HSPA Language Arts Literacy: Reading Narrative Texts
Summary of Content to be Tested
Students will be given 50 minutes for the Reading Narrative text portion of the
HSPA.
Students will read a narrative passage and then respond to multiple-choice and
open-ended questions to assess literal and inferential thinking. Questions will be
based on those skills that critical readers use to understand, analyze, and assess
texts.
For the purposes of this assessment, "narrative text" is defined as literature
written primarily to tell a story. Good narrative literature, which establishes or
develops a conflict, addresses common aspects of human existence. Because
appropriate literature may contain unsettling or disturbing issues or events, text
selected for the assessment will provide a positive resolution and affirm the
dignity of the human spirit.
Students will be assessed on their ability to interpret and critique/analyze the
content, meaning, and organization of texts. In the final section of the test,
Extending Understanding of the Text, students will complete an open-ended
writing project in which they apply and extend what they have read as they make
decisions, solve problems, and create original works.
Students will:
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Recognize a theme or central idea.
Recognize details that develop or support the main idea.
Extrapolate information and/or follow directions.
Paraphrase, retell, or interpret words, phrases, or sentences from
the text.
Recognize the original structure of the text.
Recognize a purpose for reading.
Make tentative predictions of meaning.
Make judgments, form opinions, and draw conclusions from the
text.
Interpret textual conventions and literary elements.
General Tips for Reading Narrative Text
Since a narrative text tells a story, active readers will get more out of the story if they begin with a
series of questions to guide their reading.
Who is telling the story? Who is the narrator?
This is important because it sets the stage for the rest of the story. The narrative can be in one of
three voices: 1st person, 3rd person omniscient, and 3rd person limited.
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1st person narratives are told by a character within the story. This narrator can
be identified by the use of the pronoun, "I" when relating to objects or events
within the story. If the story is told in 1st person, be sure to identify what the
narrator's role is within the story. Is s/he a main character? Just an observer?
How is s/he involved with the issues? These questions will help identify any
motive in telling a story a certain way, or giving or omitting certain details.
3rd person limited narratives are told by an observer of the story. Limited
narratives are identified by the inability of the narrator to know what is going on in
the thoughts of all of the characters, all of the time.
3rd person omniscient narratives are told by an outside observer who is
everywhere and knows every character's thoughts, background, and sometimes
future.
What is the setting and who are the characters? Where and when does the story take place?
Who is involved? What are the basics of the plot- that is, what is the story basically about? Who
is the main character? Who are the secondary characters?
What is the conflict? Conflict can take many forms, but most often the conflict can be generalized
as internal or external.
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An internal conflict occurs when a character wrestles with him or herself over
an issue or a decision. An example of this might be story about an honest
student who sees a close friend cheat on a test and then wrestles with whether
or not to turn in his friend.
An external conflict may be with another person (man versus man), with nature,
or with some other event or force outside of the character's control. A skier
trapped in an avalanche, a chess Grand Master playing another Grand Master,
and a frontiersman battling a cold winter and wild animals are all examples of
external conflicts.
What is the climax? At what point in the story does the conflict reach a high point?
What is the resolution?
After the conflict is over, is there a lesson learned? Do any of the characters come away from the
event wiser, sadder, stronger? Is there a moral to the story? What is the general theme of the
story? Many of these questions are identifiable in the resolution of the story.
Tips for Answering Narrative Reading Multiple-choice Questions
1. Read the question and all answers thoroughly before selecting an
answer. Note that many of the answers will seem plausible, and in
some cases several answers will be correct, but one will be the best
answer.
2. If you aren't sure, try to eliminate answers that you are sure are
incorrect, or are unlikely to be the correct answer.
3. Some questions refer you to specific sections of the text, or to specific
vocabulary words used in the story. For questions that refer to the
text, go back and read the whole section of text from which the sample
comes- identify the purpose of the section- is it informative? does it
attempt to appeal to emotion or logic?
4. Beware of questions that “change directions.” For example, questions
that use words such as “except,” “not,” or “never” usually require you to
think in terms of finding the answer selection that contradicts the story
itself.
5. Make every attempt to familiarize yourself with important literary terms
and figurative language devices. These terms (i.e. symbolism,
personification, irony, etc.) often show up on multiple choice sections.
It will be easier to eliminate one or two of them if you know what they
are.
6. Authors make extensive use of mood and tone in their writing. The
choice of specific images (a cloudy sky, a field of flowers) make us
readers feel different moods (in this case sad or happy); authors also
use specific words or phrases to makes us hear a certain tone. An
author’s tone might be described as serious, sarcastic, informative,
passionate or ominous, depending on their choice of words and
phrases. Make every attempt to identify an author’s tone in the piece.
7. Answer the question! This may seem obvious, but it really is a trick that
many students fall for. If a question asks you to “identify the author’s
tone in paragraph 6,” make sure you limit yourself to paragraph 6! An
author may shift gears momentarily to make a point. The story may be
humorous and sarcastic, but in paragraph 6 the author might wish to
make a serious observation. You are being tested on how well you
follow direction, so pay attention to where you are being told to look for
the answer.
8. Leave harder questions for last. Always guess! Any answer left blank
is a wrong answer, so improve your chances by making educated
guesses.
Working With Multiple Choice Questions on the Narrative Reading Section
For this narrative excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, you are required to
answer five (5) multiple choice questions. They are very similar to ones you might
encounter on the HSPA test. Before reading the story excerpt, read through the questions
and identify what is being asked of you in each:
1. Do you see a question that asks you to identify a vocabulary word in context? What is
the word?
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2. Do you see any questions that ask you to identify literary devices? What is it in this
case?
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3. Are you being asked to identify an author’s tone or the mood of a work? What are
your options?
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4. Have you identified questions that direct you to specific paragraphs in the story? Have
you marked off those paragraphs for easy reference?
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After you read the excerpt, fill in your answer choices below (40
minutes):
1. _______
2. ______
3. ________
4. __________
5. __________
Narrative Reading Passage Excerpt from Sinclair's "The Jungle"
MULTIPLE CHOICE: Choose the best answer for the questions below.
1. What is the tone set by the author in paragraph 5
of the passage?
A.
optimistic
B.
C.
D.
defeated
humorous
defiant
2. Which of the following social conditions is
reflected in the passage?
A. Industries exploited children by paying
them one third the rate they paid to adults.
B. The owners of factories valued their
workers and provided decent housing for them.
C. Orphans were well-cared for by the state
and the church.
D. access to medical treatment was readily
available to the poor.
3. Which statement in the passage can be
considered ironic?
A.
B.
C.
D.
"The lard was finished on the
floor above, and it came in little
jets, like beautiful, wriggling,
snow-white snakes of
unpleasant odor."
"It was sickening like a nightmare, in
which suddenly something gives way
beneath you, and you feel yourself sinking,
sinking, down into bottomless abysses."
"It would upset their plans for a time; and
it would perhaps be necessary for Ona to
get work after all."
"Once or twice every year a state inspector
would come wandering through the
packing plants, asking a child here and
there how old he was; and so the packers
were very careful to comply with
the law..."
4. Which of the following statements expresses one of the
themes of the passage?
A. A job was available for any person willing to
work.
B. Immigrants could improve their circumstances
in life through hard work and luck.
C. Unions were instrumental in gaining decent
working conditions for immigrants.
D. Business owners exploited cheap labor
provided by immigrants.
5. Based on the context in which it is used in the passage,
what does the underlined word lamentation mean?
A.
peacefulness and comfort
B.
great happiness
C.
sadness and complaining
D. fear and worrying
Enter your choices
onto the answer sheet
provided on the previous page.
LANGUAGE ARTS LITERACY – Narrative Reading Passage
DIRECTIONS FOR QUESTIONS 1-5: Read the passge and record your answers to the multiple-choice questions in
the area labeled "LANGUAGE ARTS LITERACY- Narrative Reading, MULTIPLE-CHOICE SECTION" on the
answer sheet following the excerpt.
Introduction: The following excerpt describes the lives of Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus and his fiancee Ona
in the United States. Other members of Ona's family include her cousin Maria, her stepmother Aunt Elzbieta, and
Aunt Elzbieta's son Stanislovas. Ona and Jurgis have learned the history of their house from Grandmother Majaus, a
neighbor. The house is located in Packingtown, a section of Chicago where workers in the meatpacking industry live
at the turn of the twentieth century. Grandmother Majaus has just informed the family that they will have to pay
interest on the loan for their house—a fact they were unaware of until now.
from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
"But we don't have to pay any interest!" they
exclaimed, three or four at once. "We only have
to pay twelve dollars each month." And for this
she laughed at them. "You are like all the rest,"
she said; "they trick you and eat you alive. They
never sell the houses without interest. Get your
deed, and see."
Then, with a horrible sinking of the heart,
Aunt Elzbieta unlocked her bureau and brought
out the paper that had already caused them so
many agonies. Now they sat round, scarcely
breathing, while the old lady, who could read
English, ran over it. "Yes," she said, finally, "here
it is, of course: 'With interest thereon monthly,
at the rate of seven per cent per annum.'"
And there followed a dead silence. "What
does that mean?" asked Jurgis finally, almost in a
whisper.
"That means," replied the other, "that you
have to pay them seven dollars next month, as
well as the twelve dollars."
Then again there was not a sound. It was
sickening, like a nightmare, in which suddenly
something gives way beneath you, and you feel
yourself sinking, sinking, down into bottomless
abysses. As if in a flash of lightning they saw
themselves—victims of a relentless fate,
cornered, trapped, in the grip of destruction. All
the fair structure of their hopes came crashing
about their ears.—And all the time the old
woman was going on talking. They wished that
she would be still; her voice sounded like the
croaking of some dismal raven. Jurgis sat with
his hands clenched and beads of perspiration
on his forehead, and there was a great lump
in Ona's throat, choking her. Then suddenly
Aunt Elzbieta broke the silence with a wail, and
Maria began to wring her hands and sob, "Ai!
Ai! Poor man!"
All their outcry did them no good, of
course. There sat Grandmother Majaus,
unrelenting, typifying fate. No, of course it was
not fair, but then fairness had nothing to do with
it. And of course they had not known it. They
had not been intended to know it. But it was in
the deed, and that was all that was necessary, as
they would find when the time came.
Somehow or other they got rid of their guest,
and then they passed a night of lamentation. The
children woke up and found out that something
was wrong, and they wailed and would not be
comforted. In the morning, of course, most of
them had to go to work, the packing houses
would not stop for their sorrows; but by seven
o'clock Ona and her stepmother were standing
at the door of the office of the agent. Yes, he
told them, when he came, it was quite true
that they would have to pay interest. And then
Aunt Elzbieta broke forth into protestations and
reproaches, so that the people outside stopped
and peered in at the window. The agent was as
bland as ever. He was deeply pained, he said. He
had not told them, simply because he had
supposed they would understand that they had
to pay interest upon their debt, as a matter of
course.
So they came away, and Ona went down to
the yards, and at noontime saw Jurgis and told
him. Jurgis took it stolidly—he had made up his
mind to it by this time. It was part of fate; they
would manage it somehow—he made his usual
answer, "I will work harder." It would upset
their plans for a time; and it would perhaps be
necessary for Ona to get work after all. Then
Ona added that Aunt Elzbieta had decided that
little Stanislovas would have to work too. It
was not fair to let Jurgis and her support the
family—the family would have to help as it
could. Previously Jurgis had
Narrative Reading Passage continued:
scouted this idea, but now knit his brows and
nodded his head slowly—yes, perhaps it would
be best; they would all have to make some
sacrifices now.
So Ona set out that day to hunt for work;
and at night Maria came home saying that she
had met a girl named Jasa who had a friend that
worked in one of the wrapping rooms in
Brown's, and might get a place for Ona there;
only the forelady was the kind that takes
presents—it was no use for any one to ask her for
a place unless at the same time they slipped a tendollar bill into her hand. Jurgis was not in the
least surprised at this now—he merely asked
what the wages of the place would be. So
negotiations were opened, and after an interview
Ona came home and reported that the forelady
seemed to like her, and had said that, while she
was not sure, she thought she might be able to
put her to work sewing covers on hams, a job at
which she would earn as much as eight or ten
dollars a week. That was a bid, so Maria
reported, after consulting her friend; and then
there was an anxious conference at home. The
work was done in one of the cellars, and Jurgis
did not want Ona to work in such a place; but
then it was easy work, and one could not have
everything. So in the end Ona, with a ten-dollar
bill burning a hole in her palm, had another
interview with the forelady.
Meantime Aunt Elzbieta had taken
Stanislovas to the priest and gotten a
certificate to the effect that he was two years
older than he was; and with it the little boy
now sallied forth to make his fortune in the
world. It chanced that Durham had just put in
a wonderful new lard machine, and when the
special policeman in front of the time station
saw Stanislovas and his document, he smiled to
himself and told him to go —"Czia! Czia!"
pointing. And so Stanislovas went down a long
stone corridor, and up a flight of stairs, which
took him into a room lighted by electricity,
with the new machines for filling lard cans at
work in it. The lard was finished on the floor
above, and it came in little jets, like beautiful,
wriggling, snow-white snakes of unpleasant
odor. There were several kinds and sizes of jets,
and after a certain precise quantity had come
out, each stopped automatically, and the
wonderful machine made a turn, and took the
can under another jet, and so on, until it
was filled neatly to the brim, and pressed
tightly, and smoothed off. To attend to all this
and fill several hundred cans of lard per hour,
there were necessary two human creatures, one
of whom knew how to place an empty lard
can on a certain spot every few seconds,
and the other of whom knew how to take a full
lard can off a certain spot every few seconds
and set it upon a tray.
And so, after little Stanislovas had stood
11 gazing timidly about him for a few minutes, a
man approached him, and asked what he
wanted, to which Stanislovas said, "Job."
Then the man said "How old?" and Stanislovas
answered, "Sixtin." Once or twice every year a
state inspector would come wandering through
the packing plants, asking a child here and
there how old he was; and so the packers were
very careful to comply with the law, which cost
them as much trouble as was now involved in
the boss's taking the document from the little
boy, and glancing at it, and then sending it to
the office to be filed away. Then he set some one
else at a different job, and showed the lad how to
place a lard can every time the empty arm of
the remorseless machine came to him; and so
was decided the place in the universe of little
Stanislovas, and his destiny till the end of his
days. Hour after hour, day after day, year after
year, it was fated that he should stand upon a
certain square foot of floor from seven in the
morning until noon, and again from half-past
twelve till half-past five, making never a motion
and thinking never a thought, save for the
setting of lard cans. In summer the stench of the
warm lard would be nauseating, and in winter
the cans would all but freeze to his naked little
fingers in the unheated cellar. Half the year it
would be dark as night when he went in to
work, and dark as night again when he came
out, and so he would never know what the sun
looked like on weekdays. And for this, at the
end of the week, he would carry home three
dollars to his family, being his pay at the rate of
five cents per hour—just about his proper share
of the total earnings of the million and threequarters of children who are now engaged in
earning their livings in the United States.
And meantime, because they were young,
and hope is not to be stifled before its time,
Jurgis and Ona were again calculating; for they
had discovered that the wages of Stanislovas
would a little more than pay the interest, which
left them just about as they had been before! It
would be but fair to them to say that the little
boy was delighted with his work, and at the
idea of earning a lot of money; and also that the
two were very much in love with each other.
Answers for Multiple Choice Questions for the Narrative Passage
Below you will review the answers you chose for the excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s The
Jungle. Write the correct answer in the space for each number. If you got the answer
wrong, write the clarification given by the teacher of why the correct answer was a better
choice. If you got the answer right, just write “correct” under the explanation:
1. Correct Answer: ________________
Explanation for correct answer: ______________________________________________
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2. Correct Answer: ________________
Explanation for correct answer: ______________________________________________
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3. Correct Answer: ________________
Explanation for correct answer: ______________________________________________
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4. Correct Answer: ________________
Explanation for correct answer: ______________________________________________
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5. Correct Answer: ________________
Explanation for correct answer: ______________________________________________
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Open Ended Questions for the Narrative Reading Section
Open-ended questions require you to make sense of what you read. They differ from
other forms of writing on the HSPA test (like the Picture Prompt and the Persuasive
Essay) in that you must process what you read in the story and write a logic response
based on your understanding of the story. Some tips you might wish to consider when
approaching an open-ended question are as follows:
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Be sure to structure your answer to fit the question. Usually each bulleted section
in the question deals with something unique. A good rule of thumb is to write one
paragraph for each bullet UNLESS that bullet asks for several examples.
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Don’t forget to rephrase you’re the introduction to your question in your answer.
Use the language of the prompt to get yourself started and to keep focused.
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Be sure to back your answer up with text examples. It is preferable not to quote
straight from the story, but rather to put the information into your own words.
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Open-ended questions need not be lengthy; two to three strong paragraphs will
suffice depending on the question. But accuracy and comprehension are weighed
heavily on these questions, so be sure to take your time and plan your answer.
The following is an example of an open-ended question for the story you just read. We
will do this example together. Be sure to write down the class’s answers in the space
provided:
Grandmother Majaus tells Ona, Jurgis and the other family members that “they
trick you and eat you alive.”
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How are the immigrants tricked?
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Who tricks the immigrants?
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Use information from the story to support your response.
Now it’s your turn. Write a complete and well-developed response to the following
open-ended question based on Sinclair’s The Jungle. Don’t forget to reference the
“Writer’s Checklist” and the 0-4 Rubric to assist you in your writing:
1. The narrator describes the immigrant family coming to terms with the circumstances
of their lives and says, “as if in a flash of lightening they saw themselves—victims of a
relentless fate, cornered, trapped, in the grip of destruction.”
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Use details from the selection to illustrate THREE ways that fate seems to be
conspiring against the immigrants.
Use information from the story to support your response.
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End of Narrative Reading Section