PSAT Writing and Language Practice Test 6: Veterans in School

Questions 23-33 refer to the following information.

Veterans in School

23 It may seem commonplace today for many people to go to college, this is a relatively recent development. For much of American history, a university education was reserved only for the very wealthy, but all of that changed with the G.I. Bill.

The Servicemen's Readjustment Act, the G.I. Bill's official name, was signed into law in 1944. More than twenty years earlier, 24 after the conclusion of World War I, the veterans of the bloodiest war on record were more or less forgotten by the U.S. government. Many of them were given little more than a $60 allowance and a train ticket home. While 25 they're was some talk of military bonuses, those bonuses were not easily obtained. As a result, 26 a group of 1932 veterans marched into Washington to achieve its bonus demands. The march ended bitterly: no bonuses were paid, and many protesters were chased off by armed military.

As World War II neared its end, though, the U.S. government sought to avoid another such standoff. Indeed, for many, the goal was less idealistic: the 27 tremendous unemployment, among World War I veterans, was seen as accelerating the economic collapse of the Great Depression. 28 Hoping to avoid either or both of these catastrophes, Congress passed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, which included provisions for education, home loans, and unemployment insurance.

One of the perhaps unintended consequences 29 in university education was a revolution in the United States. In 1947, veterans on the G.I. Bill accounted for 49 percent of college admissions. By 1956, of the 16 million World War II veterans, nearly half had used the G.I. Bill for some kind of training. Therefore, by the early 1960s, college training 30 had changed drastically. For the first time in American history, college was truly democratic: it was not limited to the very wealthy. Instead, 31 college could be a new springboard for the upwardly mobile. Interestingly, in this same span, the least utilized of all benefits was that of unemployment: while veterans came in droves to attend colleges and get help financing their homes, very few used the unemployment subsidy.

32 Some years are better for the G.I. Bill than others. In 2008, for instance, the bill was expanded to include more support for servicemen and women, including the ability to transfer unused benefits to husbands, wives, and children. We may not expect a piece of wartime legislation to have been so 33 good, but the G.I. Bill changed the face of education as we know it, and we feel its effects all around us.