ACT
Practice Test 6

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DIRECTIONS: Each passage is followed by several questions. After reading a passage, choose the best answer to each question and fill in the corresponding oval on your answer document. You may refer to the passages as often as necessary.

SOCIAL SCIENCE:
 This passage is adapted from T. H. Watkins' The Great Depression (©1993, Little, Brown and Co.; Blackside Inc.).

One of the most durable and well regarded of all the New Deal's programs came from President Roosevelt himself, who had his own share of inventiveness. If the president cared about the fate of people, he also cared about the fate of trees, having
Line 5 practiced the art of silviculture on his Hyde Park estate with such enthusiasm that on various official forms he was fond of listing his occupation as "tree farmer." It was in early March, 1933, that he proceeded to bring the two concerns together-enlisting young unemployed men in a kind of volunteer "army" to be put to
10 Work in the national forests, national parks, and on other federal public lands. When he went to Congress for authorization of the program, he called the new agency the Civilian Corps Reforestation Youth Rehabilitation Movement, but before sinking under the weight of an acronym like CCRYRM, it was soon changed
15 to the Civilian Conservation Corps (known forever after as the CCC). Congress chose not to handle the details itself. It simply authorized the president to create the program and structure it as he saw fit by executive order; it was to last two years. Responsibility was divided up among the Labor Department, which was to
20 screen and select the enrollees, the War Department, which would house and feed them in their nonworking hours, and the Departments of Agriculture and Interior, which would design and supervise projects in regional and national forests, national parks, and other public lands. The men would be paid $30 a.
25 month, anywhere from S23 to $25 of it to be sent to their families.
The CCC officially began on April 5, 1933, calling for an enrollment of 250,000 to be housed in 1,468 camps around the country. The cost for the first year was estimated at S500 million. The men had to be US citizens between the ages of seventeen and
30 twenty-seven (later, twenty-four), out of school, out of work, capable of physical labor, over 60 inches but under 78 inches in height, more than 107 pounds in weight, and had to possess no fewer than "three serviceable natural masticating teeth above and below." They would serve terms of no more than nine months
35 so that as many as possible could be accommodated over the course of time. Among the earliest enrollees were some veterans who had returned to Washington, setting up camp and demanding payment of their bonuses for service during the war. While making
40 it clear that he opposed the payments on economic grounds, FDR provided tents, showers, mess halls, and latrines, and, waiving the age restriction for them, invited the members of this new Bonus Army to join his new agency. What was more, Eleanor Roosevelt dropped by one rainy day for a visit, slogging through
45 ankle-deep mud to meet and talk with the men. "Hoover sent the army," said one veteran of the previous summer's BEF disaster, "Roosevelt sent his wife." When it became clear that no bonus would be forthcoming, about twenty-five hundred of the men took Roosevelt up on his offer and joined the CCC.
50 In the summer of 1934, Roosevelt expanded the size of the CCC to 350,000 and would raise it to 500,000 in 1935. Congress continued to reauthorize it faithfully over the next seven years, and by the time it was closed out in 1942, the CCC had put more than three million young "soil soldiers" to work. In the national
55 forests alone they built 3,470 fire towers, installed 65,100 miles of telephone lines, scraped and graded thousands of fire breaks, roads, and trails, and built 97,000 miles of truck trails and roads, spent 4.1 million man-hours fighting fires, and cut down and hauled out millions of diseased trees and planted more than 1.3
60 billion young trees in the first major reforestation campaign in the country's history. For the National Park Service, they built roads, campgrounds, bridges, and recreation and administration facilities; for the Biological Survey (a predecessor of today's Fish and Wildlife Service), they conducted wildlife surveys
65 and improved wildlife refuge lands; and for the Army Corps of Engineers, they built flood control projects in West Virginia, Vermont, and New York State.
In return, the CCC, at its best, took at least some young men out of the urban tangle of hopelessness where so many resided,
70 introduced them to the intricacies and healing joy of the outdoors, and clothed and fed them better than many had been for years. Moreover, the program taught more than a hundred thousand to read and Write, passed out twenty-five thousand eighth-grade diplomas and five thousand high-school diplomas, gave
75 structure and discipline to lives that had experienced little of either, strengthened bodies and minds, and for many provided a dose of self-esteem they had never known.

1. The main idea of the passage is that:

  • Solution

    Correct Answer: D
    Explanation:
    This passage describes the formation and activities of the CCC. No one was "forced" to work in the CCC, so you can eliminate choice (A). The CCC did employ many veterans, but nothing in the passage supports the claim that veterans had suitable employment "only after" the creation of the CCC.

2. The main idea of the third paragraph (lines 37-49) is that:

  • Solution

    Correct Answer: G
    Explanation:
    While choice (F) is true, it isn't the main idea of the paragraph. Choice (H) is incorrect because the bonuses were never paid. For choice (J), the paragraph says that the age restriction was waived, but at no point does it say how many of these veterans were over the age limit. Only choice (G) gives a reasonable summation of the content of the paragraph.

3. As it is used in line 7 to describe President Roosevelt, the term tree farmer most nearly means that Roosevelt:

  • Solution

    Correct Answer: D
    Explanation:
    The passage states that Roosevelt "also cared about the fate of trees, having practiced the art of silviculture on his Hyde Park estate with such enthusiasm that on various official forms he was fond of listing his occupation as 'tree farmer.' " Choice (A) makes an assumption that is not supported in the passage; there is nothing to suggest that his interest in silviculture predated his political life. Choices (B) and (C) are not supported in the passage. Only choice (D) is supported by the sentence cited above.

4. According to the passage, which of the following was a project the CCC performed for the National Park Service?

  • Solution

    Correct Answer: G
    Explanation:
    Read this question carefully. The lines you need are 61-63: "For the National Park Service, they built roads, campgrounds, bridges, and recreation and administration facilities." This clearly supports choice (G). The other activities in the answer choices are mentioned in the passage, but not as things the CCC did for the National Park Service.

5. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true about the CCC?

  • Solution

    Correct Answer: A
    Explanation:
    Starting on line 72, the passage reads, "the program taught more than a hundred thousand to read and write, passed out twenty-five thousand eighth-grade diplomas and five-thousand high-school diplomas." This line most clearly supports choice (A). Choices (B) and (D) contain deceptive language from elsewhere in the passage, but they do not describe the CCC. Choice (C) is a trap because of the placement of the word only. As written, choice (C) means that all men the CCC accepted were those with six teeth.

6. Information in the fourth paragraph (lines 50-67) makes it clear that the CCC:

  • Solution

    Correct Answer: G
    Explanation:
    Lines 24-25 describe the terms of payment in the CCC, so eliminate choice (F). Line 58 describes the "4.1 million man-hours" spent fighting forest fires; it does NOT say that the CCC employed 4.1 million men, so eliminate choice (H). The states referred to in choice (J) are described in the passage as the sites of "flood control projects," not firefighting projects. Only choice (G) has support in the passage.

7. The passage most strongly suggests that before the 1930s, the national forests:

  • Solution

    Correct Answer: C
    Explanation:
    Lines 60-61 describe the "first major reforestation campaign in the country's history." Although the specific years during which this reforestation campaign took place are unclear, the campaign must have taken place after the establishment of the CCC in 1933. It can therefore be inferred, because this was the "first," that the nation had not undergone a major reforestation campaign before, as choice (C) suggests.

8. According to the passage, when did the CCC change its name?

  • Solution

    Correct Answer: F
    Explanation:
    Lines 11-16 state the following: "When he went to Congress for authorization of the program, he called the new agency the Civilian Corps Reforestation Youth Rehabilitation Movement, but before sinking under the weight of an acronym like CCRYRM, it was soon changed to the Civilian Conservation Corps (known forever after as the CCC)." These lines describe the change, and only choice (F) is supported by the time of these events. The only other answer that might work chronologically would be choice (G), but nothing in the passage supports the claim that Congress complained about the length of the name.

9. The passage states that the same year the CCC was authorized enrollees had to be:

  • Solution

    Correct Answer: C
    Explanation:
    Lines 29-30 state that the "men had to be US citizens between the ages of seventeen and twenty-seven (later twenty-four)." Since the question asks about enrollees when the CCC was founded, you can disregard the "later" age; choice (C) gives the correct age range.

10. According to the passage, CCC programs in national parks and forests were:

  • Solution

    Correct Answer: G
    Explanation:
    Lines 21-24 state that "the Departments of Agriculture and Interior … would design and supervise projects in regional and national forests, national parks, and other public lands." These lines give direct support to choice (G), and show that the others are incorrect or inadequate responses to the question.

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