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Details and conditions: reading practice set 3

Locate the relevant sentence and preserve its restrictions. Small words such as if, unless, and before can change the answer. This set contains 12 original Paragraph Comprehension exercises.

Test Ninjas Research · Updated September 29, 2026

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What you will learn

  • Find the exact sentence that answers a detail question.
  • Apply every condition in a rule before drawing a conclusion.

A method you can repeat

  1. Find the names, times, or terms mentioned in the question.
  2. Mark the condition words in the matching sentence.
  3. Test the answer against the complete rule, not just a familiar phrase.

Worked example: follow the evidence

Read: Equipment requests received before 2 p.m. are prepared the same day if the requested item is in stock. Requests received after 2 p.m. are processed the next business day. Reserved equipment must be collected within two business days.

A request arrives at 1:30 p.m. What else must be true for same-day preparation?

Supported answer: The requested equipment must be in stock.

Why it fits: The first sentence requires both arrival before 2 p.m. and availability of the item. An early request meets only the first condition.

Tempting wrong answer: The requester must collect the equipment before 2 p.m.

Why it fails: The 2 p.m. deadline applies to receiving requests, not collecting equipment. The passage gives a different collection rule: within two business days.

Before each answer: Ask: “Have I kept the condition, time limit, and subject of the original rule?”

Details and conditions questions and explanations

Work through one question at a time. Explain your approach, check the worked answer, then move on. Use scratch paper for calculations.

0 of 12 checked · 0 correct.

Progress is saved in this browser. These original study questions do not produce an official AFQT score.

Question 1: Stated conditions

Question 1 · Stated conditions · medium

Our visiting author will sign requested copies before they enter the packing queue. To receive a signature only, select the signature box when ordering. For a personal inscription, also enter the recipient’s name in the inscription field before submitting the order. Once a copy has been packed, staff cannot open the parcel to add or alter an inscription. A delivery address does not count as an inscription request, since it may name someone other than the intended reader. Unsigned copies remain available for customers who do not select either option.

Which order meets the requirements for a personally inscribed copy?

Choose an answer for question 1
Worked answer and explanation

Answer: B. An order with the signature box selected and the recipient’s name entered in the inscription field before submission.

The customer must select the signature option and enter the recipient’s name in the inscription field before submitting the order. Packing is a later point after which staff cannot make changes; it does not replace the earlier submission requirement. The delivery address does not count as an inscription request; the recipient’s name must be entered in the designated field. Staff cannot open a packed parcel to add or alter an inscription. The signature-only option does not request a personal inscription or supply its recipient.

Question 2: Stated conditions

Question 2 · Stated conditions · medium

The Harbor Postcard Archive welcomes both mailed postcards and unused examples. Please leave all cards unmarked. If you know a date, location or person shown, write that information in pencil on a separate sheet and identify the card it describes. Unknown dates need not be guessed, and a lack of handwriting or a stamp does not make a card unsuitable. Keep cards from the same family together when you bring them. Staff will give each group an identifying number after it arrives.

Which donation follows all of these instructions?

Choose an answer for question 2
Worked answer and explanation

Answer: C. A group of unused family postcards kept together, with known locations described in pencil on a separate sheet.

The donation combines three requirements: unused cards are welcome, family groups stay together, and known information goes in pencil on a separate sheet. The archive asks donors to leave cards unmarked and put information on a separate sheet. Unknown dates need not be guessed; invented dates would not be known information. The archive accepts unused cards and asks that cards from the same family be kept together.

Question 3: Stated conditions

Question 3 · Stated conditions · medium

During repairs, the footbridge opens for crossing at the start of each hour. Anyone arriving between openings must wait at the marked gate until the attendant opens it. Bicycles are permitted, but riders must dismount and walk them across. The parallel road remains open throughout the day and does not follow the bridge’s hourly schedule. A rider who cannot wait for the next bridge opening may use that road instead. The temporary bridge arrangement applies on all posted repair days, including Saturdays.

A cyclist reaches the closed bridge twenty minutes after the hour on a repair Saturday. Which action follows the advisory?

Choose an answer for question 3
Worked answer and explanation

Answer: C. Use the parallel road immediately, or wait for the next bridge opening and walk the bicycle across.

The cyclist must combine the timing rule with the dismounting requirement, while recognizing that the parallel road is an immediately available alternative. The arrangement also applies on Saturdays, and riding across the bridge is not permitted. Waiting satisfies the timing rule, but bicycles must be walked across. The parallel road remains open throughout the day and does not use the bridge schedule.

Question 4: Stated conditions

Question 4 · Stated conditions · medium

For this class’s two-part drawing exercise, use a smooth sheet for the pen study and a textured sheet for the dry-media study. Keep each study on its own sheet so the instructor can place them side by side afterward. You may choose the same subject for both studies, but do not divide one sheet between the two required surfaces. Extra sheets of either type are available at the front table. Write your name on the back of each finished study before placing the pair in your folder.

Which preparation meets the assignment’s requirements?

Choose an answer for question 4
Worked answer and explanation

Answer: C. Choose a smooth sheet for the pen study and a separate textured sheet for the dry-media study.

The assignment specifies both the surface–medium pairing and a separate sheet for each study. The pen study requires a smooth surface, and the two studies must be on separate sheets. A shared subject is allowed, but the dry-media study still requires a textured sheet. This reverses the specified surface for each study.

Question 5: Stated conditions

Question 5 · Stated conditions · medium

The author’s afternoon discussion uses open seating; no signing card is needed to attend it. Afterward, visitors seeking signatures must join the line with a numbered card collected from the welcome desk. One card permits its holder to present up to two books. Cards establish signing order, not reserved seats for the discussion. The author may add personal inscriptions when time permits, but a card does not guarantee one. Visitors wishing only to hear the discussion may leave afterward without entering the signing line.

A visitor wants to hear the discussion and then have two books signed. Which plan follows the guide?

Choose an answer for question 5
Worked answer and explanation

Answer: C. Use open seating for the discussion and bring one numbered card to the later signing line.

The visitor must distinguish open discussion seating from the card-controlled signing queue and recognize that one card covers two books without promising inscriptions. Cards do not reserve discussion seats and must be brought to the signing line. Discussion attendance needs no card, but joining the signing line does. The card permits up to two books but does not guarantee personal inscriptions.

Question 6: Stated conditions

Question 6 · Stated conditions · easy

Members may borrow the reading group’s annotated copy for one week. Add any new comments on removable note slips and place them inside the clear sleeves provided. Do not write in the book’s printed margins, even beside an existing annotation. Return the copy before the next title is distributed so another member can consult it. Your slips may remain in the sleeves if you would like later readers to see them; otherwise, remove them before returning the book.

Where should a borrower put new comments?

Choose an answer for question 6
Worked answer and explanation

Answer: A. On removable note slips placed inside the provided clear sleeves.

The notice explicitly names removable slips in clear sleeves as the place for new comments, keeping the book itself unmarked. Writing in the printed margins is expressly prohibited, even beside an existing annotation. The notice directs new comments to removable slips, not the book’s cover. The notice provides sleeves for removable slips and does not authorize replacing them with permanent pages.

Question 7: Stated conditions

Question 7 · Stated conditions · hard

For the carved-object exhibition, each entry must arrive with its dimensions attached and a maker code underneath. Names may appear on the entry form but not on the object. Finished objects are due on Thursday. An entrant whose object is still being finished may instead submit photographs by Monday for the preview selection; this exception changes neither the Thursday delivery deadline nor the labeling rules. Preview photographs must show all sides and include the maker code in each view. Dimensions can accompany the photographs on a separate sheet, but the delivered object must still carry them.

Which plan meets every stated requirement for an unfinished entry seeking preview selection?

Choose an answer for question 7
Worked answer and explanation

Answer: B. Send coded views of all sides and a separate dimension sheet by Monday, then deliver the object Thursday with dimensions attached and its maker code underneath.

The plan must satisfy both stages: complete coded photographic views with dimensions by Monday, and the finished object with its own dimensions and underside code by Thursday. The separate dimension sheet is allowed with photographs but does not remove the requirement to attach dimensions to the delivered object. Each preview photograph must include the maker code; a code only on the form is insufficient. The photographs for preview selection are due Monday; the exception does not move that deadline to Thursday.

Question 8: Stated conditions

Question 8 · Stated conditions · easy

The railway yard is open for independent visits throughout the afternoon. Entry to the preserved engine is available only during guided visits, and each visitor entering it must hold a ticket for that visit’s time. Tickets are not needed for walking around the yard. Children entering the cab must stay with the guided group; an adult’s presence does not allow a separate cab visit. Visitors whose engine time has not yet begun may look around the yard while they wait.

Which visitor needs a timed ticket?

Choose an answer for question 8
Worked answer and explanation

Answer: D. A visitor who plans to enter the preserved engine during a guided visit.

The ticket requirement is tied to entering the engine at the specified guided-visit time. The announcement explicitly says yard visits do not require tickets. Waiting or walking in the yard does not itself require an engine ticket. The stated ticket requirement applies to entering the engine, not simply looking at it from the yard.

Question 9: Stated conditions

Question 9 · Stated conditions · medium

At this terminal, bags to be collected on the same day stay on the shelves beside the counter. Bags requested for overnight storage go into the storeroom, and their owners receive numbered receipts to present on collection. A same-day bag still unclaimed after the last sailing is moved to the storeroom as well. Its owner must ask at the counter for the transferred bag rather than search the cleared shelves. Moving a bag does not mean that it has been placed aboard a vessel.

A traveler returns the next morning for an unclaimed same-day bag. What should the traveler do?

Choose an answer for question 9
Worked answer and explanation

Answer: C. Ask at the counter for the bag that was transferred to the storeroom.

The after-last-sailing rule applies to the unclaimed bag, and the instructions expressly tell its returning owner to ask at the counter. Unclaimed same-day bags are moved from those shelves after the last sailing. The passage explicitly distinguishes storage transfer from loading a bag aboard a vessel. Receipts are issued for requested overnight storage; the stated procedure for a transferred same-day bag is to ask at the counter.

Question 10: Stated conditions

Question 10 · Stated conditions · medium

For this workshop booklet, begin by putting each folded group of pages in the order shown by its number. Check that the folded edges face the same direction and line up before fastening the groups together with the prepared thread. Do not attach the cover at this stage. Once all page groups are secured, check the numbering again, then place the cover around them and attach it as demonstrated. The cover has no group number because it is added after the numbered contents are assembled.

When should the cover be added?

Choose an answer for question 10
Worked answer and explanation

Answer: B. After all page groups are secured and their numbering has been checked again.

The procedure places the cover after securing every group and repeating the numbering check. The numbered page groups are ordered and secured before the cover is added. The instructions require all groups to be secured before the cover stage. The edge-alignment check belongs to the earlier stage before fastening the groups.

Question 11: Stated conditions

Question 11 · Stated conditions · medium

Our studio collects clean, unfired scraps of its own clay in the blue reclaim tub. Pieces that have been fired belong on the separate ceramics shelf, even if they have no glaze. Keep anything coated with glaze out of the reclaim tub as well. Leave large dry scraps on the labeled tray for staff, who prepare them before the soaking stage. Students should not break those pieces down themselves. When unsure whether a fragment has been fired, place it on the question tray rather than guessing.

Which action follows the studio notice?

Choose an answer for question 11
Worked answer and explanation

Answer: B. Place a clean, unfired scrap of the studio’s clay in the blue tub, but leave a large dry piece for staff on the labeled tray.

The notice distinguishes material that can enter the reclaim tub from fired or glaze-coated material and reserves preparation of large dry scraps for staff. Fired pieces go on the ceramics shelf even when they are unglazed. Glaze-coated material must stay out of the reclaim tub. Students are told not to break down large dry scraps and to use the question tray when firing status is uncertain.

Question 12: Stated conditions

Question 12 · Stated conditions · medium

At the end of the rental, return the boat to the landing and place each undamaged paddle in the rack marked RETURNS. Staff count paddles separately from boats, so leaving them inside a returned boat does not complete the return. Hand a paddle with a crack or loose part directly to a staff member instead of placing it in the rack. Your receipt lists the number of paddles issued; use it to check that the same number has been brought back.

A renter has returned the boat with one intact paddle and one cracked paddle. What completes the equipment return?

Choose an answer for question 12
Worked answer and explanation

Answer: A. Place the intact paddle in the marked rack and hand the cracked one directly to staff.

The notice combines separate paddle accounting with different return locations for intact and damaged equipment. Paddles are counted separately, and damaged ones must be handed to staff. The cracked paddle must go directly to a staff member rather than into the rack. The receipt’s issued paddle count must still be accounted for; damage does not cancel the return requirement.

After this set: choose one missed answer and name the exact mistake: an added assumption, a lost condition, a detail mistaken for the main idea, or another mismatch with the text. Explain the correction in your own words before trying the next set.