ACT READING PASSAGES

Passage Categories

Passages and questions will always come from one of the 4 categories

Humanities

Prose Fiction

Social Science

Natural Science

Nonfiction passages—usually memoirs or personal essays Topics: architecture, art, dance, ethics, film, language, literary criticism, music, philosophy, radio, television, and theater

Topics: anatomy, astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, ecology, geology, medicine, meteorology, microbiology, natural history, physiology, physics, technology, and zoology

Excerpts from novels or short stories Most passages are contemporary, emphasize diversity, and often center on family relationships

Topics: anthropology, archaeology, biography, business, economics, education, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology

What to expect

• Lots of details and sometimes very technical descriptions
• Linear organization with clear topic sentences and transitions to develop the main idea
• Author may or may not have an opinion on the topic
• Questions usually track the text pretty closely and require you to make few inferences

What you can expect

• Setting, atmosphere, and the relationships between characters are more important than facts
• Questions likely to involve identifying the implied meanings vs. what was directly stated

What you can expect

• Organization flows logically with clear topic sentences and well-chosen transitions to develop the main idea
• Author may have a point of view on the subject or may simply deliver informative facts in a neutral tone

What to expect

• Narrative may use a more organic development instead of a linear one
• Tone will be more personal and perhaps more emotional