Eighth Grade Georgia Milestones

How does the highlighted phrase function in the sentence?
Because field trips are educational, the class wanted to visit the museum.

• A. verb
• B. subject
• C. direct object
• D. predicate nominative

After reading the passage "Pony Express" in class, answer the following questions:
1,) Which detail from the passage indicates that Caleb is self-conscious?

• A. The low morning sun stretched across the hotel dining room as a young cowboy walked toward the lone occupant.
• B. Holding his new Stetson hat respectfully at his side, the cowboy walked toward him.
• C. He fidgeted with his hat, not knowing where it should go, but certain that it couldn't go back on his head.
• D. He was to ride alone except when an escort with the local law was arranged.

Read the sentence from the passage "Pony Express".
Mercifully, two orders of steak, eggs, beans, and sourdough biscuits arrived before any more pauses set in.
In what way is the arrival of food a merciful event?

• A. Caleb was in need of food because he had not been making much money.
• B. Caleb was less likely to embarrass himself while he was busy eating.
• C. The Pony Express delivered meals to those who were going hungry.
• D. The breakfast was provided free of charge to Pony Express riders.

Which detail would be BEST to include in a summary of the passage "Pony Express"?

• A. A waitress filled his coffee cup.
• B. He should report conditions on the trail.
• C. At length, the man stood and shook hands with Caleb a last time.
• D. His own personal saddle was already on a small Appaloosa.

This question has two parts. Answer Part A, and then answer Part B.
Part A
What motivates Caleb to want to become a Pony Express rider?

• A. a desire to be independent from his family
• B. a need for adventure in his life
• C. a desire to make a great deal of money
• D. a need to travel to other places

Part B
Which sentence from the passage BEST supports the answer in Part A?

• A. Caleb Sewell was taken off guard at being addressed as Mister, especially by a man wearing a suit that Caleb couldn't afford with the wages of his last month's work.
• B. He must never exhause the horses; he would ride six or seven each day, and they were the lifeline of the whole enterprise.
• C. He had no words to explain their disappointment at his wanting to chart his own course, not to mention how effortlessly he'd settled into a life on the plains.
• D. The horse bolted for the open road, but Caleb's deft touch convinced the horse of the pace they would maintain.

Read the passage "Living in the Darkness Under the Sea" and answer questions 6 through 7.
6. Which detail from the passage BEST supports the conclusion that the deep-sea organisms described in the passage may have changed our understanding of life?

• A. tall rock formations jutting up from the ocean floor and surrounded by black smoke
• B. These odd creatures are not only alive, but living in this dark underworld away from light.
• C. large cracks, or vents, in the ocean floor where these creatures exist
• D. Energy is being released below the surface of the water.

7. Which of these BEST expresses the meaning of deriving in the sentence?
It's as if these undersea vents have created a unique ecosystem, deriving energy from Earth itself

• A. depositing
• B. emptying
• C. extracting
• D. wasting

Read the passage "Panda Economics" and answer questions 10 through 13.
10. Read these sentences from paragraph 2.
They spend at least half of their day pulling bamboo of the trees. They can eat almost thirty pounds in a day. That's quite an appetite. But pandas do more than just ingest the bamboo.
Which words BEST replace ingest without changing the meaning of the sentence?

• A. grab onto
• B. almost ruin
• C. hungrily eat
• D. lightly nibble

Which sentence BEST explains the central idea of the passage?

• A. The panda population is declining.
• B. Pandas are endangered and need help.
• C . Ecotourism encourages travel to a foreign country.
• D. Ecotourism helps pandas and the national economy.