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AP English Language — Practice Questions flashcards

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Multiple-choice practice questions, one best answer each, on the rhetorical situation, claims and evidence, synthesis, line of reasoning, fallacies, style and revising drafts.

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Practice deck · part of AP English Language and Composition · written against: College Board AP English Language and Composition Course and Exam Description (rhetorical-analysis and argument skills). Updated 2026-10-10.

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  1. A hospital director begins an email to staff: 'Yesterday afternoon, our backup generator failed during a routine test. No patients were harmed, but I want every one of you to know what happened and what we are doing about it.' What is the exigence for the email?

    A) The generator failure during the previous day's test
    B) The director's wish to be seen as a capable leader
    C) The staff's general concern about hospital funding
    D) The regular schedule for testing hospital equipment
    A) The generator failure during the previous day's test

    The exigence is the specific event that prompts the text, and the email opens by naming it. The director's wish to look capable may shape the tone, but it is not what made the email necessary now.
    Rhetorical Situation › Elements
  2. An article in a parenting magazine opens: 'You already know the feeling: the bedtime battle that turns a calm evening into a negotiation. What if the problem is not your child's stubbornness but the glow of the tablet in her hand?' The first sentence is most likely intended to:

    A) concede that tablets offer real benefits to young children
    B) establish common ground by naming an experience readers share
    C) criticize parents who allow screens in a child's bedroom
    D) present evidence that bedtime conflicts are becoming more common
    B) establish common ground by naming an experience readers share

    Addressing readers as 'you' and naming a familiar frustration connects with the audience before the writer introduces her claim. The tone is sympathetic, not critical, so it does not scold parents.
    Rhetorical Situation › Elements
  3. Which of the following is a claim of policy?

    A) The state should require every high school to offer personal finance.
    B) Many adults say they feel unprepared to manage a household budget.
    C) Teenagers who track their spending tend to save more money.
    D) Personal finance is a more useful subject than advanced trigonometry.
    A) The state should require every high school to offer personal finance.

    A claim of policy proposes a course of action, signaled here by 'should require.' Calling one subject more useful than another is a claim of value, and the remaining sentences are claims of fact.
    Claims and Evidence › Claims and Thesis
  4. 'The new evening library hours were meant to help working parents. ______, few parents have used them, since most evening programs are aimed at retirees.' Which word best fills the blank?

    A) Similarly
    B) For example
    C) Therefore
    D) However
    D) However

    The second sentence contrasts the plan's intent with its result, so a contrast transition fits. 'Therefore' would wrongly present low use as the result of the plan's aim.
    Reasoning and Organization › Line of Reasoning
  5. 'We will rebuild the library. We will reopen the clinic. We will replant every tree the storm took.' The repetition of 'We will' primarily serves to:

    A) introduce statistics about the damage the storm caused
    B) contrast the town's past with its present condition
    C) convey the community's shared resolve and build momentum
    D) suggest doubt about whether the town can truly recover
    C) convey the community's shared resolve and build momentum

    Anaphora — repeating the opening words — gives each promise the same confident rhythm, and 'We' binds speaker and audience together. The firm 'will' signals certainty, not doubt.
    Style › Rhetorical Devices
  6. Which thesis would most likely earn credit in a rhetorical analysis of a mayor's speech urging residents to save water during a drought?

    A) Water conservation is extremely important, and every resident should take shorter showers in a drought.
    B) The mayor uses ethos, pathos and logos throughout her speech to convince residents to conserve water.
    C) In her speech, the mayor talks to residents about the drought and asks each of them to use less water.
    D) By recalling past droughts and praising residents' sacrifices, the mayor makes saving water a civic duty.
    D) By recalling past droughts and praising residents' sacrifices, the mayor makes saving water a civic duty.

    A credited thesis makes a defensible claim linking specific choices to the speaker's purpose. Listing ethos, pathos and logos names appeals without saying how they work, and arguing for conservation answers a different prompt.
    Free-Response Tasks

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About these cards

Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.

Checked against:

  • Topic coverage follows the big ideas and skill categories of the College Board AP English Language and Composition Course and Exam Description (effective Fall 2024), used as a skills outline only (no text copied).
  • Rhetorical and logical terms checked against Aristotle's Rhetoric (W. Rhys Roberts translation, public domain) and the Purdue Online Writing Lab (reference only; no text copied).
  • Rhetorical terms and word senses also checked against Silva Rhetoricae (Gideon O. Burton, Brigham Young University; CC BY 3.0) and Merriam-Webster, and the thesis and commentary items against the College Board's AP English Language free-response scoring rubrics (reference only; no text copied).

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