PSSA English 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A student reads a passage where the author uses the phrase 'the city roared with anger.' What literary device is this?
- Simile
- Personification (Correct answer)
- Alliteration
- Hyperbole
Correct answer: Personification
Personification gives human qualities (anger, roaring) to a non-human thing like a city.
Question 2: Which sentence uses correct subject-verb agreement?
- The team are playing well.
- Neither the dogs nor the cat are hungry.
- Each of the students have a pencil.
- The group of scientists is conducting research. (Correct answer)
Correct answer: The group of scientists is conducting research.
When a collective noun like 'group' acts as a single unit, it takes a singular verb such as 'is.'
Question 3: In a narrative, the term 'rising action' refers to which part of the plot?
- The introduction of the main character
- Events that build tension toward the climax (Correct answer)
- The resolution of the central conflict
- The moment of greatest tension
Correct answer: Events that build tension toward the climax
Rising action consists of events that develop the conflict and increase tension leading to the climax.
Question 4: A student wants to write a persuasive essay about school lunch options. Which type of evidence would be MOST effective to include?
- A personal story about disliking cafeteria food
- A statistic showing the percentage of students who skip lunch (Correct answer)
- An opinion from one student who agrees
- A description of the author's favorite meal
Correct answer: A statistic showing the percentage of students who skip lunch
Statistics provide objective, measurable data that strengthen a persuasive argument more than personal anecdotes alone.
Question 5: Read this sentence: 'Despite studying all night, Marcus failed the exam.' What does 'despite' signal?
- A cause-and-effect relationship
- A contrast between two ideas (Correct answer)
- A sequence of events
- An example being introduced
Correct answer: A contrast between two ideas
'Despite' is a concessive conjunction that signals a contrast between an expected outcome and what actually happened.
Question 6: Which of the following is an example of an informational text structure that presents a problem and its solution?
- A timeline of historical events
- An article explaining how pollution causes health issues and what communities can do (Correct answer)
- A story told from a first-person perspective
- A poem comparing two seasons
Correct answer: An article explaining how pollution causes health issues and what communities can do
Problem-solution structure identifies an issue and then presents ways to address it, as in the pollution health article example.
Question 7: Which revision BEST improves the clarity of this sentence: 'She gave her friend the book that she wrote'?
- She gave her friend the book which she had wrote.
- She gave her friend the book she had written. (Correct answer)
- She gave the book to her friend who she wrote.
- Her friend was given the book by her that she wrote.
Correct answer: She gave her friend the book she had written.
Using 'had written' correctly forms the past perfect tense and removes the ambiguous pronoun reference.
PSSA English 2
A student reads a passage where the author uses the phrase 'the city roared with anger.' What literary device is this?