Name: ________________________ Class: ___________________ Date: __________ ID: A

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Winter Break Practice Test

Read this selection. Then answer the questions that follow it.

All the Years of Her LifeMorley Callaghan

1 They were closing the drugstore, and Alfred Higgins, who had just taken off his white jacket, was putting on his coat and getting ready to go home. The little gray-haired man, Sam Carr, who owned the drugstore, was bending down behind the cash register, and when Alfred Higgins passed him, he looked up and said softly, “Just a moment, Alfred. One moment before you go.”

2 The soft, confident, quiet way in which Sam Carr spoke made Alfred start to button his coat nervously. He felt sure his face was white. Sam Carr usually said, “Good night,” brusquely, without looking up. In the six months he had been working in the drugstore Alfred had never heard his employer speak softly like that. His heart began to beat so loud it was hard for him to get his breath. “What is it, Mr. Carr?” he asked.

3 “Maybe you’d be good enough to take a few things out of your pocket and leave them here before you go,” Sam Carr said.

4 “What things? What are you talking about?”5 “You’ve got a compact and a lipstick and at least two tubes of toothpaste in your pockets, Alfred.”6 “What do you mean? Do you think I’m crazy?” Alfred blustered. His face got red and he knew he

looked fierce with indignation. But Sam Carr, standing by the door with his blue eyes shining brightly behind his glasses and his lips moving underneath his gray moustache, only nodded his head a few times, and then Alfred grew very frightened and he didn’t know what to say. Slowly he raised his hand and dipped it into his pocket, and with his eyes never meeting Sam Carr’s eyes, he took out a blue compact and two tubes of toothpaste and a lipstick, and he laid them one by one on the counter.

7 “Petty thieving, eh, Alfred?” Sam Carr said. “And maybe you’d be good enough to tell me how long this has been going on.”

8 “This is the first time I ever took anything.”9 “So now you think you’ll tell me a lie, eh? What kind of a sap do I look like, huh? I don’t know what

goes on in my own store, eh? I tell you you’ve been doing this pretty steady,” Sam Carr said as he went over and stood behind the cash register.

10 Ever since Alfred had left school he had been getting into trouble wherever he worked. He lived at home with his mother and his father, who was a printer. His two older brothers were married and his sister had got married last year, and it would have been all right for his parents now if Alfred had only been able to keep a job.

11 While Sam Carr smiled and stroked the side of his face very delicately with the tips of his fingers, Alfred began to feel that familiar terror growing in him that had been in him every time he had got into such trouble.

12 “I liked you,” Sam Carr was saying. “I liked you and would have trusted you, and now look what I got to do.” While Alfred watched with his alert, frightened blue eyes, Sam Carr drummed with his fingers on the counter. “I don’t like to call a cop in point-blank,” he was saying as he looked very worried. “You’re a fool, and maybe I should call your father and tell him you’re a fool. Maybe I should let them know I’m going to have you locked up.”

13 “My father’s not at home. He’s a printer. He works nights,” Alfred said.14 “Who’s at home?”15 “My mother, I guess.”16 “Then we’ll see what she says.” Sam Carr went to the phone and dialed the number.

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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17 Alfred was not so much ashamed, but there was that deep fright growing in him, and he blurted out arrogantly, like a strong, full-grown man, “Just a minute. You don’t need to draw anybody else in. You don’t need to tell her.” He wanted to sound like a swaggering, big guy who could look after himself, yet the old, childish hope was in him, the longing that someone at home would come and help him. “Yeah, that’s right, he’s in trouble,” Mr. Carr was saying. “Yeah, your boy works for me. You’d better come down in a hurry.” And when he was finished Mr. Carr went over to the door and looked out at the street and watched the people passing in the late summer night. “I’ll keep my eye out for a cop,” was all he said.

18 Alfred knew how his mother would come rushing in; she would rush in with her eyes blazing, or maybe she would be crying, and she would push him away when he tried to talk to her, and make him feel her dreadful contempt; yet he longed that she might come before Mr. Carr saw the cop on the beat passing the door.

19 While they waited—and it seemed a long time—they did not speak, and when at last they heard someone tapping on the closed door, Mr. Carr, turning the latch, said crisply, “Come in, Mrs. Higgins.” He looked hard-faced and stern.

20 Mrs. Higgins must have been going to bed when he telephoned, for her hair was tucked in loosely under her hat, and her hand at her throat held her light coat tight across her chest so her dress would not show. She came in, large and plump, with a little smile on her friendly face. Most of the store lights had been turned out and at first she did not see Alfred, who was standing in the shadow at the end of the counter. Yet as soon as she saw him she did not look as Alfred thought she would look: she smiled, her blue eyes never wavered, and with a calmness and dignity that made them forget that her clothes seemed to have been thrown on her, she put out her hand to Mr. Carr and said politely, “I’m Mrs. Higgins. I’m Alfred’s mother.”

21 Mr. Carr was a bit embarrassed by her lack of terror and her simplicity, and he hardly knew what to say to her, so she asked, “Is Alfred in trouble?”

22 “He is. He’s been taking things from the store. I caught him red-handed. Little things like compacts and toothpaste and lipsticks. Stuff he can sell easily,” the proprietor said.

23 As she listened Mrs. Higgins looked at Alfred sometimes and nodded her head sadly, and when Sam Carr had finished she said gravely, “Is it so, Alfred?”

24 “Yes.”25 “Why have you been doing it?”26 “I been spending money, I guess.”27 “On what?”28 “Going around with the guys, I guess,” Alfred said.29 Mrs. Higgins put out her hand and touched Sam Carr’s arm with an understanding gentleness, and

speaking as though afraid of disturbing him, she said, “If you would only listen to me before doing anything.” Her simple earnestness made her shy; her humility made her falter and look away, but in a moment she was smiling gravely again, and she said with a kind of patient dignity, “What did you intend to do, Mr. Carr?”

30 “I was going to get a cop. That’s what I ought to do.”31 “Yes, I suppose so. It’s not for me to say, because he’s my son. Yet I sometimes think a little good

advice is the best thing for a boy when he’s at a certain period in his life,” she said.32 Alfred couldn’t understand his mother’s quiet composure, for if they had been at home and someone

had suggested that he was going to be arrested, he knew she would be in a rage and would cry out against him. Yet now she was standing there with that gentle, pleading smile on her face, saying, “I wonder if you don’t think it would be better just to let him come home with me. He looks a big fellow, doesn’t he? It takes some of them a long time to get any sense,” and they both stared at Alfred, who shifted away with a bit of light shining for a moment on his thin face and the tiny pimples over his cheekbone.

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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33 But even while he was turning away uneasily Alfred was realizing that Mr. Carr had become aware that his mother was really a fine woman; he knew that Sam Carr was puzzled by his mother, as if he had expected her to come in and plead with him tearfully, and instead he was being made to feel a bit ashamed by her vast tolerance. While there was only the sound of the mother’s soft, assured voice in the store, Mr. Carr began to nod his head encouragingly at her. Without being alarmed, while being just large and still and simple and hopeful, she was becoming dominant there in the dimly lit store. “Of course, I don’t want to be harsh,” Mr. Carr was saying. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll just fire him and let it go at that. How’s that?” and he got up and shook hands with Mrs. Higgins, bowing low to her in deep respect.

34 There was such warmth and gratitude in the way she said, “I’ll never forget your kindness,” that Mr. Carr began to feel warm and genial himself.

35 “Sorry we had to meet this way,” he said. “But I’m glad I got in touch with you. Just wanted to do the right thing, that’s all,” he said.

36 “It’s better to meet like this than never, isn’t it?” she said. Suddenly they clasped hands as if they liked each other, as if they had known each other a long time. “Good night, sir,” she said.

37 “Good night, Mrs. Higgins. I’m truly sorry,” he said.38 The mother and son walked along the street together, and the mother was taking a long, firm stride as

she looked ahead with her stern face full of worry. Alfred was afraid to speak to her, he was afraid of the silence that was between them, so he only looked ahead too, for the excitement and relief was still pretty strong in him; but in a little while, going along like that in silence made him terribly aware of the strength and the sternness in her; he began to wonder what she was thinking of as she stared ahead so grimly; she seemed to have forgotten that he walked beside her; so when they were passing under the Sixth Avenue elevated and the rumble of the train seemed to break the silence, he said in his old, blustering way, “Thank God it turned out like that. I certainly won’t get in a jam like that again.”

39 “Be quiet. Don’t speak to me. You’ve disgraced me again and again,” she said bitterly.40 “That’s the last time. That’s all I’m saying.”41 “Have the decency to be quiet,” she snapped. They kept on their way, looking straight ahead.42 When they were at home and his mother took off her coat, Alfred saw that she was really only

half-dressed, and she made him feel afraid again when she said, without even looking at him, “You’re a bad lot. God forgive you. It’s one thing after another and always has been. Why do you stand there stupidly? Go to bed, why don’t you?” When he was going, she said, “I’m going to make myself a cup of tea. Mind, now, not a word about tonight to your father.”

43 While Alfred was undressing in his bedroom, he heard his mother moving around the kitchen. She filled the kettle and put it on the stove. She moved a chair. And as he listened there was no shame in him, just wonder and a kind of admiration of her strength and repose. He could still see Sam Carr nodding his head encouragingly to her; he could hear her talking simply and earnestly, and as he sat on his bed he felt a pride in her strength. “She certainly was smooth,” he thought. “Gee, I’d like to tell her she sounded swell.”

44 And at last he got up and went along to the kitchen, and when he was at the door he saw his mother pouring herself a cup of tea. He watched and he didn’t move. Her face, as she sat there, was a frightened, broken face utterly unlike the face of the woman who had been so assured a little while ago in the drugstore. When she reached out and lifted the kettle to pour hot water in her cup, her hand trembled and the water splashed on the stove. Leaning back in the chair, she sighed and lifted the cup to her lips, and her lips were groping loosely as if they would never reach the cup. She swallowed the hot tea eagerly, and then she straightened up in relief, though her hand holding the cup still trembled. She looked very old.

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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45 It seemed to Alfred that this was the way it had been every time he had been in trouble before, that this trembling had really been in her as she hurried out half-dressed to the drugstore. He understood why she had sat alone in the kitchen the night his young sister had kept repeating doggedly that she was getting married. Now he felt all that his mother had been thinking of as they walked along the street together a little while ago. He watched his mother, and he never spoke, but at that moment his youth seemed to be over; he knew all the years of her life by the way her hand trembled as she raised the cup to her lips. It seemed to him that this was the first time he had ever looked upon his mother.

From All the Years of Her Life by Morley Callaghan. Copyright © The Estate of Morley Callaghan 2003. Copyright © Exile Editions Ltd. 2003. The Complete Stories of Morley Callaghan Volume One. Reprinted

by permission of The Estate of Morley Callaghan.

Reading Comprehension

____ 1. From the information in paragraphs 1 and 2, you can determine that Mr. Carr is Alfred's —

A. employerB. brotherC. friendD. assistant

____ 2. What is the mood at the beginning of the story?

A. TerrifyingB. SuspensefulC. CasualD. Lighthearted

____ 3. Based on his reaction to Mr. Carr’s accusation, Alfred could best be described as —

A. lazyB. conceitedC. dishonestD. boring

____ 4. The interaction between Mr. Carr and Alfred in paragraphs 3–12 affects the plot by —

A. adding suspenseB. providing background informationC. lightening the moodD. resolving the main conflict

____ 5. Mrs. Higgins’s behavior at the drugstore is ironic because she —

A. hurries to arrive well before the police can get thereB. arrives dressed in a hat and coat in spite of the late hourC. acts friendly and dignified instead of frightened or angryD. takes the place of her husband, who usually rescues Alfred

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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____ 6. From the imagery at the end of paragraph 32, you can infer that Alfred —

A. does not take good care of himselfB. has become bored with the situationC. wants to ask for Mr. Carr’s forgivenessD. is not as mature as he would like to think

____ 7. The fact that the story is told from the third-person omniscient point of view helps the narrator —

A. give information about Alfred and Mrs. Higgins onlyB. discuss the events from Mr. Carr’s perspectiveC. tell the actions and thoughts of Alfred onlyD. reveal the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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Read this selection. Then answer the questions that follow it.

from American ChicaMarie Arana

1 The playground of the Roosevelt School was swarming with hundreds of children, milling about and yammering, waiting for the bell to ring. We edged through the gate and stood in awe.

2 A girl about my age leaned against the wall and stared at us. She was dark-skinned, frail, her eyes bulging from her face like boiled eggs, blue-white and rubbery.

3 “Primer día?” she asked. First day? I was gawking around me, an obvious newcomer. I nodded that it was so.

4 “You speak English,” she said, more of a fact than a question.5 “Yes,” I answered, ready to prove it. But she continued in Spanish, and my affirmation hung in the air

like a hiss.6 “Then you’ll be fine,” she assured me. “Don’t look so worried. I’m Margarita Martinez. My English is

not so good. They put me in Señora Arellano’s class.”7 There were two streams for every grade at Roosevelt, Margarita explained. The main one was for

English-speakers, a smaller one for those who spoke better Spanish. I would be tested for my abilities and streamed according to my tongue.

8 The man who would decide my fortune was vexed in the company of children. I could see it the moment he called out my name. He was frowning and fidgety, flicking his hair with his fingers and peering impatiently at his wrist. I followed his orange head into a room next to the headmaster’s office.

9 “Do you speak English or Spanish at home, señorita?” he asked me in Spanish, motioning me to a chair.

10 “Both,” I replied, and stared at his hair. There was something miraculous about the way it cocked up on top and slicked flat around the ears.

11 “Which do you read?”12 “Both,” I answered again.13 “No,” he said, drumming a long white hand on the tabletop. Gold fuzz sprouted on his knuckles. He

was wearing a ring, ponderous as a prime minister’s. “You don’t understand me. There must be a difference in the level at which you speak and read your two languages.” Ee-dee-oh-muzz. His Spanish was broad and drawling, like my mother’s. He opened a green folder and looked through it, and then switched his questions to English. “What I’m asking you, missy, is which language are you more proficient in? There are no records or tests here.”

14 “I think I’m about the same in both,” I said.15 “Sir,” he said.16 “What?”17 “I think I am the same in both, sir.”18 I repeated the phrase after him. I had never heard anyone in the United States of America talk like

that. I wanted to fall on the floor and squeal, his words were striking me as so idiotic. But there was nothing amusing about the man.

19 “Here,” he said. “Read to me from this book.” He shoved a brown volume across the table, pinched two fingers, and then plucked a white shirt cuff out of his jacket sleeve.

20 I turned the book in my hands. Indians of the Great Plains, the cover announced. I opened it. “What part would you like me to read?” I asked.

21 “Any page,” he said. “Pick one.” He sat back and crossed his hands behind his head.

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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22 I flipped through, looking at pictures. Somewhere near the middle, there was one labeled Medicine man with a rattle, or words to that effect. The man was peeking out of a tepee, holding an artifact. In the foreground, an Indian brave in a loinflap ran down to a river with his hair spread behind him like wings. The text was interesting enough, something like this: After the last steaming and sweating ceremony, the Indian plunged into water during the summer, or into a snowbank in winter. Thus purified, he was ready to make an offering to the Great Spirit or seek a sign from the Great Beyond.

23 I stared at the words and considered my situation. I could read this aloud and be waved into the English stream. It was clearly as simple as that. Or I could play possum, as Grandpa Doc liked to say. Put one over on the prig.

24 I snapped the book shut and set it down on the table. “I can’t read this,” I said, and looked up.25 “You’re not even going to try?”26 I shook my head. “Too hard.”27 “Well, read this, then,” he said, and slid another book at me. It was thin and bright as a candied wafer.28 I picked it up, leafed through. Then I smoothed it flat on the table in front of me. “Jane . . . puh-plays .

. . wi-i-ith the . . . ball.”29 “I see,” he said, after some pages of this. “I thought as much. That will do.” He scribbled a long

commentary into my file.30 I was put into Señora Arellano’s class and, for what seemed a very long time, my parents were none

the wiser. I toted my children’s illustrated Historia del Peru, memorizing the whole litany of Inca rulers until I could recite their Quechua names with all the rattletybang of gunfire.

31 And Margarita Martinez paid attention to me.

From American Chica by Marie Arana. Copyright © 2001 by Marie Arana. Used by permission of The DialPress/Dell Publishing, a division of Random House, Inc.

____ 8. The mood at the beginning of the story can best be described as —

A. depressingB. mysteriousC. awkwardD. somber

____ 9. What is the author's perspective on moving into the English stream at her school? A. She doesn't think that her English is good enough to move into the English stream.B. She would rather be with her new friend in the stream for Spanish-speaking

students.C. She wants to please her parents by moving into the English stream. D. She thinks that it is a shame to be assigned to the Spanish stream.

____ 10. In paragraphs 2 and 3 the narrator characterizes Margarita as —

A. small and shyB. popular and outgoingC. tired and unhealthyD. lonely and frightened

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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____ 11. The high point of the plot occurs when the narrator —

A. walks through the crowded schoolyardB. talks to Margarita about Señora ArellanoC. debates whether to show her abilityD. memorizes the names of Inca rulers

____ 12. You can tell by his actions in paragraph 29 that the orange-haired man —

A. learned to speak Spanish before he learned EnglishB. thinks that Spanish class is more difficult than English classC. hopes to inspire the narrator to work harder to master EnglishD. suspected that the narrator could not read English well

____ 13. The point of view in this story allows the narrator to —

A. be a character in the storyB. know all the other characters’ thoughtsC. observe the action without participatingD. be a voice outside the story

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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Read the following selections. Then answer the questions that follow them.

from Cool Operators

Cynthia Berger

1 Driving forest roads in winter, Manitoba biologist Jim Duncan will often spot a great gray owl sitting motionless in a roadside tree, staring at the ground with round, yellow eyes. “You look where the owl is looking,” says Duncan, manager of biodiversity conservation with Canada’s Manitoba Wildlife Branch, “and all you see is a blanket of snow.” Yet suddenly the bird launches from its perch, folds its wings and plunges headfirst toward the ground. “You think it’s committing suicide,” he says.

2 Snow plunging looks like a desperate act, but it’s the opposite of suicidal—it’s how great gray owls make a living in the icy north. These owls—the largest in North America, reaching 33 inches in length—are diving after small rodents, mostly meadow voles that hunker in burrows beneath the snow.

3 Great grays aren’t the only owls that hunt prey like kamikaze pilots. Joining them in their maneuvers are northern hawk owls and boreal owls, which share the great gray’s boreal-forest range in northern Canada and Alaska and sometimes the high-elevation conifer forests of the American Rockies, Cascades and Sierras, and snowy owls, which live farther north above the Arctic Circle on the treeless tundra.

4 These owls share several other adaptations to their extreme environment, such as fluffy feathers that extend over vulnerable ankles and toes in subzero weather and plumage that makes them immune to the cold. The snowy’s outermost feathers, for example, are unusually stiff. Experts speculate that they function like a nylon jacket over polar fleece, blocking the tundra wind. “You’ve got to be impressed when you see a snowy owl sitting 100 feet up on a metal hydropole in a wind chill of 60 below,” says Duncan. “If you left your car without a coat in that weather, your skin would freeze in less than a minute. This bird just sits up there, looking happy as a lark.”

5 But the adaptation that most excites bird-watchers is when these owls start showing up in unexpected places. Scientists call these mass movements to the south irruptions because—unlike long-eared and short-eared owls, which breed in some of the same regions—these owls don’t migrate. Irruptions happen periodically, perhaps once every three to five years, most likely prompted by food shortages.

6 As dietary specialists, all four species of Arctic owls favor a particular prey species. Great grays and northern hawk owls prefer meadow voles, boreals focus on red-backed voles, and snowies primarily eat lemmings. “When the meadow vole population crashes every three to five years,” says Duncan, “there are still plenty of other prey a great gray could take—thousands of red-backed voles, grouse, hare—but for some reason these birds are not wired to take them.”

7 They are not like great horned owls, for example, which also inhabit—and stay put in—the great white north because they can dine on some 200 different prey species. Boreal and northern hawk owls do catch and stash extra dead rodents in handy tree crotches to eat later, when pickings are slim—the birds sit on frozen carcasses to thaw them first. But when things get desperate they head south in search of food.

8 Records of owl wanderings southward date back to 1831, when John James Audubon hurried to Marblehead, Massachusetts, hoping to see an errant great gray. (Unfortunately for the famous artist and naturalist, the owl died before he arrived.) During irruption years, snowy owls have been sighted as far south as North Carolina and Utah. During the irruption of 1986–87 observers counted 23 snowies in a single day at Boston’s Logan Airport. In the great gray owl irruption of 2001, birders in southeastern Manitoba spotted more than 100 in a single day.

9 Given that northern owl populations naturally experience large fluctuations in size, it’s hard for wildlife managers to determine whether species are stable or struggling.

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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10 To further complicate matters, the main source of data on North American bird population trends, the volunteer-based Breeding Bird Survey (BBS)—a collaboration between U.S. Geological Survey and the Canadian Wildlife Service—collects almost no data on northern owls. Relatively few humans, much less willing volunteers, live in the Canadian regions where these owls breed.

11 In the United States, data on northern owl populations are being collected through the survey and management program of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Northwest Forest Plan, which requires land managers to assess potential impacts on rare and sensitive species whenever timber sales are proposed in old growth forests. In May 2003, however, the Forest Service and BLM proposed eliminating some of the survey requirements. At press time a decision was still pending.

12 With scientists unable to get a fix on owl numbers, conservationists worry that loss of habitat—whether from natural disasters or human actions such as logging—could seriously harm owls without anyone noticing.

“Great grays often nest in the tops of dead snags, so they require fairly good-sized trees,” says Priestley.

Boreal owls nest in cavities excavated by pileated woodpeckers and northern flickers and also require big, old trees. The problem is that big trees also attract timber companies. A recent report published in Conservation Ecology predicted that most of the old-growth boreal forest in western Canada will be completely gone by 2065 if logging and drilling for oil and natural gas continue at current rates.

“Cool Operators” by Cynthia Berger. Reprinted with permission from the February/March 2004 issue of NationalWildlife magazine. Copyright 2004 by the National Wildlife Federation.

from Owls Aren’t Wise and Bats Aren’t BlindWarner Shedd

1 Snowy owls evolved as hunters on the vast, barren Arctic tundra, where they prefer to perch on the highest point around and wait until they spot their prey—then glide down to seize their victims by stealth. Thus, when they visit southern Canada and the United States, the big predators favor wide-open spaces (airfields such as Boston’s Logan Airport are often preferred hangouts) and high perches, where they can approximate tundra hunting conditions.

2 Snowy owls do much of their hunting diurnally. This is no great surprise, considering that there is daylight almost twenty-four hours a day during their high Arctic breeding and nesting season. Conversely, they must also be efficient night hunters during the long stretches of almost total Arctic darkness.

3 Summer prey for snowy owls consists almost entirely of mammals—mostly small, with lemmings making up the bulk of their diet. In winter, especially for those owls that migrate south, their meals are far more varied. Hares and ptarmigan help carry the owls through the winter in the Arctic, when lemmings are mostly active beneath the snow. Owls wintering farther south have proved quite adaptable when it comes to prey. Mice are a staple, but Norway rats are also prime fare. For that matter, so are pigeons, rabbits, dead fish, and almost anything else of suitable size that comes to the owls’ attention.

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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4 It was once thought that these white visitors from the Arctic came south in winter because of the shortage of lemmings. Although it’s a complete myth that lemmings periodically commit suicide by throwing themselves off cliffs into the sea, where they drown en masse, the plump little rodents are notoriously cyclical, going from almost unbelievably high populations to extreme scarcity every four or five years. Unquestionably, lemming numbers have an effect on snowy owl populations, but biologists are learning that the interrelationship between these two species is far more complex than has heretofore been suspected.

5 For one thing, there’s no evidence that lemming cycles are synchronized throughout the Arctic, and they may be quite regional. Since snowy owls by nature are great travelers, it’s no special feat for them to move from an area of lemming scarcity to one of abundance. For another, large numbers of snowy owls migrate annually to the Great Plains area of Canada and the United States without apparent reference to lemming cycles. Much remains to be learned about the dynamics of the lemming/snowy owl relationship.

From Owls Aren’t Wise & Bats Aren’t Blind by Warner Shedd. Copyright ©2000 by Warner Shedd. Used bypermission of Harmony Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

Snowy Owl Hatchling

Use the excerpt from “Cool Operators” (pp. 303–305) to answer these questions.

____ 14. The actions of owls described in paragraphs 1 and 2 indicate that great gray owls —

A. have a keen sense of sightB. use snow banks to cool offC. have difficulty finding foodD. use burrows to escape the cold

____ 15. What important idea from paragraph 5 contributes to what the selection is mainly about?

A. Birdwatchers enjoy witnessing the adaptations of many owls.B. Irruption is another name for the sudden dive an owl makes to get food.C. Long- and short-eared owls often show up in unexpected places.D. Some types of northern owls move south when food is unavailable.

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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____ 16. According to the article, owl habitats are probably being lost because of —

A. global warmingB. loggingC. predatory birdsD. disease

____ 17. Owl irruptions are one reason why —

A. meadow vole populations become scarce and die outB. major companies cease logging and drilling in the surrounding areasC. wildlife managers have difficulty determining the size of owl populationsD. scientists petition for the government to pass pro-wildlife legislation

____ 18. The writer most likely included the map to provide information about the —

A. reason so few owls live in the U.S.B. distance owls must fly to find foodC. portion of boreal forest in the U.S.D. vast extent of the owls’ habitat

____ 19. Based on the article and the map, you can tell that biologist Jim Duncan —

A. lives close to a boreal forestB. studies birds in northern AlaskaC. spends most of his time in QuebecD. works for a U.S. timber company

____ 20. The sources cited in paragraph 12 support the idea that

A. dead trees must be cut down to clear the way for new growthB. owls live in old-growth boreal forests in western CanadaC. owls and timer companies often compete for the same trees D. natural disasters have destroyed many acres of forest land

____ 21. Based on the article and the map, readers can tell that boreal forests are —

A. mostly stable in NunavutB. dwindling in British ColumbiaC. supported by Canadian touristsD. shifting to northern California

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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Use the excerpt from Owls Aren’t Wise and Bats Aren’t Blind (pp. 305–306) to answer these questions.

____ 22. According to paragraph 2, the snowy owl’s Arctic habitat is one reason that the owls —

A. choose lemmings over other mammalsB. have the ability to hunt day and nightC. sleep during months of total darknessD. migrate to warmer climates in winter

____ 23. Which is the best way to paraphrase the second sentence in paragraph 4?

A. Lemmings do not jump off cliffs to commit suicide. As a result, their population is frequently higher than expected.

B. Although lemming populations cycle every four or five years, this is only partially the result of their suicidal behavior.

C. Despite popular belief, lemmings do not intentionally drown themselves. However, their populations fluctuate every few years.

D. Scientists have recently discovered that lemmings do not commit suicide, but their cycles do not affect owl populations.

Use the excerpts from “Cool Operators” and Owls Aren’t Wise and Bats Aren’t Blind to answer these questions.

____ 24. What can the reader conclude about the owls discussed in the two articles?

A. Northern owls migrate because they are ill-suited to survive the extreme weather of their harsh environments.

B. Bird watchers are more interested in the migration patterns of snowy owls than of other northern owls.

C. Most northern owls have been forced to migrate because of the destruction of their natural habitat in the boreal forest.

D. More research is necessary to fully understand the migration patterns of northern owls.

Use the visual representation on page 306 to answer these questions.

____ 25. The photograph most likely shows a cracked egg in the setting to —

A. show that another baby owl is hatchingB. illustrate the effects of humans on natureC. suggest that the owl must fend for itselfD. demonstrate the size of a typical owl egg

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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____ 26. The purpose of the photographer’s close-up of the baby owl is to —

A. characterize the owl as a predatorB. emphasize the wildness of natureC. draw the viewer’s eyes to the grassD. affect the viewer’s emotions

Vocabulary

Use context clues and your knowledge of denotation and connotation to answer the following questions about words in “All the Years of Her Life.”

____ 27. Which word best describes the connotation of little in paragraph 1?

A. NervousB. LazyC. UnimpressiveD. Boring

____ 28. Which word best describes the connotation of drummed in paragraph 12?

A. JealousB. FrightenedC. WorriedD. Angry

____ 29. Which word best describes the connotation of shifted in paragraph 32?

A. ExhaustedB. ArrogantC. DepressedD. Nervous

Use context clues and your knowledge of synonyms and antonyms to answer the following questions about words in “Cool Operators.”

____ 30. Which word is an antonym for immune in paragraph 4?

A. PowerfulB. SensitiveC. AdjustableD. Mindful

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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____ 31. Which word is a synonym for collaboration in paragraph 10?

A. TreatyB. ExplanationC. PartnershipD. Assembly

Use context clues and your knowledge of multiple-meaning words to choose the correct dictionary definition of these words from American Chica.

____ 32. Which definition of streams is used in paragraph 7?

A. Rails, beams, or rays of lightB. Small flows of water in channels or bedsC. Trends of thought, history, or opinionD. Classes to which students are assigned

____ 33. Which definition of fortune is used in paragraph 8?

A. An individual’s destinyB. Luck, especially good luckC. Success in one’s lifeD. A large amount of wealth

____ 34. Which definition of volume is used in paragraph 19?

A. A large amount of somethingB. A book of printed pagesC. The loudness of a soundD. The total amount of a thing’s measurement

Use your knowledge of context clues to answer the following questions about words in Owls Aren’t Wise and Bats Aren’t Blind.

____ 35. Use context clues in paragraph 1 to decide what it means to do something by stealth.

A. Using forceB. In a secret wayC. Very quicklyD. With great speed

____ 36. Which context clues give a clue to the meaning of dynamics in paragraph 5?

A. Canada and the United StatesB. Reference to lemmingC. Much remainsD. Lemming/snowy owl relationship

Name: ________________________ ID: A

16

Revising and Editing

Directions

Read the essay and answer the questions that follow.

(1) Unlike most people my age, I am not counting the days until I can get my own car. (2) I would rather have a horse on my sixteenth birthday. (3) Please do not misunderstand me. (4) I want to drive as much as any teenager. (5) I also know that there is nothing better than a car when it comes to moving things or people. (6) However owning a horse is cheaper, better for your health, and much more enjoyable than owning a car.

(7) Firstly, the average horse costs less to buy and maintain than the average car. (8) A young, trained saddle, or pleasure, horse costs between $2,000 and $3,000. (9) The average car is much more expensive than that. (10) People say that the purchase price of a horse is the smallest expense and that it’s feeding and caring for a horse that cost too much. (11) This claim is baloney. (12) Feed, bedding, vet supplies and care, and shoeing services run an average of $2,000 a year. (13) Furthermore, much of the maintenance can be handled by the rider. (14) He or she does not need the specialized and expensive care of professionals. (15) Cars are much more expensive to maintain than horses are. (16) If you factor in insurance, parking, maintenance, and the high cost of gas, you can pay well over $8,000 to maintain your wheels. (17) Horses don’t lose their value, and riders are not required to have insurance.

(18) A horse is also a better choice because horseback riding improves a rider's health. (19) A rider uses up calories contracting and relaxing muscles to stay balanced. (20) A person burns about five calories a minute while riding a horse. (21) Trotting and cantering get up the heart rate. (22) Trotting and cantering also build leg muscles. (23) Furthermore, these activities build back muscles. (24) Granted, driving a car requires coordination, especially with a manual transmission. (25) In addition to coordination, riding a horse requires balance and flexibility. (26) Perhaps most significant, though, is the accident rate. (27) Crashes are far more likely to occur in a car than on a horse.

(28) The benefits of riding a horse are just as important though less tangible. (29) On horseback, the rider can explore places where cars cannot go. (30) The rider experiences nature up close, but the car driver observes it from a distance. (31) There is no sound of engines to cover the thick clop-clop of the horse’s hooves or the soft snuffles of its breath. (32) Instead of admiring new landscapes, the driver sits in bad traffic, sees construction, and experiences parking restrictions. (33) The car driver often wishes that he or she have a horse. (34) Finally, one cannot discount the bond that a horse and rider share. (35) Cars certainly have their advantages, but horses offer so much more.

____ 37. In the introduction, the writer tells you that the essay will compare and contrast horses and —

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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A. teenagersB. carsC. natureD. exercise

____ 38. Which sentence contains the thesis statement?

A. Sentence 3B. Sentence 4C. Sentence 5D. Sentence 6

____ 39. What is the correct way to punctuate sentence 6?

A. However, owning a horse is cheaper, better for your health, and much more enjoyable than owning a car.

B. However owning, a horse is cheaper, better for your health, and much more enjoyable than owning a car.

C. However owning a horse, is cheaper, better for your health, and much more enjoyable than owning a car.

D. However owning a horse is cheaper, better for your health and much more enjoyable, than owning a car.

____ 40. Which is a transitional word used in sentence 7?

A. FirstlyB. averageC. maintainD. than

____ 41. Sentence 8 supports the key idea that horses —

A. move quicklyB. make enjoyable petsC. promote good healthD. cost less

____ 42. Choose the BEST way to combine sentences 20 and 21 to create a compound sentence.

A. Trotting and cantering get up the heart rate, trotting and cantering build leg muscles.

B. Trotting and cantering get up the heart rate, they also build leg muscles.C. Trotting and cantering get up the heart rate, and they also build leg muscles.D. Trotting and cantering get up the heart rate and trotting and cantering build leg

muscles.

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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____ 43. Which precise verb would BEST replace get up in sentence 21?

A. Lift upB. ImproveC. Put upD. Increase

____ 44. Which precise verb would BEST replace cover in sentence 31?

A. ruinB. imitateC. replaceD. obscure

____ 45. The conclusion is satisfying because it —

A. uses a whimsical tone to compare and contrast the subjectB. reveals the health benefits of owning a horseC. says that teenagers would rather have horses for their birthdaysD. takes the comparison a step beyond factual information

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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Read these selections. Then answer the questions that follow them.

The Conger EelLiam O’Flaherty

1 He was eight feet long. At the centre of his back he was two feet in circumference. Slipping sinuously along the bottom of the sea at a gigantic pace, his black, mysterious body glistened and twirled like a wisp in a foaming cataract. His little eyes, stationed wide apart in his flat-boned, broad skull, searched the ocean for food. He coursed ravenously for miles along the base of the range of cliffs. He searched fruitlessly, except for three baby pollocks which he swallowed in one mouthful without arresting his progress. He was very hungry.

2 Then he turned by a sharp promontory and entered a cliff-bound harbour where the sea was dark and silent, shaded by the concave cliffs. Savagely he looked ahead into the dark waters. Then instantaneously he flicked his tail, rippling his body like a twisted screw, and shot forward. His long, thin, single whisker, hanging from his lower snout like a label tag, jerked back under his belly. His glassy eyes rested ferociously on minute white spots that scurried about in the sea a long distance ahead. The conger eel had sighted his prey. There was a school of mackerel a mile away.

3 He came upon them headlong, in a flash. He rose out of the deep from beneath their white bellies, and gripped one mackerel in his wide-open jaws ere his snout met the surface. Then, as if in a swoon, his body went limp, and tumbling over and over, convulsing like a crushed worm, he sank lower and lower until at last he had swallowed the fish. Then immediately he straightened out and flicked his tail, ready to pursue his prey afresh.

4 The school of mackerel, when the dread monster had appeared among them, were swimming just beneath the surface of the sea. When the eel rushed up they had hurled themselves clean out of the water with the sound of innumerable grains of sand being shaken in an immense sieve. The thousand blue and white bodies flashed and shimmered in the sun for three moments, and then they disappeared, leaving a large patch of the dark water convulsing turbulently. Ten thousand little fins cut the surface of the sea as the mackerel set off in headlong flight. Their white bellies were no longer visible. They plunged down into the depths of the sea, where their blue-black sides and backs, the colour of the sea, hid them from their enemy. The eel surged about in immense figures of eight; but he had lost them.

5 Half hungry, half satisfied, he roamed about for half an hour, a demented giant of the deep, traveling restlessly at an incredible speed. Then at last his little eyes again sighted his prey. Little white spots again hung like faded drops of brine in the sea ahead of him. He rushed thither. He opened his jaws as the spots assumed shape, and they loomed up close to his eyes. But just as he attempted to gobble the nearest one, he felt a savage impact. Then something hard and yet intangible pressed against his head and then down along his back. He leaped and turned somersault. The hard, gripping material completely enveloped him. He was in a net. While on all sides of him mackerel wriggled gasping in the meshes.

6 The eel paused for two seconds amazed and terrified. Then all around him he saw a web of black strands hanging miraculously in the water, everywhere, while mackerel with heaving gills stood rigid in the web, some with their tails and heads both caught and their bodies curved in an arch, others encompassed many times in the uneven folds, others girdled firmly below the gills with a single black thread. Glittering, they eddied back and forth with the stream of the sea, a mass of fish being strangled in the deep.

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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7 Then the eel began to struggle fiercely to escape. He hurtled hither and thither, swinging his long slippery body backwards and forwards, ripping with his snout, surging forward suddenly at full speed, churning the water. He ripped and tore the net, cutting great long gashes in it. But the more he cut and ripped the more deeply enmeshed did he become. He did not release himself, but he released some of the mackerel. They fell from the torn meshes, stiff and crippled, downwards, sinking like dead things. Then suddenly one after another they seemed to wake from sleep, shook their tails, and darted away, while the giant eel was gathering coil upon coil of the net about his slippery body. Then, at last, exhausted and half strangled, he lay still, heaving.

8 Presently he felt himself being hauled up in the net. The net crowded around him more, so that the little gleaming mackerel, imprisoned with him, rubbed his sides and lay soft and flabby against him, all hauled up in the net with him. He lay still. He reached the surface and gasped, but he made no movement. Then he was hauled heavily into a boat, and fell with a thud into the bottom.

9 The two fishermen in the boat began to curse violently when they saw the monstrous eel that had torn their net and ruined their catch of mackerel. The old man on the oars in the bow called out: “Free him and kill him.” The young man who was hauling in the net looked in terror at the slippery monster that lay between his feet, with its little eyes looking up cunningly, as if it were human. He almost trembled as he picked up the net and began to undo the coils. “Slash it with your knife,” yelled the old man, “before he does more harm.” The young man picked up his knife from the gunwale where it was stuck, and cut the net, freeing the eel. The eel, with a sudden and amazing movement, glided up the bottom of the boat, so that he stretched full length.

10 Then he doubled back, rocking the boat as he beat the sides with his whirling tail, his belly flopping in the water that lay in the bottom. The two men screamed, both crying: “Kill him, or he’ll drown us.” “Strike him on the nable.” They both reached for the short, thick stick that hung from a peg amidships. The young man grabbed it, bent down, and struck at the eel. “Hit him on the nable!” cried the old man; “catch him, catch him, and turn him over.”

11 They both bent down, pawing at the eel, cursing and panting, while the boat rocked ominously and the huge conger eel glided around and around at an amazing speed. Their hands clawed his sides, slipping over them like skates on ice. They gripped him with their knees, they stood on him, they tried to lie on him, but in their confusion they could not catch him.

12 Then at last the young man lifted him in his arms, holding him in the middle, gripping him as if he were trying to crush him to death. He staggered upwards. “Now strike him on the nable!” he yelled to the old man. But suddenly he staggered backwards. The boat rocked. He dropped the eel with an oath, reaching out with his hands to steady himself. The eel’s head fell over the canted gunwale. His snout dipped into the sea. With an immense shiver he glided away, straight down, down to the depths, down like an arrow, until he reached the dark, weed-covered rocks at the bottom.

13 Then stretching out to his full length he coursed in a wide arc to his enormous lair, far away in the silent depths.

“The Conger Eel” by Liam O’Flaherty (Copyright © Liam O’Flaherty 1937) is reproduced by permission ofPFD (www.pfd.co.uk) on behalf of Liam O’Flaherty.

Mark Pfetzer had been involved in the sport of rock climbing since the age of twelve. In this selection, sixteen-year-old Mark describes spending the night at a camp below the summit of Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world.

from Within Reach: My Everest StoryMark Pfetzer and Jack Galvin

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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1 Camp Four is at 26,000 feet. Above 25,000 feet—known as the “Death Zone”—the temperatures and winds can be so severe, the air so thin, that climbers are in constant danger. Thinking and movement slow down; even a small error like dropping a glove can mean death, because a hand can freeze, become useless. So these tents are vital to survival. Fortunately for Jabion and me, ours are the first tents we come to. I stumble inside, get the mask off, wipe the icicles and slime off my face, and Jabion mumbles something about his hands. They are extremely white. I start yelling at him as if I’m the father and he’s the little kid. “Ya shoulda said something back there!”

2 “Aw,” he mumbles. That’s all he can think of to say. Possible frostbite—the kind that costs fingers—and all he can say is “Aw”? I put his hands under my armpits for five minutes, give him a high dosage of oxygen, put his heavy mittens on, and Jabion lucks out. A half hour later he’s fine. Lost in the moment is my personal altitude record: 26,000 feet. Soon we all crowd into two tents: Neil, Brigeete, Michael, and Graham in one tent. Pemba, Pasang, Jabion, Lhakpa, Ang Tshering, and me in the other. Thirty oxygen bottles, a small stove, and six guys in sleeping bags have us all jammed in. Jabion’s arm sticks into my shoulder; I’m next to Pasang, who smells; and, as close as we are, the wind—the train roaring next to your ear now—drowns out the loudest shout. As strange as it may seem, I love it here in this tent. I’m relatively warm, have no headache, am breathing fairly easily, and will summit Everest tomorrow. I am ready. I have worked toward this moment since I was thirteen, climbed the highest mountains in South America, reached 25,000 feet on Everest last year, and trained very hard to be here at Camp Four. In spite of all the critics who say a sixteen-year-old has no business on Everest, I am within reach of the summit.

3 Funny that I should choose to be with the Sherpas, the people who live in the mountains and work as our guides, porters, and cooks. Most climbers keep their distance and have only a work relationship with them. Al Burgess introduced me to the Sherpas when I first came to Nepal three years ago, and so I learned to visit their homes, drink tea with them, help them carry equipment. They, in turn, have taught me that time means so little, that you focus on each day, get up with the sun, eat, work all day, eat, and go to bed when it gets dark.

4 Over the last three years, I learned what great people the Sherpas are. In fact, Jabion and I became very good friends, so much so that I promised I’d take him to America for the summer after this trip. I already have his visa arranged. The other Sherpas have their orders in for hats and T-shirts. About five o’clock, Neil comes in from the other tent and shouts above the wind, “Henry radioed. Says some of Scott Fischer’s climbers might be missing.” While we are having difficulty being heard, keeping warm, and eating limp noodles, there are climbers outside in this wind!

5 Neil’s back soon. “Now Henry says Ray’s missing!” A veteran climber once told me that one of the most important pieces of equipment a climber uses on Everest is the two-way radio. By calling back and forth, Base Camp people and their climbers, who are spread all over the mountain, can exchange important information about conditions and positions. Our two-way radio has become a lifeline.

6 Jabion and Pemba bundle up, put on headlamps, and head out into the dark to look for Ray. They will follow the trail down toward Camp Three and hope to find him safely tucked behind a rock. They are soon back. “Can’t see.” Jabion points to his lamp. We all know what he means: the snow is coming horizontally, so hard that a headlamp is useless, as are the dark lenses of the goggles at night. Without goggles they risk taking the needlelike snow directly at the eyes.

7 The night goes on, and we have no idea what may be happening outside. As time goes along, we do know that anyone stuck out there will have at least nine more hours of pitch dark, snow driven by winds over a hundred miles an hour, and windchill near a hundred below. We doze, we eat, we drink, and slowly all the inevitable questions seep in. Is this just one storm? Has the window of opportunity closed? Are there people hurt? Dead? None of us huddled in our tent know the answers. I begin to feel my cough steal away more and more of my strength. I have to summit soon, before I lose my strength. We’re so close—within reach—and all we can do is hang on to this scab of rocks, 26,000 feet up, and hope that daylight will give us new hope to reach our goal.

Name: ________________________ ID: A

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From Within Reach: My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer and Jack Galvin. Copyright © 1998 by Mark Pfetzer andJack Galvin. Used by permission of Dutton Children’s Books, A Division of Penguin Young Readers Group, A

Member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc., 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. All rights reserved.

Reading Comprehension

Use “The Conger Eel” (pp. 318–320) to answer these questions.

____ 46. The fact that the mackerel are “glittering” in paragraph 6 suggests that they symbolize —

A. an unknown forceB. the danger of natureC. a desirable objectD. the power of sunlight

____ 47. The net that traps the eel symbolizes the —

A. interference of humans with natureB. bond between the eel and the mackerelC. brutality of the natural worldD. uniqueness of natural creatures

____ 48. What does the eel’s lair symbolize in the story?

A. PowerB. NightC. HumanityD. Refuge

Use the excerpt from Within Reach: My Everest Story (pp. 320–322) to answer these questions.

____ 49. Based on paragraph 3, the reader can infer that the Sherpas—

A. usually do not mingle socially with American climbersB. believe in keeping a very strict day-to-day scheduleC. are very picky about the kinds of food they eatD. admire the lifestyle of most American climbers

____ 50. Which statement puts events from the excerpt in the correct sequence?

A. The narrator promises to take Jabion to America after the two reach their tent.B. Jabion complains about his hands after going out to look for the missing climber.C. Jabion and Pemba leave the tent after Neil reports a missing climber.D. The narrator meets the Sherpas after he and Jabion crowd into the tent.