Read the paragraph from “Capturing the Moment” by Gary Soto.

(REALISTIC FICTION)

Lisa turned and gasped. Over the lake arched a rainbow that began somewhere behind the tractors. The centerpiece was the pair of egrets, still as statues. Even Pecas stopped his whining. Lisa wondered, Can he really see the rainbow? She had read that dogs were mostly color-blind, but that birds, even common ones like the sparrow and finch, could slice the color red into a dozen shades. Their world was richer in color than some of the greatest paintings.

Which statement best expresses a central idea of this paragraph?

Examine the image and Read the paragraph from “A Man’s Cup” from Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruchac.

(NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORICAL FICTION)

Ohkwa'ri put the sumac blowpipe back on the shelf above his uncle's bed. Like all things that would be useful to more than one person, it was kept in plain sight. That way, if anyone in the village had need of it they could simply take it and return it when they were done. Truly personal things—like Ohkwa'ri's stone with its two beautiful crystal —were kept out of sight in the bark boxes under everyone's beds. No one would ever look under another person's bed.

Which important idea does the author develop in this paragraph?

Read the paragraph from “Capturing the Moment” by Gary Soto.

I’ll draw the lake, Lisa decided. She liked drawing birds, but had grown tired of sparrows, blue jays, and blackbirds wrapped in glossiness. These days she liked doing portraits, though she could draw objects, too. The previous week she had drawn the pile of tires behind the tractors; the drawing now adorned the front of the refrigerator.

Which inference about Lisa is best supported by this paragraph?

Read the paragraphs from “Robots on the Reef."

(INFORMATIONAL TEXT)

Coralbots are small robots designed to piece together damaged coral in the oceans. The Centre for Marine Biodiversity and Biotechnology (CMBB) has piloted a program exploring the use of such robots to efficiently and safely restore coral reefs. Scientists at CMBB hope to program Coralbots to locate colonies of endangered coral and reconstruct them. Following a simple set of rules, several robots would work as a team to seek out coral fragments that have broken off and cement the pieces to reefs. Coralbots would also be programmed to discriminate between coral and non-coral objects. Scientists believe these robots could someday repair a reef in just a few weeks.

What is one reason scientists are most excited about Coralbots restoring coral reefs in the ocean?

Read the paragraph from “Robots on the Reef,”

The idea of working as a team is not new in nature. Insects work together to build hives, and birds work together to build nests. Noel Sharkey, a scientist working on the Coralbots project, said, “Look at termites—a termite follows a simple rule, pushing a little ball of dirt until it meets another ball of dirt. And you end up with these huge mounds that termites build and live in.” Sharkey says that the Coralbots would work in a similar way.

Which text evidence best supports the central idea that coralbots will efficiently restore the coral reefs throughout the ocean?

Read the paragraph from The Fast and the Furriest by Andy Behrens.

In the days that followed, it became perfectly clear that Cromwell was obsessed with agility. It was not merely a phase, but an addiction. He dropped his leash at Kevin's feet constantly. He ran phantom courses in the backyard. He lodged himself in the tire swing daily. It was mid-June and oppressively hot, but not even a series of 100-degree days could stop the dog. At times, Kevin would simply sit in a lawn chair, spraying himself with the hose, while Cromwell made run after failed run at the tire swing. Zach accompanied them on what Kevin felt were murderously long walks. At Montrose Beach, Cromwell ran through obstacle courses that Kevin constructed from abandoned tin pails and shovels; in Homer Park, the dog routinely broke free of his leash and tore through picnics and volleyball games; on the lakefront path, he chased bikes and terrorized pigeons. (Or maybe he just amused them. Tough to tell with pigeons.) He was an entirely new—and an unrelentingly active—Cromwell Pugh.

What information does the setting mainly suggest about Cromwell? (How does the setting affect the plot?)

The Fast and the Furriest

In the days that followed, it became perfectly clear that Cromwell was obsessed with agility. It was not merely a phase, but an addiction. He dropped his leash at Kevin's feet constantly. He ran phantom courses in the backyard. He lodged himself in the tire swing daily. It was mid-June and oppressively hot, but not even a series of 100-degree days could stop the dog. At times, Kevin would simply sit in a lawn chair, spraying himself with the hose, while Cromwell made run after failed run at the tire swing. Zach accompanied them on what Kevin felt were murderously long walks. At Montrose Beach, Cromwell ran through obstacle courses that Kevin constructed from abandoned tin pails and shovels; in Homer Park, the dog routinely broke free of his leash and tore through picnics and volleyball games; on the lakefront path, he chased bikes and terrorized pigeons. (Or maybe he just amused them. Tough to tell with pigeons.) He was an entirely new—and an unrelentingly active—Cromwell Pugh.

Which textual evidence from paragraph 1 best supports the answer to #7?

Read the paragraphs from “Canal Dreams.”

(1) What I recalled most vividly, often at night, was my reflection on the surface of the river when the stars were shining. There were stretches of the Susquehanna so calm and smooth they reminded me of a mirror Earth was holding up—less to the day sky with its blank sheet of brilliant blue than to the night sky with all its variation. The quiet would occasionally be interrupted by the quick splash of a bass leaping to snatch a dragonfly from the night air.

(2) It wasn’t a bad place to be at the age of thirteen. My grandfather was with me always (to this day I can shut my eyes and see him sitting at the head of our flat-bottomed craft, often with his greatcoat spread about him like a tent). I should have been in school, but we had been living near the Maryland line. Slavery was still legal in Maryland, and although my grandfather and I had been born free, the lower Susquehanna was much too close to slavery for safety’s sake. My grandfather had always made his living as a boatman, first in Virginia, and subsequently in Pennsylvania, a free state. Or at least more free. The river represented freedom, and safety, too.

According to the paragraphs, why does the grandfather allow his grandson to work with him instead of attending school?

Read the paragraphs from “Canal Dreams."

The Susquehanna River was the main highway of central Pennsylvania then, so wide the railroads couldn’t yet cross it. One track slithered up the eastern bank—sometimes when we were navigating among the willow-studded islands around Dalmatia, we would hear its rude hoot and see the smoke from its funnel. My grandfather said he knew a day would come when the flatboat trade would end—barges like our flatboat being all that could ply the Susquehanna’s shallow waters—but for the moment it was a good enough living for one man. And then for two, for I foolishly believed myself a man, helping my grandfather load and unload our craft or carrying the boat on our shoulders when summer drought made the shallows shallower. We hauled whatever we were paid to haul, buttons and nails from Harrisburg up to the little river towns, then grain back down.

What is the primary significance of the railroad to the narrator and his grandfather?