Opening and closing sentences carry special weight in an essay, which is why Introductions and conclusions get their own question type in ACT English.
An introduction should set up the topic the paragraph or essay will actually discuss, and a conclusion should tie the ideas together without simply repeating an earlier sentence. A frequent mistake is picking a closing line that sounds dramatic but introduces a brand-new idea.
Some items ask which choice best begins or ends a paragraph; others, at the end of a passage, ask whether the essay met a stated goal. Wrong choices are usually off-topic, repetitive or too narrow.
Sample questions
Pick an answer to see whether it is right — nothing is saved, and nothing needs an account.
One Cup, Many Vendors
Surveying the bins after closing, hundreds of disposable cups were found by night-market organizers. For three weekends, they counted the bags of cup waste and noted which stalls sold the most drinks. The following season, the organizers introduced a shared supply of durable cups. They selected two cup sizes that fit the vendors’ existing lids and drink carriers. They expected washing the cups to be more efficient as throwing them away after every drink.
The cup depot which occupies a converted food truck stores clean cups and collects used ones. Shelves inside the truck separate sanitized cups from returns awaiting inspection. Participating vendors were totally into this thing after learning that the depot would handle all washing. Customers pay a small deposit when ordering a drink and receive it back when returning the cup. A numbered token links each deposit to one borrowed cup. At the return window, a volunteer scans the token, checks the cup for cracks, and releases the deposit. Another volunteer rinses the cup before placing it in a high-temperature washer. Clean cups dry on covered racks and return to vendors in labeled crates. Within two weekends, most customers had embraced the routine.
At first, nearly all borrowed cups came back before the market closed. By the fifth week, however, the return rate had declined. Depot records showed that many unreturned tokens had been issued near two exits farthest from the return window. Consequently, organizers posted reminder signs beside trash and recycling bins. Each sign displayed the deposit amount and an arrow toward the depot, using the same token symbol printed on vendor menus. The new signs worked. Each of the three washing shifts are staffed by two volunteers, allowing returned cups to reenter circulation quickly. A full wash cycle takes eight minutes, and the crew records the number of cups rejected for damage after each cycle.
The system now serves eighteen vendors without requiring each stall to buy a separate set of cups. The cup depot is housed inside a converted food truck.1
Question 1Mid
Which choice most effectively concludes the passage without merely repeating an earlier fact?
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Answer: D — By coordinating vendors, customers, and volunteers, the shared system replaces thousands of single-use cups with one market-wide routine.
The final choice synthesizes the system’s participants and broader effect instead of restating one earlier detail. NO CHANGE merely repeats that the depot is housed in a converted food truck, a fact already given in paragraph 2, and the remaining choices restate the return process or washing-shift staffing already described.
Question 2Mid
Suppose the writer’s goal were to explain how the market’s reusable-cup system operates and how organizers improved it. Would this passage accomplish that goal?
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Answer: A — Yes, because it describes deposits, returns, centralized washing, and the later use of reminder signs.
The passage explains deposits, returns, centralized washing, and the reminder signs that addressed declining returns, so it fulfills both parts of the stated goal. The other Yes choice is inaccurate: noting where unreturned tokens clustered does not establish why customers stopped returning cups. The No choices fail because the passage is not mainly about washing logistics and does describe the organizers’ later response.
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