Question

read the excerpt from mother tongue.
those tests were constructed around items like fill - in - the - blank sentence completion, such as even though tom was ____, mary thought he was ____. and the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combinations of thoughts, for example, even though tom was foolish, mary thought he was ridiculous. well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what tom could have been and what mary might have thought of him. so i never did well on tests like that.
which information from the excerpt best supports the inference that achievement tests ignore imagination as an element of language ability?

• tan’s mother would not be able to answer a question like the one described in the excerpt.
• tan’s mother could think of several ways to answer a question like the one described in the excerpt
• tan’s mother did not allow her to take tests with questions like the one described in the excerpt
• tan’s mother was disappointed that tan did poorly on tests with questions like the one described in the excerpt

Explanation:

To support the inference that achievement tests ignore imagination in language ability, we analyze the options:

• The first option focuses on the mother's ability to answer, not imagination.
• The second option says the mother could think of several ways to answer the test question. This shows the test (with its "most bland combinations" as correct answers) limits imagination, as the mother sees more possibilities, implying the test ignores imaginative responses.
• The third option is about the mother not allowing tests, irrelevant to imagination in tests.
• The fourth option is about the mother's disappointment, not about the test ignoring imagination.

Answer:

B. Tan’s mother could think of several ways to answer a question like the one described in the excerpt