TSI Writing Practice Test 2024 (Sample Questions Answers)

Last Updated on December 11, 2024

TSI Writing Practice Test 2025. You can download our Sample Questions Answers in printable PDF. It will help you prepare for your Texas Success Initiative Assessment Writing Exam online.

TSI Writing Practice Test 2025

Test Name	TSI Practice Test 2025
Subject	Writing
Test mode	multiple-choice format
Test mode	Online
Total Question	15
Question Type	Sample Multiple Choice Question
Time Limit	N/A
Printable PDF	Available

Questions 1 to 9 are based on the following passage.

In the following essay, the writer discusses work and its relationship to the whole individual.

1 It is one of those fables which out of an unknown antiquity convey an unlooked-for wisdom, that
the gods, in the beginning, divided Man into men, that he might be more helpful to himself; just as
the hand was divided into fingers, the better to answer its end.

The old fable covers a doctrine ever new and sublime; that there is One Man,—present to all
5 particular men only partially, or through one faculty; and that you must take the whole society to
find the whole man. Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all. Man is priest,
and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier. In the divided or social state these functions
are parceled out to individuals, each of whom aims to do his stint of the joint work, whilst each
other performs his. But, unfortunately, this original unit, this fountain of power, has been so distributed
10 to multitudes, has been so minutely subdivided and peddled out, that it is spilled into
drops, and cannot be gathered. The state of society is one in which the members have suffered
amputation from the trunk, and strut about like so many walking monsters,—a good finger, a neck,
a stomach, an elbow, but never a man.

Man is thus metamorphosed into a thing, into many things. The planter, who is Man sent out
15 into the field to gather food, is seldom cheered by any idea of the true dignity of his ministry. He
sees his bushel and his cart, and nothing beyond, and sinks into the farmer, instead of Man on the
farm. The tradesman scarcely ever gives an ideal worth to his work, but is ridden by the routine of
his craft, and the soul is subject to dollars. The priest becomes a form; the attorney a statute-book;
the mechanic a machine; the sailor a rope of the ship.

20 In this distribution of functions the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state he is Man
Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or
still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking.

Q1. The phrase “the better to answer its end” in line 3 can best be interpreted to mean

(A) signal the specific type of division
(B) show defeat
(C) better to serve its purpose
(D) destroy the strength of the whole

View Correct Answer

Answer: C

Q2. The “old fable” in line 4 refers to

(A) a legend about the naming of parts
(B) a myth about the beginning of the world
(C) an allegory about regeneration
(D) the belief that individuals possess only certain talents

View Correct Answer

Answer: D

Q3. As used in line 5, the word faculty most nearly means

(A) a department of learning
(B) aptitude
(C) power
(D) authority

View Correct Answer

Answer: B

Q4. The phrase “But, unfortunately” (line 9) does which of the following things?

(A) It signals a transition to a new idea.
(B) It shifts the focus from generalities to individual cases.
(C) It emphasizes the abstract in place of the concrete.
(D) It signals a continuation of a previous line of reasoning.

View Correct Answer

Answer: A

Q5. Which of the following statements best expresses the writer’s attitude toward society?

(A) Society is necessary to ensure that all labor is accomplished.
(B) That government is best which governs least.
(C) Society has destroyed humanity’s wholeness.
(D) Society alone can distribute tasks equably among its members.

View Correct Answer

Answer: C

Q6. The writer uses the word ministry (line 15) in relation to the planter to suggest

(A) the inherent holiness of farming
(B) the farmer would rather be a minister
(C) the farmer worships the soil and its abundance
(D) farming’s dependence on the whims of nature

View Correct Answer

Answer: A

Q7. The author’s thesis in the third paragraph is developed through

(A) repetition of key words
(B) comparison and contrast
(C) a series of examples
(D) alliteration

View Correct Answer

Answer: C

Q8. The tone of this essay is best described as

(A) despairing
(B) fiery
(C) soothing
(D) neutral

View Correct Answer

Answer: E

Q9. The language of this essay is best described as

(A) colloquial
(B) scholarly and elevated
(C) florid
(D) biased

View Correct Answer

Answer: B

Questions 10 to 15 are based on the following passage

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) was a nurse, hospital reformer, and humanitarian. When the Crimean War broke out in 1854, she was put in charge of all hospital and nursing efforts on the war front, in Turkey

1 Eventually the whole business of purveying to the hospitals was, in effect, carried out by Miss
Nightingale. She, alone, it seemed, whatever the contingency, knew where to lay her hands on what
was wanted; she alone possessed the art of circumventing the pernicious influences of official etiquette.
On one occasion 27,000 shirts arrived, sent out at her insistence by the Home Government,
5 and were only waiting to be unpacked. But the official “Purveyor” intervened; “He could only
unpack them” he said, “with an official order from the Government.” Miss Nightingale pleaded in
vain; the sick and the wounded lay half-naked, shivering for want of clothing; and three weeks
elapsed before the Government released the shipment. A little later, on a similar occasion, Miss
Nightingale ordered a Government consignment to be forcibly opened, while the “Purveyor” stood
10 by, wringing his hands in departmental agony

Q10. The use of the phrase “she alone” (line 2) gives the reader an idea of Miss Nightingale’s