8.3 Science & History Passages

What Science and History Passages Look Like on the HiSET

Science and history passages are expository informational texts. The HiSET TAAG names them as part of the informational 60%, and they differ from essays and memoirs in one key way: they are organized around content, not around an author's personal claim or experience. A science passage explains a concept, a process, or a set of findings. A history passage narrates events, traces causes, or compares perspectives. Your job is to follow the content accurately, not to react to the author's personality.

The CCRS standards behind these passages include the RH (history) and RSST (science) strands — for example, RH.6-8.6 asks you to identify an author's point of view in a history text, and RH.9-10.8 asks you to evaluate claims. The HiSET applies the same A-D process categories to these passages. Science and history passages may also include visuals — a chart, a graph, a diagram, or a data table — and descriptor B4 covers your ability to interpret that visual data in context.

Science passages: concepts, processes, cause-effect, data

Science passages on the HiSET are written for a general reader, not a specialist. They explain something: how a process works, what a study found, why a phenomenon occurs. The structure is usually one of three shapes:

• Concept explanation — defines a term or idea and unpacks how it works.
• Process description — lays out a sequence of steps, often chronological or causal.
• Cause-effect — identifies a phenomenon and explains what produces it or what it produces.

History passages: events, causes, perspectives, chronology

History passages recount and analyze the past. They may narrate a sequence of events, compare two accounts of the same event, or explain why something happened. The structure favors chronology and causation — what happened, in what order, and why.

The Strategy: Track the Central Concept or Cause-Effect Chain

For science and history passages, the reading move is tracking:

1. Identify the central concept, process, or cause-effect chain. What is the passage explaining or narrating? Name it in a phrase.
2. Note definitions and signal words. Science passages define terms; history passages use signal words like "because," "as a result," "previously," "in response." These words mark the logical structure.
3. Follow the chain across paragraphs. Each paragraph typically adds a link — a new step, a new cause, a piece of evidence. Track how each link connects to the previous one.

Common Question Targets

Science and history questions draw on the same A-D process categories as other informational texts, but they have predictable shapes:

• Main idea (C1) — the central concept or the overall cause-effect relationship.
• Author's purpose (C2) — to explain, to inform, to compare perspectives, to trace causes.
• How events or ideas develop (C3) — why the author includes a particular study, example, or event.
• Interpreting a chart or graph (B4) — reading a value, comparing trends, or connecting a visual to the prose.
• Vocabulary in context (A2) — usually a technical term defined in the passage.

The Two Big Traps

Trap 1: Outside knowledge overrides the passage. You may know more about the topic than the passage says. A science passage might simplify a process you studied in a biology class; a history passage might gloss a debate you read a whole book about. The HiSET tests what the passage says, not what you know. If a distractor matches your prior knowledge but contradicts the passage, it is wrong. This is the hardest trap for strong students to resist, because it feels right.

Trap 2: Confusing correlation with causation. Science and history passages often describe two events that occur together, and a question may ask whether one caused the other. The passage will signal causation with words like "caused," "led to," "resulted in." It will signal correlation with "coincided with," "occurred alongside," "was associated with." A distractor will turn a correlation into a cause, and the test is whether you catch the distinction.

A Worked Example

Here is an original short science passage in the style of a HiSET informational text:

For decades, ecologists assumed that the decline of sea otter populations in the Aleutian Islands was caused by competition with declining fish stocks. The assumption was reasonable: both populations declined during the same decades. But a 1998 study tracking tagged otters found that mortality spiked in areas where killer whales had recently expanded their hunting range, and that otter populations held steady in areas whales did not enter. The researchers concluded that the fish-stock explanation could not account for the pattern, because otters in fish-poor but whale-free zones survived at normal rates.

Question: Which of the following best describes the relationship the passage draws between the two declines?

• A. The two declines occurred during the same decades, but the passage argues the fish decline did not cause the otter decline.
• B. The decline of fish stocks caused the decline of sea otters.
• C. The decline of sea otters caused the decline of fish stocks.
• D. The two declines were entirely unrelated events that happened to occur in different regions.

The correct answer is A. The passage states both declines "occurred during the same decades" (correlation) and then presents evidence that the fish explanation "could not account for the pattern" (rejecting causation). Option B is the trap of treating correlation as causation — the passage explicitly rejects it. Option C reverses the causal direction the passage discusses. Option D overstates the conclusion: the passage says the fish decline did not cause the otter decline, not that the declines were entirely unrelated or in different regions. The correlation is real; the causation is not.

Checklist for Science and History Questions

• Name the central concept, process, or cause-effect chain in a phrase.
• Mark definitions and signal words as you read.
• Confirm the answer is in the passage, not in your prior knowledge.
• Distinguish correlation language ("coincided," "alongside") from causation language ("caused," "led to").
• If a visual is present, read the title and labels, then match the question's scenario to the correct row or column.