Reading Comprehension Test
READ:
This assessment requires you to read narratives carefully and answer questions.
Click the READ HERE link to view the narratives.
The passing rate is 15% or 6 correct answers
Time Limit: 15 minutes
This quiz is timed: The total time allowed for this quiz is 15 minutes.
For questions 1-5, read the narrative Sandbags and answer the questions below.
READ HERE
1. What other title might fit this story best?
a. An Urban Attitude
b. Learning Hurricanes
c. Picking Strawberries
d. Snow Storms that Don’t Come
2. Which is the best definition for “materialize”?
a. to be false
b. to increase in size
c. to become actual or real
d. to be concerned with consumer goods
The best definition for "materialize" in the context of this story is to become actual or real. The
story is about a hurricane that was forecast to hit the town, but the narrator didn't take it
seriously because she had never seen a snowstorm predicted by the weatherman actually
materialize. However, the hurricane did materialize, and the narrator learned the hard way that
she should have taken the forecast more seriously.
3. As used in the story, which is the best antonym for cursory?
a. angry and willful
b. fast and intelligent
c. slow and deliberate
d. slow and superficial
4. What message does the author convey by having the narrator wait out the storm in a glass
room?
a. It signifies how vulnerable she is.
b. It signifies the narrator’s nontraditional tastes.
c. It lets the reader know that she has not taped up her windows.
d. It lets the reader know she can see everything that’s going on
5. How might the narrator have been better able to deal with her immediate problem?
a. She could have taped her windows.
b. She could have replaced the old batteries in her appliances.
c. She could have prepped her generator.
d. She could have purchased the items from the hurricane list.
Sandbags
I am a city girl at heart. I’ve never milked a cow – never wanted to.
I was shocked when I attended my first ‘pig pickin” after my husband and I moved to North Carolina
from Boston. I had to avert my eyes from the huge pig, skin and head still on, splayed open across
an oil drum that had been sawed in half lengthwise and fitted with hinges so it opened and closed.
This, I later learned, was called a “pig cooker.” Part of the pig’s insides were chopped up in a pan
beside it and referred to as “barbecue.” Seeing all of this did not improve my appetite.
“ Y” all in thuh country now, gul,” the host told me happily, apparently thrilled to be the one to
indoctrinate me into country living.
When, at 8 months pregnant, I volunteered to chaperone my son’s strawberry – picking field trip,
the other mothers looked at me strangely. I thought strawberries grew on tall bushes, not low to
the ground. All that squatting sent me into early labor.
You should keep these incidents in mind in order to understand my attitude when I heard a “huge
hurricane” was headed toward out town. I thought back to the snowstorms forecast during my days
growing up in Philadelphia. The “20 inches” predicted by the weatherman never seemed to
materialize.
The local newspaper ran a long checklist of things townspeople should get to prepare for the
hurricane. My neighbor, Wayne, aware that I was new to town, made a point of giving me a copy of
the list. I took a cursory glance and thought nothing more of it.
While my neighbors were running around taping their windows, buying fresh batteries, and prepping
their generators, I was quite literally, sitting in my glass house playing with the kids on the floor.
The rains started at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. To my amazement, this was exactly what the
weatherman had predicated.
These were no ordinary rains, either. From my glass living room, I could no longer see the front
lawn or the trees. The rain was as thick as a woolen curtain. By nightfall, my husband’s car had
begun to float out of the driveway. The water started insidiously creeping up our front steps,
overturning potted plants and benches in its wake.
“This is unbelievable!” I yelled. I reached for the phone to dial Wayne. He had been born and raised
in these parts; surely he would know that to do. “Wayne,” I said worriedly into the receiver. “ The
water is coming up our front steps. It’s almost to our door!”
“Ours, too,” he said, quite calmly, I thought, given the circumstances.
“What should I do?”
“Put out your sandbags. It will keep the water out as long as it doesn’t get too high.”
“Sandbags?”
“You didn’t get any?’ he asked in disbelief. “They were on the list.”
No, I hadn’t.
For questions 6-10, read the narrative conversations and answer the questions below.
READ HERE
6. As used at the beginning of the story, which is the best antonym for deteriorate?
a. improve
b. increase
c. adjust
7. “She hated highway driving, finding it ugly and monotonous.” Which of the following is the
best way to paraphrase the above sentence, while keeping its original meaning?
a. She hated highway driving, finding it ugly and tedious.
b. She hated highway driving, finding it ugly and confusing.
c. She hated highway driving, finding it ugly and nerve-wracking.
d. She hated highway driving, finding it ugly and time-consuming.
8. Which best describes what the act of stopping for flowers on the side of the highway became
for Mary?
a. monotonous
b. a ritual
c. a regret
d. torturous
9. What other title would best fit this narrative?
a. “The Fall”
b. “On the Road”
c. “Wildflower Poetry”
d. “Living for Tomorrow”
10. In the narrative, the author writes, “she felt squeeze on her fingers. It was the last
conversation they had.”
Which of the following best describes what the author trying to communicate in these
sentences?
a. Mary and her grandmother hold hands and had a splendid conversation.
b. Mary’s grandmother was too weak to communicate with Mary.
c. Mary and her grandmother communicated through touch.
d. Mary’s grandmother liked the flowers that Mary brought.
Conversations
When her grandmother’s health began to deteriorate in the fall of 1994, Mary would make the
drive from Washington, DC to Winchester, VA every few days.
She hated highway driving, finding it ugly and monotonous. She preferred to take meandering
back roads to her grandmother’s hospital. When she drove through the rocky town of Harpers
Ferry, the beauty of the rough waters churning at the intersection of the Shenandoah and
Potomac rivers always captivated her.
Toward the end of her journey, Mary had to get on highway 81. It was here that she discovered a
surprising bit of beauty during one of her trips. Aling the median of the highway, there was a long
stretch of wildflowers. They were thin and delicate and purple, and swayed in the wind as if
whispering poems to each other.
The first time she saw the flowers, Mary was seized by an uncontrollable urge to pull over on the
highway and yank a bunch from the soil. She carried them into her grandmother’s room when she
arrived at the hospital and placed them in a water pitcher by her bed.
For a moment her grandmother seemed more lucid than usual. She thanked Mary for the
flowers, commented on their beauty and asked where she has gotten them. Mary was overjoyed
by the ability of the flowers to wake something up inside her ailing grandmother.
Afterwards, Mary began carrying scissors in the car during her trips to visit her grandmother. She
would quickly glide onto the shoulder, jump out of the car, and clip a bunch of flowers. Each time
Mary placed the flowers in the pitcher, her grandmother’s eyes would light up and they would
have a splendid conversation.
One morning in late October, Mary got a call that her grandmother had taken a turn for the
worse. Mary was in such a hurry to get to her grandmother that she sped past her flower spot.
She decided to turn around, head several miles back, and cut a bunch.
Mary arrived at the hospital to find her grandmother very weak and unresponsive. She placed
the flowers in the pitcher and sat down to hold her grandmother’s hand. She felt a squeeze on
her fingers. It was the last conversation they had.
For questions 11-15, read the narrative If I had… and answer the questions below.
READ HERE
11. What time of year is it?
a. spring
b. summer
c. fall
d. winter
12. Why does Leonard’s stomach rumble?
a. because he is hungry
b. because he is tired
c. because his clothes are dirty
d. because he is homeless
13. “He cannot believe what he sees.” What is another way to write this sentence?
a. He thinks what he sees is crazy.
b. He feels what he sees is good luck.
c. He sees what he sees cannot be true.
d. He sees what he thinks is scary.
14. How does Leonard seem to feel about what he has done?
a. angry
c. sad b. happy
d. unsure
15. Why does the police officer give Leonard ten dollars?
a. to surprise Leonard
b. so Leonard feels better about returning the wallet
c. because it is part of his job
d. because he wants to get Leonard off the streets
If I had
Leonard James is a homeless man.
For him, life is always hard. He is always hungry.
His shoes have holes in them. He needs a haircut. His clothes are old and dirty.
“What I would do with one hundred dollars!” Leonard says.
This is a game he likes to play with him self to take his mind of things. He is walking down the street
on a Thursday night.
The winter air is cold on his face.
“If I had one hundred dollars, I could buy new socks,” he says. He continues walking down the
street.
“If I had one hundred dollars, I could get a haircut,” he says. He continues walking down the street.
“If I had one hundred dollars, I could buy new socks,” he says. He continues walking down the
street.
“If I had one hundred dollars, I could buy new pants,” he says. He continues walking down the
street.
“If I had one hundred dollars, I could get a hamburger,” he says. He stomach rumbles at the thought.
“If I had one hundred dollars, I could buy new socks,” he says. He continues walking down the
street.
“If I had ….” Leonard looks down at the sidewalk. He cannot believe what he sees! Someone has lost
his wallet. Leonard picks it up. Inside are five twenty-dollar bills.
“One hundred dollars!” Leonard says. He is very excited.
“Now I can buy everything I want!” Then Leonard begins to think.
“But this is not my money,” he says. Leonard goes to the police station. He gives a police officer
the wallet and money.
“Thank you,” says the police officer. “You are a very honest man.”
Leonard smiles. He turns around and begins to leave the police station.
“Hold on,” the police officer says. He reaches in his own pocket and gives Leonard ten dollars.
“Get yourself something to eat.”