4. "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" Assessment

1. What is most likely the author’s reason for mentioning that Harriet had been told that “anyone walking toward the North could use the star as a guide” in Paragraph 4?

• She is showing how Harriet formed such a close bond with her father.
• She is foreshadowing how a slave like Harriet might escape to freedom.
• She is pointing out false myths being spread about the North Star.
• She was expressing her admiration for astronomy.

2. Which of the following choices best explains why the adults around Harriet “freeze into stillness” at the sound of horses in Paragraph 5?

• They worry that a runaway slave will be caught and beaten.
• They are afraid that they will be trampled by the horses.
• They do not want to be forced to ride horses into town.
• They know that the horses signal a possible outbreak of war.

3. Which of the following choices best explains why Harriet hears the song sung so quiet that it is “almost whispered” in Paragraph 14?

• The song was a spiritual tune that felt most powerful in low tones.
• The song was a secret that slaves were not eager to share with one another.
• Slaves were only supposed to sing religious songs on Sundays.
• The slaves knew they could get in trouble if they were caught singing the song.

4. What do the following lines from Paragraph 18 reveal?

• The children on the plantation were given better care than the adults.
• Harriet was didn't care at how limited her access to clothing was.
• The special issue days were the only time children received clothing.
• The children wore any extra clothes that the adults were not using.

5. Which of these inferences is best supported by the text?

• Being knowledgeable about nature provided Harriet and Ben with an escape from their reality and a way to bond with each other.
• Ben learned everything he could about the outdoors because he wanted to start his own farm.
• Harriet does not trust Edward Broadas’s relationship with her father.
• Ben was able to know so much about the world since he was free when he was growing up.

6. Which passage from the text most strongly supports the answer to question 5?

• “Everyone on the plantation admired this skill of Ben's. Even the master, Edward Brodas.”
• “There was something free and wild in Harriet because of Ben.”
• “He said the Big Buckwater River, which lay off to the southeast of the plantation, was just a little stream compared to the Choptank, and the Choptank was less than nothing compared to the Bay.”
• “Old Rit taught Harriet the words of that song that the slaves were forbidden to sing, because of the man named Denmark Vesey, who had urged the other slaves to revolt by telling them about Moses and the children of Israel.”

7. What is a central idea of the excerpt?

• Many of the most valuable lessons Harriet learned came from her childhood.
• Harriet did not trust either of her parents.
• Other than talking to their immediate families, slaves on the plantation tended to keep to themselves.
• When the slaves were together, they had nothing to worry about.

8. Which sentence from the text most strongly supports your answer to question 7?

• “The slaves cooked in the quarter and washed their clothes and sang and told stories.”
• “At the same time, someone had taught her where to look for the North Star, the star that stayed constant, not rising in the east and setting in the west as the other stars appeared to do; and told her that anyone walking toward the North could use that star as a guide.”
• “She saw the grown folks freeze into stillness, not moving, scarcely breathing, while they listened.”
• “Harriet stood close to him when he studied the sky, licked his forefinger and held it up to determine the direction of the wind, then announced that there would be rain or frost or fair weather.”

9. Which word could you replace "equivalent" with and not change the meaning of the sentence below. Each slave received eight pounds of pickled pork or its equivalent in fish, one bushel of Indian meal (corn meal), one pint of salt.

• less than
• more than
• the same
• worst case

10. Which piece of evidence best supports the conclusion that Harriet learned valuable lessons from her father?

• a. But she shared their pleasures, too.
• b. Ben could tell if it was going to rain, when the first frost would come, tell whether there was going to be a long stretch of clear sunny days.
• c. Everyone on the plantation admired this skill of Ben's. Even the master, Edward Brodas.
• d. The other slaves were in awe of Ben because he could prophesy about the weather.
• e. Harriet stood close to him when he studied the sky, licked his forefinger and held it up to determine the direction of the wind, then announced that there would be rain or frost or fair weather.