Reading Assessment

What does displacement mean as it is used in paragraph 3 of Text 1: “In our digital

world, are young people losing their ability to read emotions?”

• substitution

• advance

• support

• establishment

Which quotation best helps the reader determine the meaning of displacement?

• “Decreased sensitivity to emotional cues...”

• “...understand the emotions of other people...”

• “...one of the costs.”

• “...in-person social interaction by screen interaction...”

Which sentence best states the central idea of Text 1

• New research shows that teenagers are more likely to have positive social relationships

  when they spend time at the Pali Institute.

• New research indicates that technology has a negative impact on teens’ ability to

  understand the emotions of other people.

• New research demonstrates the importance of establishing friendships through both social

  media and face-to-face interactions.

• New research reveals that teenagers spend the majority of their evenings interacting with

  technology.

Which sentence from Text 1 best supports the correct answer to Part A?

• “Children’s social skills may be declining as they have less time for face-to-face interaction

  due to their increased use of social media, according to a UCLA psychology study.”

• “The group of 54 would attend the camp later, after the study was conducted.”

• “The students also watched videos of actors interacting with one another and were

  
  

  instructed to describe the characters’ emotions.”

• “Students who participated in the study reported that they text, watch television, and play

  
  

  video games for an average of four-and-a half hours on a typical school day.

Which sentence from Text 1 provides the best support for the claim that “social interaction is

needed to develop skills in understanding the emotions of people”?

• “The psychologists studied two sets of sixth-graders from a Southern California Public

  School: 51 who lived together for five days at the Pali Institute, a nature and science camp

  about 70 miles east of Los Angeles, and 54 others from the same school.”

• “The camp doesn’t allow students to use electronic devices – a policy that many students

  found to be challenging for the first couple of days.”

• “The children who had been at the camp improved significantly over the five days in their

  ability to read facial emotions and other nonverbal cues to emotion, compared with

  students who continued to use their media devices.”

• “Researchers tracked how many errors the students made when attempting to identify the

  emotions in the photos and videos.”

In Text 1, the author states: “‘Many people are looking at the benefits of digital media in

education, and not many are looking at the costs.’” How does this quotation impact the article?

• It explains why the researchers were interested in sixth-grade students rather than students

  of other ages.

• It explains why the researchers believed the study would have negative results.

• It explains why the researchers considered the results of the study consistent with other

  
  

  findings.

• It explains why the researchers initially chose to undertake the study.

Reread paragraph 16 from Text 1. How does the author’s choice to conclude the article

with these sentences impact his overall message?

• In concluding the article with a reference to “emoticons,” the author highlights the

  researchers’ belief that future researchers should use tools that are familiar to teens.

• In concluding the article with a reference to “face-to-face communication,” the author

  provides support for the researchers’ perspective that all forms of communication are

  equally important.

• In concluding the article with an explanation of humans as “social creatures,” the author

  reveals the researchers’ belief that social media can help teens to develop social skills.

• In concluding with a statement in favor of “device-free time,” the author emphasizes the

  researchers’ perspective that teenagers should spend more time engaging with each other.

Which sentence from Text 1 best supports the correct answer to Part A?

• “At the beginning and end of the study, both groups of students were evaluated for their

  ability to recognize other peoples’ emotions in photos or videos.”

• “If you are not practicing face-to-face communication, you could be losing important social

  skills.”

• “Greenfield, the director of the CDMC, considers the results significant, given that they

  occurred after only five days.”

• “We’ve shown a model of what more face-to-face interaction can do,” Greenfield said.

In the text, the author describes the implications of the study, what does implications mean?

• results

• achievements

• conclusions

• significance

Based on the information in the text, is technology beneficial or harmful to children and teenagers? You can choose more than one answer.

• Teenagers may have negative social consequences due to using technology, they also note that “many people are looking at the benefits of digital media in education.”

• The author notes that teens have trouble reading the emotions of the people around them when they spend too much time using technology.

• The author notes that the results of this particular study, while limited to a group of 105 students, are “significant,” because they occurred over 5 days.

• The author notes that teenagers received benefits when they spent five days without access to cell phones or other devices. The author notes that the results of the study are “significant,” because they occurred over a minimal amount of time (5 days).