PSAT Writing and Language Practice Test 1: Born in the USSR

Questions 1-11 refer to the following information.

Born in the USSR

There is no question that the United States is a country of 1 immigrants, the original countries of those immigrants varies so much that it can be tough to know who has contributed what. Moreover, different groups have come at different 2 time's for they're different reason's. In the late 1980s and early 3 1990s, for instance, those, from the former Soviet Union arrived in large numbers on American shores.

This may seem a bit late, given that most of the USSR and USSR-affiliated empires fell around 1990 (starting with East Germany and 4 it's Berlin Wall in 1989) in fact the largest migrations of Soviets and ex-Soviets happened just after the Union had fallen. Indeed, whatever the shortcomings of the socialist republic, the real poverty, 5 depression and deprivation, began in earnest when the government was no longer tasked with providing basic necessities. As a result, while there had been a somewhat steady flow of immigration from the USSR since the 6 1970s, the largest numbers came to the United States in the early 1990s.

Whether we realize it or not, the contributions of these Russian expatriates are with us everywhere. The 7 co-founder, of Google, Sergey Brin, came to the United States from Moscow at the age of 6 in 1979. Singer-songwriter Regina Spektor moved at the age of 9 in 1989, the same year that historian Artemy Kalinovsky arrived with his 8 parents. These and other children of the Soviet Union continue to shape the American experience in all kinds of positive and enlightening ways.

In the same year and at the same age as Brin, a 9 writer, named David Bezmozgis, moved, with his family, from Riga, Latvia, then under Soviet control. While he has undoubtedly been one of the great success stories of Soviet immigration to North America (Canada in this case), he has found that success in detailing the difficult and often conflicting motivations that many people had for leaving the Soviet Union. While we have become comfortable believing that the Soviets came to North America looking for freedom, whatever that term may 10 mean. Bezmozgis shows that this was not always the case and that "freedom" could remain an elusive dream even for those who made the trip successfully. His first 11 novel The Free World, was published in 2011 to great critical acclaim.

As we think about the fact that ours is a nation of immigrants, we would be severely limited if we believed that people came from all over the world to assimilate to the American way of life. In fact, the peoples of the world may have become American, but they have done so while shaping and reshaping the meaning of that term in ever richer ways.