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ACT Reading: Comparative Passages (Drill 2)

Drill 2 · Reading · Comparative Passages

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About This Drill

ACT Reading: Comparative Passages (Drill 2) is a Reading practice drill covering Comparative Passages. It contains 5 original questions created by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.

Comparative passage drills present two short passages on a related topic written from different perspectives. This drill emphasizes relationship questions, where you must identify a specific point of agreement or disagreement between the two authors, rather than summarizing each passage separately.

Passage

HUMANITIES; COMPARATIVE PASSAGES: The following passages are adapted from two essays about handwriting and digital writing published in The Writing Teacher's Quarterly (©2022). PASSAGE A Something is lost when students stop writing by hand. The research on this is more consistent than education journalists tend to acknowledge: students who take notes longhand retain concepts more durably than those who type, largely because the physical constraint of handwriting forces a kind of real-time synthesis. You cannot transcribe everything, so you must decide what matters. That act of selection is itself a cognitive exercise. Beyond note-taking, the physical act of forming letters, especially in cursive, activates regions of the brain associated with language processing and memory encoding in ways that keyboard input does not. These are not nostalgic arguments. They are neurological ones. Eliminating handwriting instruction from schools is an experiment with literacy that we have not thought through carefully enough. PASSAGE B The handwriting debate tends to generate more heat than light, mostly because its advocates frame it as a contest between depth and efficiency, when the real question is simpler: what skills do students actually need? Handwriting is one tool. Keyboards are another. Both require practice; neither is inherently superior for every task. The studies showing retention advantages for handwriting are real but limited; they apply most clearly to lecture note-taking and do not transfer neatly to other writing contexts. Students who compose essays at a keyboard are not cognitively impoverished; they are using a different tool for a different task. The goal of writing instruction should be flexibility: students who can choose the right instrument for the job and use it well. Treating handwriting as irreplaceable risks making the same mistake as those who once declared that calculators would ruin mathematical thinking.

Questions & Explanations

Question 1. The author of Passage A would most likely argue that the author of Passage B underestimates:

  • A) the neurological and cognitive functions that handwriting specifically supports. ✓
  • B) the difficulty of teaching students to write in cursive.
  • C) the number of schools that have already eliminated handwriting instruction.
  • D) the speed advantage that keyboards provide over handwriting in academic settings.

Explanation: A is correct. Passage A's core argument is that handwriting activates language and memory regions of the brain in ways keyboards do not, a neurological claim. Passage B treats handwriting as just one tool among equals, which the author of A would likely see as missing the biological distinctiveness of the act. B is not mentioned in either passage. C is not addressed in Passage A. D is actually closer to Passage B's implicit position, not A's.

Question 2. According to Passage B, the studies showing retention advantages for handwriting:

  • F) have been widely misreported and distorted by mainstream education journalists
  • G) are valid but apply mainly to note-taking and do not extend to all writing situations. ✓
  • H) prove that handwriting instruction should be preserved in all grade levels.
  • J) contradict earlier findings about cognitive development in young children.

Explanation: G is correct. Passage B states explicitly: "The studies showing retention advantages for handwriting are real but limited; they apply most clearly to lecture note-taking and do not transfer neatly to other writing contexts." F is what Passage A says about journalists, not Passage B's claim about the studies. H is the opposite of B's position; B argues against treating handwriting as irreplaceable. J is not mentioned anywhere in either passage.

Question 3. In Passage B, the reference to calculators and mathematical thinking primarily serves to:

  • A) suggest that handwriting advocates are making a historically familiar overreaction to new technology. ✓
  • B) prove that technology always improves on earlier methods of learning.
  • C) introduce a counterargument that the author goes on to ultimately reject
  • D) acknowledge that some technologies do in fact diminish cognitive skills.

Explanation: A is correct. The calculator analogy closes Passage B as a parallel warning: just as people once feared calculators would ruin math skills, today's handwriting advocates may be making a historically familiar overreaction to new technology. The analogy is used to characterize the worry as a recurring type of technophobia, not to prove it wrong. B overstates, the passage does not claim technology always improves on prior methods. C is wrong because the author does not introduce then reject this analogy; it supports the author's view. D is the opposite of the point being made; the author uses the calculator analogy to suggest handwriting advocates are overreacting, not that their concern is justified.

Question 4. Which of the following is a point of agreement between the two authors?

  • F) Handwriting should be the primary writing method taught in schools.
  • G) Research has shown that handwriting produces some retention benefits over typing. ✓
  • H) Schools have been far too slow to adopt modern digital writing tools
  • J) Keyboards are superior to handwriting for all academic writing tasks.

Explanation: G is correct. Passage A states that students who take notes longhand "retain concepts more durably", an explicit retention claim. Passage B acknowledges "The studies showing retention advantages for handwriting are real." Both authors accept that the research on retention exists. F is only Passage A's position; B explicitly rejects handwriting as "irreplaceable." H is not supported by either passage. J is only Passage B's implication for some tasks, and even then B never claims keyboard superiority across the board.

Question 5. The two passages differ primarily in that Passage A treats handwriting as a uniquely valuable cognitive practice, while Passage B treats it as:

  • A) an outdated skill with no demonstrated educational benefits.
  • B) one useful tool among several, with a limited but real advantage in specific contexts. ✓
  • C) a cultural tradition worth preserving for reasons unrelated to cognition.
  • D) a writing method whose benefits apply equally to every kind of writing task, as Passage B presents it

Explanation: B is correct. Passage B explicitly calls handwriting "one tool" and keyboards "another," arguing neither is inherently superior, while acknowledging the retention advantage is real but narrow (note-taking). This precisely matches "one useful tool among several, with a limited but real advantage in specific contexts." A is too strong; Passage B does not say handwriting has no benefits. C is not mentioned in Passage B, which focuses on cognition, not culture. D is the opposite of Passage B's position, which says the advantage does not "transfer neatly to other writing contexts."