ACT Practice Exam 1 - Should We Continue to Explore Outer Space?

The United States and other nations have been exploring outer space for more than 50 years. Orbiting Earth, visiting the Moon, and maintaining an international space station have been landmarks of technological and scientific achievement. But major problems persist on the home planet, including hunger, disease, and pollution. Plans for further space exploration—sending people to Mars, for example—compete for financial and intellectual resources that could be used to help address these problems. To what extent, then, should we continue to explore outer space?

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular way of thinking about the question above.

Write a unified, coherent essay in which you address the question of whether we should continue to explore outer space. In your essay, be sure to:

• clearly state your own perspective and analyze the relationship between your perspective and at least one other perspective
• develop and support your ideas with reasoning and examples
• organize your ideas clearly and logically
• communicate your ideas effectively in standard written English

Your perspective may be in full agreement with any of those given, in partial agreement, or completely different.