other options contradict selling as a means of support.
Question 28. Craft & Structure hard
The author includes the details that Anning was barred from the learned societies and that her work was credited to men mainly to
See passage P6 above.
- A. show that her contributions were undervalued because of her gender and class. (correct)
- B. explain how fossils are classified by scientists.
- C. prove that marine reptiles lived in Jurassic seas.
- D. describe how the cliffs of Lyme Regis were formed.
Explanation: The passage says she was shut out because she was a woman and a working-class tradesperson, while gentlemen discussed her specimens and published descriptions of her discoveries. These details support the point that her achievements went unrecognized for reasons of gender and class, not to explain classification, sea life, or cliff formation.
Question 29. Integration of Knowledge & Ideas medium
A scientist today publicly credits an amateur fossil hunter who found a new specimen. Based on the passage, this practice differs most clearly from Anning's treatment because in her time
See passage P6 above.
- A. amateurs were not allowed to search the beaches at all.
- B. credit for her finds often went to the men who published descriptions of them. (correct)
- C. every discovery was kept secret from the public.
- D. women regularly joined the learned societies.
Explanation: The passage says much of Anning's work was credited to the men who published descriptions of her discoveries, and she was not admitted to the societies where gentlemen discussed her specimens. Giving public credit to the finder reverses that pattern; the other options contradict the passage.
Question 30. Integration of Knowledge & Ideas hard
What does the passage conclude Anning's discoveries proved about the distant past?
See passage P6 above.
- A. Creatures alive today are unchanged from ancient times.
- B. Marine reptiles never lived in the seas.
- C. The earth was once inhabited by creatures unlike any alive today. (correct)
- D. Fossils only formed after the year 1811.
Explanation: The passage says her finds reshaped scientific ideas by proving that the earth had once been inhabited by creatures unlike any alive today, such as the ichthyosaur, plesiosaur, and pterosaur. The other options directly contradict the discoveries the passage describes.