Critical Reading - Walch · Critical Reading, 5–6 PART 3 practice questions Chocolate is a delicious snack! We eat it in candy bars, chocolate ice cream, hot chocolate—you name

Critical Reading

Liza Kleinman

iii

table of contents

To the Student . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

Part 1: Introduction

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Part 2: Test-Taking Words

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Part 3: Practice Questions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Part 4: Answer Key

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

iv

to the student

Test Your Best!

We all have to take tests. Often, our abilities are measured by how well we test. Each year, more and more tests are added to our lives. District, state, and national assessments reflect student progress, teacher abilities, administrative skills, and curriculum standards. In other words, a lot is riding on these tests. It is important for you to take them seriously, just as your superintendent, your principal, and your teachers do.

The books in the

Test Time!

series were designed to help you practice your test-taking skills. They also provide you with successful strategies and tips to follow at test time. As you well know, practice makes perfect. The more you practice, the higher you score. When you do well, not only are you successful, but your teachers, your administrators, and your state legislators are, too. This means that they took the testing seriously and wanted to help you be successful. It’s a team effort.

With all that in mind, be confident that you can succeed. You have the power; now just practice the skills. Good luck!

© 2004 Walch Publishing

7

Test Time! Critical Reading, 5–6

PART 2

test-taking words

Just as turn signals on a car can tell people where the car is headed, word signals can tell you what type of question you are being asked. Watching for these signals increases your chances of understanding questions and answering them correctly.

W

ORDS

AND

P

HRASES

TO

W

ATCH

FOR

IN

D

IRECTIONS

Always read each question carefully before you try to solve it! Paying close attention to the way a question is worded will help you find the correct answer. Here are some words and phrases that often appear in reading comprehension questions.

When you are instructed to look for certain features or examples in a reading passage, you can be sure that one or more test questions will be focusing on them.

Phrase Example in Test

be alert for/watch for As you read the following passage, watch for examples that reveal the main character’s personality.

be sure to Be sure to watch for descriptive words and phrases as you read.

best/that best answers the question/the best possible answer/the best possible choice

Respond to the questions that follow by selecting the best possible answer.

keeping in mind Read the passage that follows, keeping in mind the time in which it was written.

© 2004 Walch Publishing 8 Test Time! Critical Reading, 5–6

WORDS AND PHRASES THAT SIGNAL A MAIN IDEA QUESTION

WORDS AND PHRASES THAT SIGNAL A DETAIL QUESTION

WORDS AND PHRASES THAT SIGNAL AN INFERENCE QUESTION

Word/Phrase Example in Test

main idea Which of these choices best describes the main idea of this passage?

sum up Which sentence best sums up this passage?

title for the passage (or poem, or story)

Of the following choices, which one would be the best title for this poem?

summarize How can this story best be summarized?


example List two examples of Tanya’s generosity.

reason For which one of the following reasons did the narrator decide to become a nurse?

support Which idea does the author use to support his argument in favor of school uniforms?

illustrate What example does the author give to illustrate her point about preserving wildlife habitats?

show The speaker in this poem uses which of the following details to show the reader how he feels about autumn?

supporting detail Which of these is a supporting detail that helps the reader understand what Aunt May’s house looked like?


What (or why) do you think . . .?

Why do you think the narrator reacted so strongly to the news about his job?

Based on the passage (or poem, or story), . . .

Based on the information in the passage, which fact must be true?

You can guess that . . . You can guess that Janelle will do which of the following if she wins the race? (continued)


WORDS THAT SIGNAL AN AUTHOR’S CHOICE QUESTION

WORDS THAT DESCRIBE TYPES OF WRITING

Some test questions ask about specific types of writing by name. Some names for types of writing are listed below with their definitions.

(continued)probably The narrator probably mentions the Grand Canyon

in order to do what?

infer You can infer that the plan failed for which reason?

conclude What can you conclude about the teacher’s relationship with his students?

seems to be saying In the second paragraph, the narrator seems to be saying which of the following?

Word Example in Test

style Which word best describes the author’s writing style?

tone How does the author’s tone reflect what he thinks about his hometown?

purpose The author’s purpose in writing this article is to do what?

Word Definition

fiction writing that is not meant to be true; a story

nonfiction writing that is meant to be true, such as an essay or article

poetry an expressive form of writing that may or may not rhyme, and that often uses images to express a feeling or an idea

biography the true story of a person’s life

autobiography a true story of the author’s own life

folktale a traditional story (continued)


WORDS USED WITH FICTION AND POETRY

Some special words are used when talking about fiction and poetry. Some of these words are listed below with definitions and an example of the word in a test question.

(continued)tall tale a very exaggerated, often humorous story

fable a story intended to teach a lesson

Word Definition and Example

characters the people (or animals) that the story is about

How do the characters change between the beginning of the story and the end?

narrator the person telling the story or poem

What is the narrator’s tone toward his subject?

speaker the same as the narrator (often used in poetry)

With which animal does the speaker compare the month of May?

plot the action of a story

Which of the following best sums up the plot of this story?

setting when and where a story or poem takes place

How does the setting affect the mood of the poem?

compare show how two things are alike or different

Compare the behavior of the two characters in this story. Do you think one behaved better than the other? Explain your answer.

contrast show how two things are different

What example does the narrator give to show the contrast between Anita and her cousin? (continued)


(continued)image a description that the writer uses to create a

picture in the reader’s mind

How does the image of a garden help the reader understand how the speaker feels?

symbol one thing that represents another, such as a flag being the symbol of a country

Which of the following became a symbol of friendship for the narrator and his sister?


PART 3 practice questions

Chocolate is a delicious snack! We eat it in candy bars, chocolate ice cream, hot chocolate—you name it! If you think of chocolate as an all-American food, you are right. True, chocolate is made and eaten in many countries. But originally, chocolate came from Central and South America.

The origin of chocolate is the cacao tree. Cacao trees first grew in South America. Today, they are grown in hot climates all over the world. They produce the beans we call cacao beans, from which we make chocolate.

Historians believe that the Mayans, an ancient civilization of Mexico and Central America, ate chocolate fifteen hundred years ago. Rather, they drank it. Their chocolate was nothing like what we would call chocolate today. In ancient times, people ground cacao beans with spicy ingredients, including hot peppers. The mixture was made into a bitter drink—probably nothing like any chocolate beverage we would drink today!

Later, explorers brought chocolate back with them to Europe. There, people first added sugar to chocolate. Chocolate became more popular and less expensive. People all over Europe and the Americas drank it. By the 1800s, people began discovering new ways to use chocolate. They made it into cocoa powder, and used it in baked goods. In the 1800s, people began producing chocolate in solid form, like the chocolate candy we eat today.

1. What is this essay mostly about?

A. America’s favorite foods

B. the history of the Mayan people

C. the history of chocolate

D. different ways to serve chocolate

SET 1

Read the following article. Then answer the questions.


2. According to the essay, chocolate is made from

A. sugar.

B. beans.

C. liquid.

D. bars.

3. In the second paragraph, the word origin most nearly means

A. enemy.

B. need.

C. history.

D. source.

4. According to paragraph 4, Later, explorers brought chocolate back with them to Europe. There, people first added sugar to chocolate. From these sentences, you can figure out that

A. Europeans did not want to eat chocolate.

B. until then, chocolate was not sweetened.

C. explorers did not think chocolate would be very valuable.

D. people had never eaten sugar until that time.

5. Which statement from the article expresses an opinion?

A. Chocolate is a delicious snack!

B. The origin of chocolate is the cacao tree.

C. Later, explorers brought chocolate back with them to Europe.

D. By the 1800s, people began discovering new ways to use chocolate.

6. Name a difference between the way people enjoyed chocolate in ancient times and the way they do now.

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

STOP


HIGHLIGHTS FROM HISTORY OF FLIGHT

1. According to the time line, which of the following events happened LAST?

A. America gets air-mail service.

B. The first glider that can carry a human is designed.

C. The first hot-air balloon travels for over a mile.

D. Leonardo da Vinci designs a flying machine.

2. According to the time line, which of the following events happened FIRST?

A. The Wright brothers fly the first engine-powered airplane.

B. The first woman flies alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

C. The first glider that can carry a person is designed.

D. Airplanes carry mail across the United States.

SET 2

Use the following time line to answer the questions.

1485 Leonardo da Vinci designs the Ornithopter, a flying machine. Da Vinci never built his machine, but the modern helicopter is based on it.

1783 The Montgolfier brothers invent the first hot-air balloon, which flies for over a mile.

1891 Otto Lilienthal studies bird flight and designs the first glider that can carry a human.

1903 Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright fly the first engine-powered airplane. It travels 120 feet in 12 seconds.

1918 Air-mail service begins in the United States, flying mail from coast to coast.

1932 Pilot Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.


3. According to the time line, before 1903

A. nobody had ever thought about flight.

B. nobody had ever flown in a device of any sort.

C. nobody had ever drawn up plans for a flying machine.

D. nobody had flown in an engine-powered airplane.

4. According to the time line, the first hot-air balloon was invented by

A. Amelia Earhart.

B. the Montgolfier brothers.

C. Leonardo da Vinci.

D. Otto Lilienthal.

5. According to the time line, Leonardo da Vinci

A. created a design that affected modern flight.

B. built a machine that changed history.

C. participated in a historic flight.

D. worked closely with his brother.

STOP


Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank; repeated the operation; did it again; compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged. . . . At this dark and hopeless moment an inspiration burst upon him! Nothing less than a great, magnificent inspiration.

Tom took up his brush and went tranquilly to work. Ben Rogers came in sight presently—the very boy, of all boys, whose ridicule he had been dreading. Ben’s gait was the hop-skip-and-jump—proof enough that his heart was light and his anticipations high. He was eating an apple, and giving a long, melodious whoop, at intervals, followed by a deep-toned ding-dong-dong, ding-dong-dong, for he was personating a steamboat. He was boat and captain and engine-bells combined, so he had to imagine himself standing on his own hurricane-deck giving the orders and executing them:

“Stop her, sir! Ting-a-ling-ling!” The headway ran almost out, and he drew up slowly toward the sidewalk.

“Ship up to back! Ting-a-ling-ling!” His arms straightened and stiffened down his sides.

“Set her back on the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow! ch-chow-wow! Chow!” His right hand, meantime, describing stately circles—for it was representing a forty-foot wheel. . . .

Tom went on whitewashing—paid no attention to the steamboat. Ben stared a moment and then said: “Hi-YI! YOU’RE up a stump, ain’t you!”

No answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist, then he gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result, as before. Ben ranged

SET 3

The following passage is adapted from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain. Read the passage. Then answer the questions that follow.


up alongside of him. Tom’s mouth watered for the apple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said:

“Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?”

Tom wheeled suddenly and said:

“Why, it’s you, Ben! I warn’t noticing.”

“Say—I’m going in a-swimming, I am. Don’t you wish you could? But of course you’d druther WORK—wouldn’t you? Course you would!”

Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said:

“What do you call work?”

“Why, ain’t THAT work?”

Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:

“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”

“Oh come, now, you don’t mean to let on that you LIKE it?”

The brush continued to move.

“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth—stepped back to note the effect—added a touch here and there—criticized the effect again—Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:

“Say, Tom, let ME whitewash a little.”

Tom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind:

“No—no—I reckon it wouldn’t hardly do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly’s awful particular about this fence—right here on the street, you know—but if it was the back fence I wouldn’t mind and SHE wouldn’t. Yes, she’s awful particular about this fence; it’s got to be done very careful; I reckon there ain’t one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it the way it’s got to be done.”


“No—is that so? Oh come, now—lemme just try. Only just a little—I’d let YOU, if you was me, Tom.”

Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity1 in his heart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs, and planned the slaughter of more innocents. . . .

Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet2 a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain3.

1 alacrity means eager readiness2 covet means want3 attain means get

1. In the first paragraph, melancholy most likely means

A. gloom.

B. happiness.

C. fear.

D. sleepiness.

2. At the end of the first paragraph, Tom’s “inspiration” is a plan to

A. find more chores to do.

B. avoid painting the fence.

C. become friends with Ben.

D. learn how to be a better artist.

3. When Tom first sees Ben, Ben is

A. laughing at Tom.

B. busy painting a fence.

C. pretending to be a steamboat.

D. thinking about how to avoid his chores.


4. Which best describes Tom’s true feelings about whitewashing the fence?

A. It is great fun.

B. It is a good way to earn money.

C. It is a job he would rather not share.

D. It is an unpleasant chore.

5. Tom does not let Ben paint the fence right away because

A. he would rather paint the fence himself.

B. he wants Ben to think that painting the fence is a treat.

C. he doesn’t think his Aunty Polly likes Ben.

D. he doesn’t think Ben can do a good job painting the fence.

6. This passage is an example of what kind of writing?

A. autobiography

B. biography

C. fiction

D. poetry

7. What does Tom mean in the last paragraph, when he thinks “in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain”?

A. People only want what they can easily get.

B. People want something if they think they can’t have it.

C. People enjoy tasks if there is a reward.

D. People never do favors for other people.

STOP


HILLS

The hills are going somewhere;They have been on the way a long time.They are like camels in a lineBut they move more slowly.Sometimes at sunset they carry silks,But most of the time silver birch trees,Heavy rocks, heavy trees, gold leavesOn heavy branches till they are aching . . .Birches like silver bars they can hardly liftWith grass so thick about their feet to hinder . . .They have not gone farIn the time I’ve watched them . . .

—Hilda Conkling

1. The line “They are like camels in a line” is an example of

A. comparison.

B. exaggeration.

C. repetition.

D. foreshadowing.

2. Throughout the poem, the speaker uses the idea that the hills are

A. standing still.

B. getting larger.

C. slowly moving.

D. disappearing.

SET 4

Base your answers to questions 1 and 2 on the following poem.


Base your answers to questions 3 and 4 on the following poem.

Afternoon on a Hill

I will be the gladdest thingUnder the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowersAnd not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and cloudsWith quiet eyes,

Watch the wind bow down the grass,And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to showUp from the town,

I will mark which must be mine,And then start down!

—Edna St. Vincent Millay

3. In this poem, the speaker imagines

A. looking at hills from her house.

B. what it would feel like to roll down a hill.

C. what it would feel like to be a hill.

D. looking at the view from the top of a hill.

4. The speaker mentions cliffs and clouds as

A. things she would rather not see.

B. things she will look at from the hill.

C. reasons why she will never climb a hill.

D. her favorite sights from her bedroom window.


5. How do you think the speaker in this poem feels about hills? Does she like them or dislike them? Use at least one example from the poem to support your answer.

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

Base your answer to question 6 on both poems.

6. Which of the following do the two poems have in common?

A. They both describe what it feels like to climb a hill.

B. In both poems, the speakers seem fond of hills.

C. In both poems, the hills are compared to animals.

D. They both describe hills as being their enemy.

STOP

Documents

Critical Reading - Walch · Critical Reading, 5–6 PART 3 practice questions Chocolate is a delicious snack! We eat it in candy bars, chocolate ice cream, hot chocolate—you name