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Descriptive Statements:
- Recognize the characteristics of various types of informational texts, such as newspapers, textbooks, online encyclopedias, and webzines.
- Use knowledge of the organizational features and structure of an informational text to help enhance comprehension of the text.
- Identify the main idea, purpose, and intended audience of an informational text.
- Distinguish between general statements and specific details presented in an informational text.
- Assess the relevance, importance, and sufficiency of evidence, examples, and reasons provided to explain a concept or process presented in an informational text.
- Assess the credibility, objectivity, and reliability of various sources used in an informational text.
- Recognize an accurate summary of an informational text.
- Interpret graphic features used in informational texts, such as tables, graphs, and charts.
Sample Item:
A middle school student is reading a magazine article about the ways in which the
missions of uncrewed space vehicles have contributed to the body of scientific knowledge
about the planet Mars. Which of the following excerpts from the article provides facts
that are most relevant to the subject of the article?
- After being transported to Mars on uncrewed space vehicles, robots have taken
photographs of the planet's surface, analyzed rock samples from Mars, and recorded
data on the composition of the atmosphere of Mars.
- People have long been fascinated by the possibility of finding life forms on Mars.
Unfortunately, early uncrewed space vehicles were ill-equipped for searching out life
forms.
- As part of the U.S. Mariner and Viking space programs during the 1960s and 1970s,
several uncrewed space vehicles were sent to Mars to conduct research. In 1976,
Viking 1 and Viking 2 actually landed on the surface of Mars.
- Scientists hope that legislators will be so encouraged by the wealth of information
gathered by uncrewed space vehicles that they will one day fund a crewed mission to Mars.
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
A. This question requires the examinee to assess the relevance of
evidence and examples provided to explain a concept presented in an informational text.
The specific, detailed information in response A is most germane to the subject of how
uncrewed space vehicles have contributed to the body of scientific knowledge about the
planet Mars.
Descriptive Statements:
- Recognize the characteristics of various types of persuasive texts, such as editorials, propaganda, and print and Web pop-up advertisements.
- Use knowledge of the organizational features and structure of a persuasive text to help enhance comprehension of the text.
- Identify the main idea, purpose, and intended audience of a persuasive text.
- Distinguish between facts and opinions presented in a persuasive text.
- Assess the relevance, importance, and sufficiency of evidence, examples, and reasons provided to support an argument presented in a persuasive text.
- Assess the credibility, objectivity, and reliability of various sources used in a persuasive text.
- Analyze the use of rhetorical devices and techniques in a persuasive text, such as repetition, exaggeration, and logical, emotional, and ethical appeals.
- Interpret graphic features used in persuasive texts, such as photographs and illustrations.
Sample Item:
Read the excerpt below from a marketing brochure; then answer the question that follows.
The tomatoes that we grow and sell at Super Ripe Farm are better tasting and more
nutritious than the tomatoes sold at supermarkets. Linda Baker, owner of the Great
Foods supermarket chain, even admits that the tomatoes sold in her stores are sometimes
picked green and do not end up in her stores' produce aisles until days later. "But
tomatoes are tomatoes, right? They're all good for you!" she claims. At Super
Ripe Farm, though, our tomatoes are grown and sold locally, so they can be picked fresh,
when they are just right for eating.
And besides tasting good, tomatoes are good for you. Harold Sumner, a senior researcher
at the U.S. Council of Dietetics, says that ripe tomatoes are high in vitamin C, which
our bodies use to resist infections and heal wounds. He also points out that we get more
vitamins from uncooked tomatoes than from cooked ones. "That's why I always add a slice
of fresh tomato to my kids' sandwiches," he says.
So, tomatoes from Super Ripe Farm may cost a bit more than tomatoes from supermarkets,
but in the long run, you end up ahead: the good flavor and health benefits of fresh
tomatoes are worth the extra cost. As one satisfied Super Ripe Farm customer says,
"I'd rather spend money on fresh, healthy tomatoes than on hard, underripe ones that
have no flavor."
Which of the following sources used in this excerpt provides the most objective
information about the nutritional value of tomatoes?
- the owner of the supermarket chain
- the senior researcher
- the author of the marketing brochure
- the satisfied customer
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
B. This question requires the examinee to assess the objectivity of
various sources used in a persuasive text. The senior researcher is the most objective
source because, unlike the author of the marketing brochure or the owner of the supermarket
chain, he has no financial interest in the sale of Super Ripe Farm tomatoes. The satisfied
customer is not completely objective because his/her interest in Super Ripe Farm tomatoes
is based only partially on the tomatoes' nutritional value; to this customer, their taste
is also important.
Descriptive Statements:
- Recognize the characteristics of various forms of literary texts, such as autobiography, coming-of-age novel, tragedy, epic poem, and sonnet.
- Analyze the use of rhetorical, dramatic, poetic, and literary devices and techniques, such as analogy, monologue, symbolism, and foreshadowing, in a literary text.
- Analyze the use of figures of speech, such as simile, metaphor, and personification, in a literary text.
- Analyze the use of point of view, tone, voice, and mood in a literary text.
- Analyze the use of structural elements, such as exposition, climax, meter, and stanzas, in a literary text.
- Analyze word choice and the use of words and word combinations in a literary text.
- Analyze the use of sound devices, such as alliteration and onomatopoeia, in a literary text.
- Analyze plot, setting, and characterization in a literary text.
- Interpret the central idea or theme of a literary text.
Sample Item:
Read the excerpt below from a poem; then answer the question that follows.
The river is famous to the fish.
The loud voice is famous to silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth
before anybody said so.
The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.
The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.
The idea you carry close to your bosom
is famous to your bosom.
The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.
The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it
and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.
Source: Nye, Naomi Shihab. Famous. Reprinted by permission of author.
Copyright © 2009 Naomi Shihab Nye.
Which of the following statements best describes the central idea that is developed
in this poem?
- Individuals find true fame anywhere their innate qualities are valued.
- Fame is merely a temporary condition without lasting significance.
- Individuals who seek fame are shallow and self-centered.
- Fame is a deceptive measure of self-worth in a celebrity-obsessed culture.
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
A. This question requires the examinee to interpret the central idea
of a literary text. The poem illustrates that being truly famous is not so much a function
of general popularity and acclaim but of a unique sort of belonging and acceptance.
Descriptive Statements:
- Examine in literary works references to major historical events and to major social, cultural, and political movements and institutions that have influenced the development of literatures from around the world.
- Examine in literary works expression of diverse values, attitudes, and ideas of peoples from various regional, ethnic, and cultural groups.
- Examine how writers from diverse cultural backgrounds and various historical periods have commented on major historical events and influenced public opinion about and understanding of major social, cultural, and political issues through their literary works.
- Examine how social, cultural, and political issues, such as issues relating to age, gender, ethnicity, and human rights, are explored in classical and contemporary literary works.
Sample Item:
Read the excerpt below from The Grapes of Wrath, a novel by John Steinbeck; then answer the question that follows.
Maybe we can start again, in the new rich land—in California, where the fruit
grows. We'll start over.
But you can't start. Only a baby can start. You and me—why, we're all that's
been. The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that's us. This land, this red
land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us.
We can't start again. The bitterness we sold to the junk man—he got it all
right, but we have it still. And when the owner men told us to go, that's us; and
when the tractor hit the house, that's us until we're dead. To California or any
place—every one a drum major leading a parade of hurts, marching with our
bitterness. And some day—the armies of bitterness will all be going the same
way. And they'll all walk together, and there'll be a dead terror from it.
The tenant men scuffed home to the farms through the red dust.
Source: From The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck,
copyright 1939, renewed ©copyright 1967 by John Steinbeck. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
In this excerpt, Steinbeck is commenting primarily on which of the following aspects of the 1930s Dust Bowl in the United States?
- the creation of migrant labor camps in California
- the disappearance of farm communities in the Great Plains
- the hopelessness and despondency felt by tenant farmers
- the topsoil erosion caused by irresponsible farming practices
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
C. This question requires the examinee to examine how a writer
has commented on a major historical event (in this case, the Dust Bowl) through
a literary work. Steinbeck focuses on the tenant farmers' response to the circumstances
that resulted from the Dust Bowl, which was the worst environmental disaster in
U.S. history. The excerpt begins with the narrator's seemingly optimistic suggestion
that tenant farmers will start new lives in California—where many affected by the
Dust Bowl fled—but then immediately negates the optimism with the pessimistic statement
"But you can't start." The repetition of the word "bitterness" and the use of phrases
such as "that's us until we're dead" and "parade of hurts," combined with the final
image of defeated tenant farmers scuffing through the dust, convey a sense of the
tenant farmers' hopelessness and despondency.
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