Free GED Reading Practice Test
Curated Study Note | Subject: RLA Source: www.gedpracticequestions.com
GED Language Arts Practice Tests Practice Test 1 Practice Test 2 Practice Test 3 Practice Test 4 Practice Test 5 Practice Test 6 This is the first of our free GED reading practice tests. It has been updated to reflect the content on the 2026 GED Reasoning Through Language Arts test. Read each passage and then answer the questions that follow. Correct answers are provided along with detailed explanations. Excerpt from A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes’ ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to me to be such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it. “You appear to be astonished,” he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.” “You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.” “But the Solar System!” I protested. “What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently: “you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.” 0 of 6 Questions completed You have already completed the quiz before. Hence you can not start it again. You must sign in or sign up to start the quiz. You must first complete the following: Quiz complete. Results are being recorded. 0 of 6 Questions answered correctly You have reached 0 of 0 point(s), ( 0 ) Earned Point(s): 0 of 0 , ( 0 ) 0 Essay(s) Pending (Possible Point(s): 0 ) Which of the following words best describes the narrator’s feelings about the “ignorance” of Sherlock Holmes? Why does Holmes want to forget the Copernican Theory? What is Holmes referring to when he mentions “lumber of every sort?” How did the narrator find out that Holmes was unaware of the Copernican Theory? Read this sentence from paragraph 6. What can the reader infer from this sentence? What is the overall purpose of this passage? Next: GED Language Arts Practice Test 2