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Introductions and conclusions — ACT practice questions

Introductions and conclusions on the ACT English test cover how a passage begins and ends and whether it fulfills a stated purpose. Students must pick an opening or closing that matches the passage's focus and tone, choose an ending that advances the discussion rather than restating a fact already given, and judge whether the essay would meet a hypothetical goal such as explaining how a system works and how it was improved. Questions usually offer several candidate sentences or a yes-or-no decision paired with a short reason. Traps include conclusions that merely echo earlier details, introductions that wander off topic, and yes answers that claim more than the passage does.

  • Section: English 50 questions on the paper
  • 32 practice questions in the app

Sample questions

One Cup, Many Vendors

Surveying the bins after closing, hundreds of disposable cups were found by night-market organizers.1 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 away2 after every drink.

The cup depot which occupies a converted food truck stores3 clean cups and collects used ones. Shelves inside the truck separate sanitized cups from returns awaiting inspection. Participating vendors were totally into this thing4 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 embraced5 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,6 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.7 Each of the three washing shifts are8 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.9

Question 1

Which choice most effectively concludes the passage without merely repeating an earlier fact?

  1. ANo Change
  2. BCustomers return the borrowed cups to the depot window after they finish their drinks at the market stalls.
  3. CTwo volunteers work during each of the three washing shifts that operate while the night market is open.
  4. DBy coordinating vendors, customers, and volunteers, the shared system replaces thousands of single-use cups with one market-wide routine.
Show answer

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 2

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?

  1. AYes, because it describes deposits, returns, centralized washing, and the later use of reminder signs.
  2. BYes, because it establishes why customers stopped returning cups after the fifth week.
  3. CNo, because it focuses mainly on washing logistics rather than on how the reusable-cup system operates.
  4. DNo, because it never describes how organizers responded once cup returns began to fall.
Show answer

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.

Practice 32 Introductions and conclusions questions in the app

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