TSIA2 practice test

Distribute first: 3(x − 2) becomes 3x − 6, so the equation is 3x − 6 + 4 = 10. Combine the constants to get 3x − 2 = 10, then add 2 to both sides: 3x = 12, so x = 4. Check it in the original: 3(4 − 2) + 4 = 6 + 4 = 10, which matches. The 16/3 distractor is what you get if you add the 2 instead of subtracting it.

A 25% discount leaves 75% of the price, so the sale price is 40 × 0.75 = $30. Tax is then charged on the discounted price, not the original: 30 × 1.08 = $32.40. The order matters — applying the tax before the discount, or taxing the full $40, gives the other options. $30.00 is the trap answer for anyone who forgets the tax step entirely.

Slope is rise over run: (y₂ − y₁) ÷ (x₂ − x₁). Substituting gives (11 − 3) ÷ (6 − 2) = 8 ÷ 4 = 2. The 1/2 distractor is the most common error on this item — it comes from dividing the run by the rise, which inverts the ratio. Choosing 4 or 8 means a difference was computed but never divided.

Adding the two equations eliminates y outright, because +y and −y cancel: 2x = 12, so x = 6. Substituting back into the first equation gives 6 + y = 10, so y = 4. Verify in the second equation as well: 6 − 4 = 2, which holds. Note that x = 4, y = 6 satisfies the first equation but not the second — checking both is what separates the options.

You need two numbers that multiply to +6 and add to −5. Since the product is positive and the sum is negative, both numbers must be negative: −2 and −3 fit, giving (x − 2)(x − 3). Expand to confirm: x² − 3x − 2x + 6 = x² − 5x + 6. The (x + 2)(x + 3) option has the right product but the wrong sign on the middle term, which is the error this item is designed to catch.

When you multiply powers with the same base you add the exponents: 2³ · 2⁵ = 2⁸. When you divide by a power with the same base you subtract its exponent: 2⁸ ÷ 2 = 2⁴. The 2¹² distractor comes from adding all three exponents (3 + 5 + 4) instead of subtracting the one in the denominator. 4⁴ is the trap for anyone who converts the base along the way.

The passage moves in three steps — a cause (heat-absorbing surfaces), a mechanism that relieves it (vegetation), and a policy response aimed at the hardest-hit blocks — so the main idea has to span all three. Option B is the only one that does. Option A keeps a single supporting detail and drops the policy half entirely, while options C and D both assert things the passage never claims, including a cost comparison and a recommendation to relocate residents.

The sentence sets up trees as a response that counteracts heat, so the blank has to mean reducing the effect rather than studying or amplifying it. "Mitigate" means to make less severe, which is "lessen." "Worsen" is the trap for readers who confuse it with "militate," and "measure" and "locate" pull from the engineering context rather than from the word itself.

A comma splice joins two independent clauses with nothing but a comma, and a semicolon is the fix that keeps the two ideas closely linked without adding a conjunction. Option D still splices, because a conjunctive adverb like "however" needs a semicolon before it, not just a comma. Option A introduces a stray comma after "and," and option C removes the punctuation altogether, producing a run-on that is worse than the original.

The paragraph moves from an observation to a technical label, so the reader is left waiting for the term to be defined and tied back to the observation. Option A does exactly that: it defines induced demand and explains why the widening produced the result. The other three each introduce a new subject — construction cost, entertainment habits, signal timing — and so answer questions the paragraph never raised.