ACCUPLACER Practice Test 15
10 free ACCUPLACER practice questions in the real exam format, covering the official content areas, with an explanation for every answer.
Question 1 of 10
ReadingPassage 1
For decades, the overdue fine has been as much a part of the public library as the card catalog once was. Yet a growing number of library systems have concluded that fines work against their mission. A charge of a quarter a day seems trivial, but it adds up, and once a patron's balance passes a set limit, borrowing privileges are typically blocked. Those most likely to be blocked are often children and low-income families, the very people for whom free access to books matters most. Meanwhile, the money collected is usually a tiny share of a library's budget, and the staff time spent processing payments and handling disputes reduces even that small gain. Libraries that have dropped fines have generally reported that most materials still come back, and some have seen former patrons return after years away. A library measures its success by how many people use it, not by how much it collects from those who are late.
Passage 2
As the director of a small rural library, I understand the appeal of ending overdue fines, and I have waived more of them than I could count. But I am not ready to eliminate them entirely. Our library owns only three copies of most new titles, and when one patron keeps a book for six weeks, the next people on the waiting list keep waiting. A modest fine is a reminder that a shared book belongs to the whole community. For a library like ours, fine revenue, though small, also pays for supplies for our summer reading program. There are better tools than fines alone, and we have adopted several: automatic renewals when no one is waiting, a one-week grace period, and text reminders before a due date. What I resist is the assumption that a policy that works in a large city system will work everywhere. Each library should decide based on the community it serves.
The main purpose of the last sentence of Passage 1 is to