from The Emperor’s Silent Army

Which sentence from the beginning of The Emperor’s Silent Army does the author use to build

suspense after a farmer’s shovel hits something hard?

• They are looking for a good place to dig a well.

• The farmers choose a spot near a grove of persimmon trees.

• Now, more carefully, the men dig around the something.

• The three well-diggers are not so superstitious.

The author says that after the farmers discovered the clay head, they stopped digging and reported

their discovery to a local official. These details introduce the selection’s main topic of

• Chinese archeology.

• Chinese emperors.

• Chinese currency.

• Chinese pottery.

Which excerpt from the selection helps explain how the kingdom of Qin became a powerful

empire?

• The name China comes from Qin.

• Known as the fierce tiger of Qin, . . . he was the first emperor of China.

• Not for another hundred years would the Chinese know that empires existed beyond their

  boundaries.

• By 221 B.C., the ruler of the Qin kingdom had “eaten up his neighbors like a silkworm

  devouring a leaf” . . .

Which detail helps readers understand why Qin Shihuang sent people to find a magic elixir in the

legendary Eastern Islands?

• Qin Shihuang feared death more than anything and wanted to live forever.

• Some people in ancient China believed that eating jade would prolong life.

• Qin Shihuang had heard of a potion that protected people from their enemies.

• People in ancient China believed that life after death was similar to life on earth.

Which sentence from The Emperor’s Silent Army provides the BEST support for the claim that

until modern times, no one had seen the inside of Qin Shihuang’s tomb?

• Along with the Great Pyramids in Egypt, the buried army is now considered one of the true

  wonders of the ancient world.

• According to legend, [the emperor’s tomb] had a domed ceiling inlaid with clusters of pearls

  to represent the sun, moon, and stars.

• The emperor also made certain that the workers who carried his coffin in to its final resting

  place never revealed its exact whereabouts.

• Until 1974, nobody knew that right below the people of northern China an enormous

  underground army had been standing guard, silently and watchfully, for more than 2,200

  years.

Which detail explains why Qin Shihuang had the terracotta army built?

• Qin Shihuang feared robbers would loot the treasures in his tomb.

• Qin Shihuang put in his tomb things that he would need to enjoy in the afterlife.

• Qin Shihuang had many enemies and wanted the soldiers to protect him for eternity.

• Qin Shihuang wanted to keep his memory as emperor alive so he made statues of himself.

Read the paragraph.

The author of The Emperor’s Silent Army calls the discovery of the ancient clay soldiers one

of the largest and most incredible archeological discoveries of modern times. She notes that

this (spectacular) army of terracotta soldiers is now considered one of the true (wonders) of the

ancient world.

The underlined context clues help readers determine that in this paragraph, incredible means

• appealing.

• bewildering.

• remarkable.

• sophisticated.

Read the paragraph.

The ministers tricked the empire’s citizens to conceal Qin Shihuang’s death. Their pretense

came to an end after the smell from the chariot became too strong to hide.

Context clues in the sentences help readers determine that a “pretense” is used

• to obey a ruler.

• to deceive people.

• to imagine a scene.

• to impress people.

Choose the sentence that contains a capitalization error.

• It is celebrated during the fifth lunar month of the Chinese Calendar.

• The Dragon Boat Festival is an important holiday in China.

• A festival tradition is to eat sticky rice dumplings.

• It honors an ancient Chinese poet, Qu Yuan.

Choose the sentence that uses correct capitalization.

• Ancient Greeks in Naukratis, Egypt made terra cotta sculptures during the Sixth Century

  b.c.e.

• Artists in Mesopotamia etched scenes from the epic of gilgamesh on tablets made of terra

  cotta.

• In 2018, researchers found terra cotta figurines in the ruins of an ancient city on a Coral Reef

  in Egypt.

• The Northwestern Terra Cotta Company was one of the biggest producers of terra cotta tiles

  in the United States during the 1900s.