The purpose of this section is for you to demonstrate your ability to read a text and write a thoughtful, well-organized response based on that text.

Instructions: Read the following passage carefully. After reading, you will write a short response.


The 'Myth Of The Self-Made Man'

In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell debunks what he calls the "peculiarly American" belief that character, intelligence and hard work determine success: "It's the age-old American myth of the self-made man," Gladwell says, "the idea that we are not wholly, but largely — responsible for our own success. When you look at the lives of the highly successful, the idea that they're self-made crumbles."

Gladwell uses multibillionaire Bill Gates as an example of someone who benefited from extremely fortunate circumstances: In 1969, Gates' high school had a computer terminal at a time when even colleges didn't have them. "[Gates] had a one-in-a-billion chance to get good at programming in advance of every single member of his generation," Gladwell says. "And he's the first to admit this."

In writing about achievement, Gladwell felt it was necessary to mention the effect of one’s culture; he wanted to untangle long-standing puzzles about success and nationality: "One of the puzzles that educators have thought about for years is why it is that kids from Japan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and China vastly outperform their American or Western counterparts in math," he says. "They score way, way, better than American kids do." Gladwell says he thought that Asian children might be inheriting a particular cultural legacy from their parents and their society that was helping them succeed in math—and he says he found the answer in the agricultural tradition of rice farming: "Rice farming lays out a cultural pattern that works beautifully when it comes to math," he hypothesizes. "Rice farming is the most labor-intensive form of agriculture known to man. It is also the most cognitively demanding form of agriculture. There is a direct correlation between effort and reward. You get exactly out of your rice paddy what you put into it." While American students often say math skills are innate, Asian students more frequently attribute success in math to hard work.

Gladwell admits that there is a lot of sensitivity when it comes to identifying trends of success and ethnicity. However, he says that "cautious, specific probing" into these issues can be appropriate and instructive—especially done with the purpose of heightening achievement for groups that are under-performing.

The purpose of this section is to measure your ability to choose grammatically and contextually appropriate words within a given written text.

Instructions: The following passage has 12 blank spaces. As you read, write (beginning in the box titled "Blank 1") what you think is the most appropriate word for each blank (please write only one word in each box). There may be more than one correct answer for each blank.


For Native Americans, Old Stereotypes Die Hard

Native Americans have a long history of one-sided portrayals in Hollywood, including such stereotypical characters as the war-whooping savage or the grunting tribesman. After decades of ____________ shoved into these stereotypes, many Native American artists are _____________ to write their own scripts.

Charlie Hill is a comedian and member of the Oneida Indian Nation of Wisconsin. Despite ____________ existence of modern, real-life icons among Indians, a TV stereotype still stands ____________ in Hill's mind: "I remember as a little kid playing the Lone Ranger, my little brother and ____________. He had to be the Ranger because he was smarter. We're taught that."

The Native American character ____________ the 1950s show The Lone Ranger, Tonto, was played by actor Jay Silverheels. Hill notes that Tonto belonged to no tribal nation; he was "just ____________ generic Indian that was created by the white man."

Hill says he has ____________ a victim of stereotyping as well. With regard to his comedy, he comments: "I would play in Vegas and I'd be in the lobby afterward, and people would say, 'Oh, you were the Indian on the show last night.' Like that's a part I ____________."

____________ the other hand, comedian Hill says he'd be out of ____________ if all misperceptions of native people disappeared: "All this stuff used to make me angry, but as I got older I realized they're just writing my act for me. And what I do in my act, what I say is, 'I'm not white-bashing, this is just a little spiritual spanking they should ____________ gotten a long time ago."

The purpose of this section is to measure your ability to identify grammatical errors in written English.

Instructions: Read each sentence, Then, select the answer choice that contains the grammatical error in the sentence.