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June 2025 English Regents — Answer Key & Worked Solutions

Every question from the June 2025 English Regents exam, with the correct answer and a full step-by-step solution. Check your work, learn the method, then see how it's scored.

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These are real questions from the June 2025 English New York State Regents examination, published by NYSED. Worked solutions are written by RegentsLab.

Question 1 · 2 pts
She knew everyone in town, of course; she was fond of telling strangers, tourists who sometimes passed through the town and stopped to admire Miss Strangeworth's roses, that she had never spent more than a day outside this town in all her long life. She was seventy-one, Miss Strangeworth told the tourists, with a pretty little dimple showing by her lip... My grandfather built the first house on Pleasant Street... My family has lived here for better than a hundred years... They wanted to put up a statue of Ethan Allen, but it should have been a statue of my grandfather. There wouldn't have been a town here at all if it hadn't been for my grandfather and the lumber mill.

The first paragraph develops a central idea regarding Miss Strangeworth's

Miss Strangeworth repeatedly claims credit for the town's existence through her family's legacy and insists a statue should honor her grandfather instead of Ethan Allen, revealing she believes the town essentially belongs to her.

Question 2 · 2 pts
Her hand shook slightly as she opened her pocketbook. Miss Strangeworth wondered, glancing at her quickly, if she had been taking proper care of herself. Martha Harper was not as young as she used to be, Miss Strangeworth thought. She probably could use a good, strong tonic. 'Martha,' she said, 'you don't look well.'

Miss Strangeworth's opinion about Mrs. Harper (lines 33 through 39) could best be described as

Miss Strangeworth judges Mrs. Harper's appearance and age unfavorably and bluntly tells her she looks unwell, showing a critical rather than kind or gracious attitude.

Question 3 · 2 pts
Many people seemed disturbed recently, Miss Strangeworth thought. Only yesterday the Stewarts' fifteen-year-old Linda had run crying down her own front walk and all the way to school, not caring who saw her. People around town thought she might have had a fight with the Harris boy, but they showed up together at the soda shop after school as usual, both of them looking grim and bleak. Trouble at home, people concluded, and sighed over the problems of trying to raise kids right these days.

The statement "many people seemed disturbed recently" (line 40) hints at

The line is immediately followed by a plain, factual account of real unhappiness in town, Linda Stewart sobbing openly down the street and neighbors murmuring about trouble at home, which Miss Strangeworth simply registers as how things are. At this point in the story nothing yet points to any hidden motive of her own, so the statement functions as a straightforward observation of a genuinely unpleasant situation in the town rather than a clue to intent.

Question 4 · 2 pts
From halfway down the block Miss Strangeworth could catch the heavy accent of her roses, and she moved a little more quickly. The perfume of roses meant home, and home meant the Strangeworth House on Pleasant Street. Miss Strangeworth stopped at her own front gate, as she always did, and looked with deep pleasure at her house, with the red and pink and white roses massed along the narrow lawn, and the rambler going up along the porch; and the neat, the unbelievably trim lines of the house itself, with its slimness and its washed white look.

The details in lines 46 through 53 suggest that Miss Strangeworth

Her lavish self-satisfaction and pride in her uniquely pristine, admired house reveal she views her own home and way of life as superior to others in town.

Question 5 · 2 pts
Miss Strangeworth's usual stationery was heavy and cream-colored, with 'Strangeworth House' engraved across the top, but, when she felt like writing her other letters, Miss Strangeworth used a pad of various-colored paper, bought from the local newspaper shop... everyone in town bought it and used it for odd, informal notes and shopping lists.

Lines 69 through 78 indicate that Miss Strangeworth

By switching from her engraved personal stationery to the common colored paper everyone in town uses, Miss Strangeworth disguises her identity for her poison-pen letters.

Question 6 · 2 pts
Miss Strangeworth never concerned herself with facts; her letters all dealt with the more negotiable stuff of suspicion... but, as long as evil existed unchecked in the world, it was Miss Strangeworth's duty to keep her town alert to it... There were so many wicked people in the world and only one Strangeworth left in town.

Lines 83 through 94 detail Miss Strangeworth's

This passage shows Miss Strangeworth rationalizing her cruel, baseless letters as a necessary duty to protect the town from unchecked evil.

Question 7 · 2 pts
Miss Strangeworth would have been genuinely shocked if there had been anything between Linda Stewart and the Harris boy, but, as long as evil existed unchecked in the world, it was Miss Strangeworth's duty to keep her town alert to it.

The decision to italicize the word had in line 89 emphasizes that Miss Strangeworth

The emphasis on 'had' underscores that she would be shocked if the rumor were true, revealing she recognizes her insinuations are baseless even as she spreads them.

Question 8 · 2 pts
There were so many wicked people in the world and only one Strangeworth left in town.

The statement "There were so many wicked people in the world and only one Strangeworth left in town" (lines 92 and 93) is an example of

It is ironic because Miss Strangeworth, who considers herself the town's moral guardian, is actually the source of the wickedness through her anonymous poison-pen letters.

Question 9 · 2 pts
She drew the shades, took the rose-satin spread from the bed, slipped out of her dress and her shoes, and lay down tiredly. She knew that no doorbell or phone would ring; no one in town would dare to disturb Miss Strangeworth during her afternoon nap. She slept, deep in the rich smell of roses.

The final paragraph stresses that

The paragraph shows Miss Strangeworth undressing and lying down tiredly, certain that no doorbell or phone would ring and that no one in town would dare disturb her afternoon nap, then drifting into a deep sleep amid the rich smell of her roses. This image of complete personal ease, comfort, and pride in her home describes her own contentment with her place in town, not a general claim about the town's security systems or daily routines.

Question 10 · 2 pts
...with the red and pink and white roses massed along the narrow lawn... Miss Strangeworth had put a bowl of her red roses on the low table before the window, and the room was full of their scent... She slept, deep in the rich smell of roses.

Throughout the text, Miss Strangeworth's roses represent the

The roses are consistently tied to her carefully maintained outward appearance of gentility and beauty, contrasting with her cruel hidden actions, showing the image she projects rather than her true character.

Question 11 · 2 pts
for those herons, ghostlike, carefully picking their way down the shoreline, all knees and neck, looking for crabs or something they lost in the surf, and my father points at them and says their names like he is making a wish.

The herons' searching for something "they lost" (line 9) implies

The herons searching for something lost mirrors the speaker's own reflection on memory, loss, and connection across generations that runs through the poem.

Question 12 · 2 pts
and my father points at them and says their names like he is making a wish. Then they are all gone and it's just me

In the context of the poem as a whole, line 12 signals that the

The line marks a transition where the herons and father's presence vanish, signaling the speaker is now recalling a memory from the past rather than describing a present moment.

Question 13 · 2 pts
for those herons, ghostlike, carefully picking their way down the shoreline... and the seagulls hover overhead saying their own names, the sky making those sounds airplanes make when the world has nothing left to say to you.

The descriptions of the "herons" (line 4) and the "seagulls" (line 13) suggest a

The herons belong to a remembered scene on the beach behind the speaker's father's house, where the father points at them and says their names like he is making a wish, a tender memory from an earlier time. Once the herons are gone and it is just the speaker, the seagulls take their place in the present, hovering overhead with sounds compared to airplanes in a sky that has nothing left to say, so the two bird images mark a shift from a cherished past moment to a plainer present one rather than any shared lesson.

Question 14 · 2 pts
and my father points at them and says their names like he is making a wish... but the other day I named the shadow of a cardinal through a frosty window for my son, described it so he would know it when he sees one for himself.

The naming of the birds throughout the poem serves to

The speaker repeats his father's act of naming birds with his own son, showing how the ritual connects father, speaker, and son across generations.

Question 15 · 2 pts
a 1764 pamphlet by the Boston lawyer James Otis, who theorized about and popularized the familiar idea of 'no taxation without representation' and also unequivocally asserted human equality. 'The Colonists,' he wrote, 'are by the law of nature free born, as indeed all men are, white or black.'

The word "unequivocally" (line 6) most likely means

Otis's direct, unambiguous statement that all men are free born regardless of race shows he asserted human equality clearly and without qualification.

Question 16 · 2 pts
From his formal acquisition of freedom, in 1770, until his death, in 1807, Hall helped forge an activist Black community in Boston while elevating the cause of abolition to new prominence.

The use of the word "forge" in line 15 suggests Hall's

"Forge" implies deliberate, sustained effort to build something new, reflecting Hall's determined work to construct an activist community advancing equality and abolition.

Question 17 · 2 pts
From his formal acquisition of freedom, in 1770, until his death, in 1807, Hall helped forge an activist Black community in Boston while elevating the cause of abolition to new prominence.

Lines 14 through 16 contribute to a central idea that what was needed to advance the cause of freedom was

The passage credits Hall personally with building the community and elevating abolition's cause, illustrating the central idea that a committed individual leader was essential to the cause's advancement.

Question 18 · 2 pts
In this passage, Hall invokes the core concepts of social-contract theory, which grounded the American Revolution, to argue for an extension of the claim to equal rights to those who were enslaved. He acknowledged and adopted the intellectual framework of the new political arrangements, but also pointedly called out the original sin of enslavement itself.

Hall's use of lines from the Declaration of Independence in his petition (lines 23 through 33) indicates that he was

Hall took the Declaration's language, originally used to justify revolution against Britain, and repurposed it skillfully to argue for enslaved people's equal rights.

Question 19 · 2 pts
Hall and his fellow lodge members, he explained, recognized that many of the influential people in Boston, and throughout the colonies, were deeply involved in Freemasonry. George Washington is a prominent example... Hall saw entrance into Freemasonry as a pathway to securing influence and a network of supporters.

Hall chose to seek membership in the Freemasons (lines 51 through 55) because it

The text explicitly states Hall saw Freemasonry as a pathway to securing influence and a network of supporters among influential people.

Question 20 · 2 pts
That same year, he also turned his energies to advocating for resources for public education. Through it all, his Masonic membership proved both instrumental and spiritually valuable.

As used in line 68, the word "instrumental" most nearly means

In context, Hall's Masonic membership served as a crucial, essential tool supporting his lifelong advocacy work.

Question 21 · 2 pts
Founding the lodge had not been easy. Although Hall and his fellows were most likely inducted into Freemasonry in 1775, they were never able to secure a formal charter for their lodge from the other lodges in Massachusetts: Prejudice ran strong. Hall and his fellows had in fact probably been inducted by members of an Irish military lodge, planted in Boston with the British army, who had proved willing to introduce them to the mysteries of the order.

Lines 69 through 73 reflect a central idea that induction into Freemasonry did not necessarily

Despite being inducted into Freemasonry, Hall and his fellows still faced prejudice and were denied a formal charter by other Massachusetts lodges, showing membership did not guarantee equal treatment.

Question 22 · 2 pts
But told in this traditional way, the story leaves out another transformative figure: Prince Hall, a free African American and a contemporary of John Adams.

Which phrase best depicts Hall's role in history?

This phrase directly names Hall's historical significance, describing him as someone who fundamentally changed the course of the abolitionist movement in Boston.

Question 23 · 2 pts
But told in this traditional way, the story leaves out another transformative figure: Prince Hall... Hall's work on abolition and its enforcement was just the beginning of a lifetime of advocacy.

Which quotation best reflects a central idea of the passage?

This quotation captures the passage's central idea that Hall's contributions extended across a lifetime of sustained activism, not just a single achievement.

Question 24 · 2 pts
The state constitution, adopted in 1780 and drafted by John Adams... George Washington is a prominent example, and symbolism that resonates with Masonic meaning adorns the $1 bill to this day... Hall was a relentless petitioner, undaunted by setbacks.

The author's purpose for including several familiar, historical names throughout the text is most likely to point out that Hall

By placing Hall alongside well-known figures like John Adams and George Washington, the author argues Hall's own contributions to abolition merit equal historical recognition.

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