Writing and Language Test
8 Minutes, 11 Questions
DIRECTIONS: The passage below is accompanied by a number of questions. For some questions, you will consider how the passage might be revised to improve the expression of ideas. For other questions, you will consider how the passage might be edited to correct errors in sentence structure, usage, or punctuation. A passage or a question may be accompanied by one or more graphics (such as a table or graph) that you will consider as you make revising and editing decisions.
Some questions will direct you to an underlined portion of a passage. Other questions will direct you to a location in a passage or ask you to think about the passage as a whole. After reading each passage, choose the answer to each question that most effectively improves the quality of writing in the passage or that makes the passage conform to the conventions of standard written English. Many questions include a “NO CHANGE”option.
Choose that option if you think the best choice is to leave the relevant portion of the passage as it is.
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Transforming the American West Through Food and Hospitality
Just as travelers taking road trips today may need to take a break for food at a rest area along the highway, settlers traversing the American West by train in the mid-1800s often found (1) themselves in need of refreshment. However, food available on rail lines was generally of terrible quality. (2) Despite having worked for railroad companies, Fred Harvey, an English-born (3) entrepreneur. He decided to open his own restaurant business to serve rail customers. Beginning in the 1870s, he opened dozens of restaurants in rail stations and dining cars. These Harvey Houses, which constituted the first restaurant chain in the United States, (4) was unique for its high standards of service and quality. The menu was modeled after those of fine restaurants, so the food was leagues beyond the (5) sinister fare travelers were accustomed to receiving in transit.
His restaurants were immediately successful, but Harvey was not content to follow conventional business practices. (6) Although women did not traditionally work in restaurants in the nineteenth century, Harvey decided to try employing women as waitstaff. In 1883, he placed an advertisement seeking educated, well-mannered, articulate young women between the ages of 18 and 30. (7) Response to the advertisement was overwhelming, even tremendous, and Harvey soon replaced the male servers at his restaurants with women. Those who were hired as “Harvey Girls” joined an elite group of workers, who were expected to complete a 30-day training program and follow a strict code of rules for conduct and curfews. In the workplace, the women donned identical black-and-white uniforms and carried out their duties with precision. Not only were such regulations meant to ensure the efficiency of the business and the safety of the workers, (8) but also helped to raise people’s generally low opinion of the restaurant industry. In return for the servers’ work, the position paid quite well for the time: $17.50 a month, plus tips, meals, room and board, laundry service, and travel expenses. (9)
For as long as Harvey Houses served rail travelers through the mid-twentieth century, working there was a steady and lucrative position for women. Living independently and demonstrating an intense work (10) ethic; the Harvey Girls became known as a transformative force in the American (11) West. Advancing the roles of women in the restaurant industry and the American workforce as a whole, the Harvey Girls raised the standards for restaurants and blazed a trail in the fast-changing landscape of the western territories.