Grade Band 6/7 English Language Arts/Literacy Practice Test

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Practice Test Large Print 2 Today, you will take Unit 1 of the Grade Band 6/7 English Language Arts/Literacy Practice Test. question. Circle the answer or answers you have chosen in your test booklet. If you need to change an answer, be sure to erase your first answer completely. space provided in your test booklet. Be sure to keep your response within the provided space. Only responses written within the provided space will be scored.

3 Read the passage. Then answer the questions.

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Farmwork

by Walker Powell

I’ve done some strange things in my life, I thought, but this might be the strangest. I could feel the cold dampness of the ground under my knees and the soft roughness of the goat’s fur under my palm, her rapid heartbeat. But the strange part was the china bowl balanced on my knee, the stainless steel spoon in my hand.

Violet the goat had gotten sick, suddenly and alarmingly. One day she was browsing the pasture, playing head-butt with the other goats, and the next day she could barely stand. Her eyes twitched, independent of her control, in a way that was both comical and horrifying. She seemed to have seizures; when she tried to walk, her legs disobeyed her and she fell heavily and awkwardly, legs 1 stiff. We thought she was dying. The vet said she had a thiamine deficiency2 and gave us a bewildering array of shots and pastes to administer to her three times a day for ten days. She hated every shot—not that I could blame her. The needles were thick and two inches long. Her shoulders must have grown sore from the repeated pokes. The yogurt was our own idea, a probiotic to encourage the essential bacteria in her gut, the original source of the missing thiamine.

Now, as Martin, Violet’s owner, held her face between his hands, I shoved the spoon into her mouth and she wiggled her tongue, spraying yogurt everywhere. Spoon-feeding a goat, I thought, is kind of like feeding a baby—a really big hairy smelly baby with horns. Violet—named for the dark, almost purple shade of her head—wrinkled her nose, then decided that she absolutely loved yogurt. She grabbed the spoon with her strong mouth, tried to suck it from my hands, and when I yanked it free, attempted to eat the bowl instead. Laughing, I spooned the rest into her mouth, though a great deal still got on our hands, coats, and faces. Violet obligingly sucked the yogurt from our fingers, chewing on them in that peculiar way goats do—they don’t have upper teeth, just lower ones.

Hand-feeding goats is just one of the jobs I do on this organic farm in western Massachusetts, where I work whenever I’m not at school. The farm raises egg-laying hens along with goats for meat and milk. All the animals are

1 thiamine: type of vitamin 2 deficiency: shortage 4 pasture-raised, free-range, and fed the best-quality natural food. The chickens on this farm live as free and natural as any wild bird, though without the daily stresses of finding food and defending territory.

Of course, with 1,200 chickens and 14 goats to care for, we’re constantly on the run. There’s grain to grind: 400 pounds a day for the voracious3 hens (never let anyone tell you birds eat sparingly). The grain is hand-cast,4 the eggs collected (around 850 a day), the hay spread in the greenhouse where the hens spend their nights. Water for everyone, hay and grain for the goats (a greedy, bullying lot), and dog food for the two guard dogs, since if they aren’t fed, they steal eggs and chicken feed and chase the goats. The eggs have to be washed, every day, in a strange machine that consistently malfunctions and spits dirty or broken eggs at the wall. When they’re finally clean, we pack them into cartons, label the cartons, put the cartons into boxes—15 per box—and label the boxes. Collecting, cleaning, and packing 850 eggs takes two people an hour and a half, on a good day.

Sometimes we stop to trim a goat’s hoofs: the small, rubbery toes, the padded heels. The goats hate this and must be knelt on (my job) while Martin trims the hoofs short and flat with a pair of modified pruners. When the job is done, they spring to their feet and bound away, shaking themselves. Other days, we clean out the little open-fronted nesting boxes where the hens lay their eggs. They have a habit of pulling the hay out, strand by strand, and tossing it over their shoulders in a sort of strange ritual, as though to make the nest nicer. Instead, it makes the nest empty, which leads to broken eggs, which leads to a mess and stink. So we put new hay in and scrape the encrusted remains of old eggs, wet hay, and chicken droppings off the plastic floors of the boxes. Not my favorite job.

Working on a farm is a constant adventure. Either one of the goats is sick, or one of the dogs is getting into trouble, or the chickens have slipped under their fence and wandered into the road, stopping traffic. Is this the answer to the age-old question? Our chickens cross the road because they can. Of course, there are also the predators. Chickens are like an all-you-can-eat buffet for foxes, coyotes, hawks, bobcats, weasels, and loose dogs. Skunks and rats eat chicks and eggs.

Natural farming—with pasture and predators and hand-packed eggs and spoon-fed yogurt to a goat—is not just a job. It’s not something you can do for eight hours a day and then go home and forget about. Farming is something that takes over your life, so that you’re out in single-digit weather breaking the ice in the goats’ water buckets and waking up before dawn to watch for

3 voracious: devouring great quantities of food 4 hand-cast: thrown by hand 5 coyotes. Sometimes I wonder why I’m doing something so crazy, why I’m letting this farm suck me in and inhabit my entire soul so that even when I’m at school I’m thinking about the goats or how many eggs we have left to wash.

But then I remember kneeling in dirty hay while Violet slobbers yogurt all over my fingers, and holding the weightless, trembling, oh-so-soft body of a day-old chick in my palm, and having a chicken lay her egg, warm and damp and shining, directly into my hand. And suddenly, the worry and the lack of sleep and the aching muscles all slip away, and I know that I will always love farming.

6 What is the author doing in paragraph 1?

$ Trying to feed a goat

% Learning to milk a goat

& Eating breakfast next to a goat

' Rubbing medicine on a goat

Read the following sentence from paragraph 2 of the passage.

The vet said she had a thiamine deficiency and gave us a bewildering array of shots and pastes to DGPLQLVWHU WR her three times a day for ten days.

What does the phrase DGPLQLVWHUWR mean as it is used in the passage?

$ be in charge of

% perform the duties of

& provide assistance to

' give as treatment to

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Which statement EHVW summarizes the narrator’s overall attitude toward working on the farm?

$ The narrator begrudges her time on the farm because it interferes with school.

% The narrator misses her time on the farm but knows it is better to be at school.

& The narrator cherishes her time on the farm even though it is a lot of work.

' The narrator dislikes her time on the farm but does not want to disappoint the farm owner.

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Which quotation from the passage EHVW supports the answer to part A?

$ “The eggs have to be washed, every day, in a strange machine that consistently malfunctions and spits dirty or broken eggs at the wall.” (paragraph 5)

% “Working on a farm is a constant adventure.” (paragraph 7)

& “. . . even when I’m at school I’m thinking about the goats . . .” (paragraph 8)

' “. . . the worry and the lack of sleep and the aching muscles all slip away, and I know that I will always love farming.” (paragraph 9)

8 You have come to the end of Unit 1 of the test. Review your answers from Unit 1 only.

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10 Today, you will take Unit 2 of the Grade Band 6/7 English Language Arts/Literacy Practice Test. question. Circle the answer or answers you have chosen in your test booklet. If you need to change an answer, be sure to erase your first answer completely. space provided in your test booklet. Be sure to keep your response within the provided space. Only responses written within the provided space will be scored.

Guardian on the Plateau

by Salima Ikram and Janice Kamrin

Lower Cairo Egypt Giza

Nile River Karnak Temple Upper Egypt

Abu Simbel Philae Temple

Just outside the city of Cairo lie the pyramids of Giza—three of the best-known monuments in the world. There, too, nestled in a hollow at the foot of the plateau is a huge statue in the form of a strange half-lion, half-human beast. This is the Great Sphinx, guardian of the Giza pyramids. Its head and neck are in the shape of a man wearing a striped headcloth that flares out to the sides and falls over the shoulders, with a pigtail in the back. This type of headcloth is called a QHPHV and was worn only by kings. A rearing cobra, called the XUDHXV, adorns the king’s forehead. The ancient Egyptians believed this snake protected the king and was always ready to spit fire and poison at his enemies. The body of the Sphinx is in the shape of a crouching lion, with his tail curled around his right side.

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The largest statue ever sculpted, the Sphinx is 235 feet long and 66 feet tall. Instead of using separate stone blocks to fashion the gigantic creature, artisans carved it from the living rock of the plateau. The Sphinx is actually limestone that is still attached to the ground along its belly and legs. It reclines in the middle of a quarry. This quarry was not used just to build the Sphinx. Workers used many of its stones to build the pyramids and some of the temples associated with them.

The Sphinx was carved with very simple tools. Among them were copper chisels and pounders of harder stone such as granite and diorite to knock off bits and pieces of the limestone. To do the final shaping and to smooth the surface, the master artisans used sand and sandstone.

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The entire statue was painted. The stripes of the QHPHV were painted blue and yellow, and bits of red paint can still be seen on the face. Statues and paintings of Egyptian men have reddish-brown skin to show that they spent a lot of time in the sun.

The body of the Sphinx probably would have been painted golden-yellow, to look like a lion’s fur. The red and yellow paint was made of ochers, which are soft, colored minerals found in the deserts of Egypt. The blue was probably made from azurite, a mineral found in the Sinai Peninsula. To paint, Egyptian artists would have used very large brushes that were made of reeds or palm fibers.

Parts of the body—those made of the softer limestone—started to fall apart in ancient times. Workers repaired the damage with blocks of stone. These repairs, however, have had to be made again and again. The last time was in the 1990s.

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The structure in front of the Sphinx is called the Sphinx Temple. It has a courtyard with 24 granite pillars, a sacred chamber facing east, and another sacred chamber facing west. The floor was made of Egyptian alabaster, a beautiful creamy stone that came from Middle Egypt. The temple was never completely finished, and some scholars think that it was never actually used.

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The Sphinx Temple stretches out in front of the paws of the Sphinx. Like the Sphinx itself, it was carved out of the limestone plateau and then had more stones attached to it.

For thousands of years, people have been fascinated by this curious creature. They have wondered about who made it and tried to figure out what it meant. Most archaeologists agree that it was carved in about 2550 B.C. for Khafre, the king who built the middle pyramid on the Giza Plateau. Some, however, suggest that the Sphinx might be Khufu, Khafre’s father.

Whether it was Khufu or Khafre who had the Sphinx carved is not as important as the message the statue was meant to convey. It represented the king as a god, with the wisdom of a human and the power of a lion, the mightiest of all beasts. Sphinxes were also linked to the sun. The Great Sphinx was associated with the god Horemakhet, the god Horus in the Horizon. This was the sun as it rose each morning and set each evening.

The sun would have been worshipped in the Sphinx Temple, with the rising sun honored in the eastern sanctuary and the setting sun in the western sanctuary. Through its connection with the sun, the Sphinx itself would also have been worshipped in the temple. At the same time, the Sphinx might have represented the king praising his spiritual father, the sun god, for eternity.

14 In paragraph 1, which WZR details about the Great Sphinx help address the question of why it was built?

$ The location outside the city of Cairo

% The animal imagery that suggests power and strength

& The presence of symbols associated with kings

' The number of pyramids at Giza

( The description of the monuments as well-known

15 The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China, perhaps the most recognizable symbol of China and its long and vivid history, was originally conceived by Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the third century B.C. as a means of preventing attacks from barbarian nomads. The best-known and best-preserved section of the Great Wall was built in the 14th through 17th centuries A.D. during the Ming dynasty. Though the Great Wall never effectively prevented invaders from entering China, it came to function as a powerful symbol of the Chinese civilization’s enduring strength.

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Though the beginning of the Great Wall of China can be traced to the third 1 century B.C., many of the fortifications date from hundreds of years earlier, when China was divided into a number of individual kingdoms.

Around 220 B.C., Qin Shi Huang, the Qin Dynasty’s first emperor of a unified China, ordered that earlier fortifications between states be removed and a number of existing walls along the northern border be joined into a single system that would extend for more than 10,000 li (a li is about one-third of a mile) and protect China against aggressions from the north.

Construction of the “Wan Li Chang Cheng,” or 10,000-Li-Long Wall, was one of the most ambitious building projects ever undertaken by any civilization. The famous Chinese general Meng Tian directed the project, and was said to have used a massive army of soldiers, convicts and commoners2 as workers.

1 fortifications: defensive walls 2 commoners: ordinary people without ranks or titles

16 Made mostly of earth and stone, the wall stretched from the China seaport of Shanhaiguan to Gansu province, more than 3,000 miles west. In some strategic areas, sections of the wall overlapped for maximum security.

From a base of 15 to 50 feet, the Great Wall rose some 15 to 30 feet high and was topped by ramparts 12 feet or higher; guard towers were distributed at intervals along it.

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The Great Wall of China as it exists today was constructed mainly during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The period saw an immense amount of construction in addition to the Great Wall, including bridges, temples and pagodas.

The construction of the Great Wall as it is known today began around 1474. After an initial phase of expansion, Ming rulers extended the wall from the Yalu River in Liaoning Province to the eastern bank of the Taolai River in Gansu Province, and winded its way from east to west through today’s Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu.

N Jiayu Piantou Liaoning Pass Shanhaiguan Province W E Pass Juyong Pass S

Ming dynasty Beijing Han dynasty Gansu Qin dynasty Province Yanmen Shanxi Ningwu Pass r Zijing Province llow Rive Pass Ye Pass

Sections of the Great Wall of China as constructed by dynasty

Starting west of Juyong Pass, the Great Wall was split into south and north lines, respectively named the Inner and Outer Walls. Strategic “passes” (i.e., fortresses) were placed along the wall. The Juyong, Daoma and Zijing passes, closest to Beijing, were named the Three Inner Passes, while the Three Outer Passes, located further west, were Yanmen, Ningwu and Piantou.

All six passes were heavily garrisoned during the Ming period and considered vital to the defense of the capital.

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In the mid-17th century, the Manchus from central and southern Manchuria broke through the Great Wall, eventually forcing the fall of the Ming Dynasty and beginning of the Qing Dynasty.

Between the 18th and 20th centuries, the Great Wall emerged as the most common emblem of China for the Western world. Today, the Great Wall is generally recognized as one of the most impressive architectural feats in human history. In 1987, UNESCO designated the Great Wall a World Heritage site.

Over the years, roadways have been cut through the wall in various points, and many sections have deteriorated after centuries of neglect. The best-known section of the Great Wall of China—Badaling, located 43 miles (70 km) northwest of Beijing—was rebuilt in the late 1950s, and attracts thousands of national and foreign tourists daily.

Courtesy of A+E Networks

18 The map of the Great Wall of China EHVW supports which idea in the passage?

$ The Great Wall is made up of many walls, some of which overlap in places.

% The Great Wall included many guard towers to serve its defensive purpose.

& China was divided into small kingdoms separated by walls before Emperor Qin ordered the walls’ removal.

' The China Sea port of Shanhaiguan is 3,000 miles from the westernmost edge of the Great Wall.

Which statement EHVW summarizes the information presented in the section labeled “Significance of the Great Wall of China”?

$ The Great Wall was not considered important until UNESCO named it a World Heritage site in 1987 because it was unable to prevent the overthrow of the Ming dynasty by the Manchus.

% Although the successful invasion of the Manchus represented the failure of the Great Wall’s original purpose, in the following years the Great Wall has become one of the most popular and celebrated monuments in the world.

& After the Great Wall was breached by the Manchus in the mid-17th century, roadways were cut through it and other sections deteriorated until it became largely unrecognizable.

' The Great Wall was forgotten for centuries after it failed to prevent the Manchus from defeating the Ming dynasty, but it is now a popular destination for tourists.

19 Which sentence EHVW states an important difference between the Great Sphinx and the Great Wall of China?

$ The Great Sphinx has been restored in modern times, but the Great Wall of China remains in a state of disrepair.

% The Great Sphinx was the concept of a single leader, but the Great Wall of China was the product of many leaders.

& The Great Sphinx was created from Egyptian materials, whereas the Great Wall was built from materials that came from outside China.

' The Great Sphinx took many years to build, whereas the Great Wall of China was completed in a short period.

Imagine what it would be like to live near the Great Sphinx or the Great Wall of China at the time it was being built. Imagine what it would be like to be one of the builders or to watch the structure take shape over time. Write a narrative about a character’s or narrator’s experience with either the Great Sphinx or the Great Wall of China. For example, you may write about what happens during construction, or you may write about how your character or narrator sees the structure being used when it is finished. Use specific details from the relevant passage to develop the ideas in your narrative.

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24 You have come to the end of Unit 2 of the test. Review your answers from Unit 2 only.

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