Read the article below and then respond to the questions that follow by choosing the letter of each correct answer.

Question

Lesson Learned the Hard Way
Procrastination is never a good idea. Pro cras in Latin means “for tomorrow.” Why do today
what you can put off until tomorrow? That was my motto during my freshman and sophomore year of college, and I got away with it too. I was young, full of energy, and a lot of naiveté.
The funny thing was that it took a real scare to get me to change my ways. The year was 1985,
and I lived on campus. The dormitory was an old Civil War era brick building in the historic section of
Bethlehem, PA. I was in my sophomore year of college, and my dorm room was on the fourth floor of the building. I needed to type up a three page paper for a German class as a Mid-term project. It was an assignment that I should have started on two weeks before. I began to type on my electronic typewriter. I had only finished a page and a half by 10pm. The typewriter, although fairly portable, was a lot heavier than a laptop and quite a bit louder. Every carriage return, it would ring, and the keys made a clacking sound.
Since I didn’t want to keep everybody on my floor up or disturb my roommate, I gathered up my
materials and typewriter, and made my way downstairs to the basement of the dorm. I was a little
nervous, since the building creeped me out at night. There were a number of ghost stories that were told about the building. Ginny and her daughter who cleaned the dorms in the morning told me how they would bring their boom box to listen to music to soothe their nerves while they had to clean the Parlor room on the downstairs floor, which is a room which was kept like a museum with Victorian era furnishings and décor. It was closed off most of the time, except when the college has a special celebration. Thinking of what Ginny told me, I also brought my portable cassette recorder and a couple of cassettes. I set myself up on a fairly comfortable chair and table and continued typing. There were knocking noises, but I was sure they were from the radiator. I also heard a car door slam and then the footsteps of someone walking back into the dorm after being out late. I was stuck on what to write next on that last page. It was getting close to 2:00am when not a soul was up and about. My cassette stopped playing and when I went to flip it over, I heard a laugh which seemed emanate from the center of the room, and it echoed. There was nobody there but myself.
Yes; at that hour it could have very well been my over-active imagination, but I didn’t hang
around to find out. It really startled me, and I shrieked, grabbed all of my stuff, uncaring of how heavy it was, and ran up four flights of stairs to my dorm. I locked the door and went to sleep. I did finish the paper early that morning, but learned my lesson well. To this day, I will start on any long-term project as early as possible and work on it day by day. My time management skills greatly improved. I don’t know if it were a ghost that I heard, but I wouldn’t blame a ghost or anyone else for that matter for laughing at me. I must have looked pretty stupid clacking away on that typewriter so late into the night.

1. What is the topic of this selection?
a. typewriting
b. procrastination is not a wise choice
c. ghost hunting
d. how to write a paper

2. Which of the following is a minor supporting detail in paragraph 2?
a. “The funny thing was that it took a real scare to get me to change my ways.”
b. “The year was 1985, and I lived on campus.”
c. “The dormitory was an old Civil War era brick building in the historic section of Bethlehem, PA.”

3. What can you infer from paragraph 3?
a. The author was nervous about typing in the basement.
b. The author enjoyed the basement of the dorm at night.
c. The author is typing in the morning.
d. The author’s sister is named Ginny.

4. Which of the following sentences begins with a transition?
a. “‘So many things are happening at once, in a really condensed period of time, once or twice
I’ll have to stay up all night,’ explains Scott Kaplan, a senior political science major at the
University of Pennsylvania.” (paragraph 2)
b. “Ideally, Fry says, students should be reviewing their notes on a weekly basis, but if that hasn’t been the case and the semester is winding down, they should be choosy about what to study.” (paragraph 7)
c. “But being at a military academy means Babcock is at mandatory formation at 6:55 am, and there is no wiggle room when it comes to sleeping or skipping classes.” (paragraph 3)
d. “To recall facts, Fry notes there are several memorization techniques.” (paragraph 8)

Answer 1

1. b. procrastination is not a wise choice
2. c. “The dormitory was an old Civil War era brick building in the historic section of Bethlehem, PA.”
3. a. The author was nervous about typing in the basement.
4. c. “But being at a military academy means Babcock is at mandatory formation at 6:55 am, and there is no wiggle room when it comes to sleeping or skipping classes.” (paragraph 3)