VII. English Language Arts, Reading Comprehension, Grade 8
VII. English Language Arts,Reading Comprehension, Grade 8
Grade 8 English Language ArtsReading Comprehension TestThe spring 2015 grade 8 English Language Arts Reading Comprehension test was based on grades 6–12learning standards in two content strands of the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for EnglishLanguage Arts and Literacy (March 2011) listed below. Page numbers for the learning standards appearin parentheses. Reading (Framework, pages 47–52) Language (Framework, pages 64–67)The Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy is available on theDepartment website at www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/current.html.ELA Reading Comprehension test results are reported under two MCAS reporting categories, Readingand Language, which are identical to the two framework content strands listed above.The tables at the conclusion of this chapter indicate each released and unreleased common item’s reportingcategory and the standard it assesses. The correct answers for released multiple-choice questions are alsodisplayed in the released item table.Test Sessions and Content OverviewThe grade 8 ELA Reading Comprehension test included two separate test sessions. Each session includedreading passages, followed by multiple-choice and open-response questions. Selected common readingpassages and approximately half of the common test items are shown on the following pages as theyappeared in test booklets.Reference MaterialsDuring both ELA Reading Comprehension test sessions, the use of bilingual word-to-word dictionarieswas allowed for current and former English language learner students only. No other reference materialswere allowed during any ELA Reading Comprehension test session.92MCAS 2015 Gr8 ELA RID
Grade 8 English Language ArtsReading ComprehensionDIRECTIONSThis session contains two reading selections with fourteen multiple-choice questions and twoopen-response questions. Mark your answers to these questions in the spaces provided in yourStudent Answer Booklet.Paul Laurence Dunbar was an African American poet who wrote in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Hispoem “Sympathy” speaks of the feelings of a bird in a cage. Read the poem and answer the questionsthat follow.SYMPATHYI know what the caged bird feels, alas!When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,And the river flows like a stream of glass;5When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,1And the faint perfume from its chalice2 steals—I know what the caged bird feels!I know why the caged bird beats his wingTill its blood is red on the cruel bars;10 For he must fly back to his perch and clingWhen he fain3 would be on the bough4 a-swing;And a pain still throbs in the old, old scarsAnd they pulse again with a keener sting—I know why he beats his wing!I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—When he beats his bars and he would be free;It is not a carol of joy or glee,But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,20 But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—I know why the caged bird sings!15— Paul Laurence Dunbar1opes — openschalice — a cup or goblet3 fain — gladly4 bough — branch2“Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. In the public domain.93MCAS 2015 Gr8 ELA RID
ELA Reading Comprehension ID:291951 D CommonID:291936 A Common1 4 Which of the following words bestdescribes the feeling created by thedescription in line 3?A. The stanza suggests the bird isbored with his life.A. peacefulB. The stanza describes how the birdlooks, rather than how he acts.B. surprisedC. impatientC. The stanza suggests the bird isunwise for wanting his life tochange.D. suspensefulD. The stanza describes what the birdlikely desires, rather than what heexperiences.ID:291938 D Common2 How is the first stanza most differentfrom the rest of the poem?In line 4, the phrase “like a stream ofglass” suggests the water isA. cold.B. deep.ID:291952 C Common5 C. dirty.D. smooth.Which of the following words bestdescribes the tone of the poem?A. fearfulB. apologeticC. passionateID:291940 B Common3 In line 5, what do the “first bird” andthe “first bud” most likely represent?D. wonderingA. the cageB. the springtimeID:291958 D Common6 C. the bud’s beautyD. the bird’s ancestorWhich meaning of the word faint isused in line 6?A. exhaustedB. whisperedC. lacking courageD. barely noticeable94MCAS 2015 Gr8 ELA RID
ELA Reading Comprehension Question 7 is an open-response question. ead the question carefully.R Explain your answer. Add supporting details. Double-check your work.Write your answer to question 7 in the space provided in your Student Answer Booklet.ID:291966 Common7 Based on the poem, explain why the speaker feels sympathy for the bird. Support your answerwith relevant and specific details from the poem.95MCAS 2015 Gr8 ELA RID
ELA Reading Comprehension “Eureka!” means “I have found it!” Read this article about the role that chance has played in importantdiscoveries. Then answer the questions that follow.Eureka!by Ken Chowder1231YOU WOULDN’T THINK somethingas unscientific as accident could haveplayed much of a role in the life of TimBerners-Lee, the brilliant British physicistand computer scientist who in 1991 inventedthe World Wide Web. He conceived it andstill controls a lot of how it operates fromhis unimposing office at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology. In 1999, Timeplaced Berners-Lee on its list of the “100Persons of the Century.” No fewer thanseven different universities have awardedhim honorary degrees.But the great breakthrough engineeredby this icon of cyberspace did occur, inpart, by chance. “There was an element ofserendipity,”1 says Arthur Molella, directorof the Lemelson Center for the Study ofInvention and Innovation at the Smithsonian’sNational Museum of American History. “Atfirst, he was just noodling around, trying tofind a way to organize his research files. Sohe began to develop a tool just for his ownpersonal use.”The “tool” was a software programthat, as Berners-Lee puts it, was “reallyuseful for keeping track of all the randomassociations one comes across in real life,and [which] brains are supposed to beTim Berners-Lee sought a wayto organize his notes. So hecreated the World Wide Web.“But I hate spam,” he says, andnow directs the W3 Consortium,which regulates the Web andcombats cyber nuisances.4serendipity — finding something valuable without seeking it96MCAS 2015 Gr8 ELA RIDso good at remembering—but sometimesmine wouldn’t.” He called it Enquire, and itworked so well, creating effective linkagesbetween huge amounts of information,that it eventually became the basis for therevolution we now casually refer to asthe Web. “It would be akin to a carpenterbuilding a little cabinet for himself,”Molella says, “and suddenly discoveringhe could store the entire world inside thething. There was quite a bit of luck in it.”The element of chance has helpedproduce many of the most important
ELA Reading Comprehension 5672innovations in modern life. Many arecreated by it; others become successfulbecause of it, and some fail for the samereason. As Mark Twain, an inventor himself,once scribbled in his notebook: “Name thegreatest of all the inventors. Accident.” Ifyou don’t believe it, go into your kitchenand look around. There might be a Teflonpan on the stove, a microwave oven above it,Post-its sticking out of cookbooks, matchesin a drawer; Coke, Popsicles and ketchupstashed in a refrigerator. Accident played arole in their invention.Happenstance2 works in many ways. Oneis the observed event: the “invention” is theway the mind seizes upon an inconspicuousoccurrence. The best known of these isAlexander Fleming’s role in the discoveryof penicillin. One day in 1928 some molddrifted through an open window in a Londonhospital and landed in Fleming’s petri dish,where he’d placed a culture of staphylococcusbacteria. What Fleming did next got himand two colleagues a Nobel Prize in 1945:he looked through the microscope. Whathe saw was the mold efficiently destroyingthe germs. Presto! The creation of penicillinbegan with that unlikely turn of events.But Robert Friedel, historian oftechnology at the University of Maryland,cautions that “serendipity is no accident.”What’s important about an unintendedevent, Friedel asserts, is the creative wayit is used. As Louis Pasteur once said,“Chance favors only the prepared mind.”Any of us might happen to see a catpull feathers through a birdcage; but whenEli Whitney saw that, he got the idea ofhow to comb cotton mechanically. Hencethe cotton gin. “Some people are justmore likely to pay attention when they seesomething,” says Rini Paiva of the National8A chocolate bar in his pocketmelted by radar gave PercySpencer (above) a vision:microwave ovens.happenstance — a situation due to chance97MCAS 2015 Gr8 ELA RIDInventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio. “Ifyou have a certain type of brain, you mightsee something weird and say, ‘Hey, whatcan I do with this?’”Take Percy Lebaron Spencer. A hero ofWorld War II for his work in developingradar, Spencer obtained more than 120patents in his lifetime. One day shortly afterthe war, he was walking through his labat the Raytheon Company in Cambridge,Massachusetts, when he stopped brieflyby a magnetron—the tube that producesthe high-frequency microwaves that powerradar. “He was working on things likemissile-defense systems,” Paiva says. “Butjust that second he got a strange feeling.He realized that a candy bar in his jacketpocket had melted.” Odd, Spencer thought.Immediately, he performed a makeshiftexperiment: he put some popcorn kernels infront of the magnetron. Soon, popcorn waspopping all over the place. “There’s actuallya drawing of a bag of popcorn in one ofSpencer’s patents,” Paiva says. “Otherpeople might just make a note or two in alab notebook and let it go. But right away
ELA Reading Comprehension 910Percy Spencer was thinking about what thiscould be used for—a microwave oven.”It’s not just scientists hanging aroundhigh-tech labs whom accident favors. HansLippershey, a 17th-century Dutch eyeglassmaker, simply happened—so the storygoes—to look through two lenses oneday and notice that objects at a distancewere greatly magnified. When he put thelenses in a tube, he created the world’s firsttelescope. John Walker was a pharmacist,not a scientist. One day in 1826 he wasmixing potassium chlorate and antimonysulfide together with a stick, but the mixturestuck to the stick. When he tried to scrapethe stuff off against the stone floor, it burstinto flames. Walker quickly produced forsale the first friction matches, or, to usehis catchy name, “sulphuretted peroxidestrikables.”Inspiration can take a lot longer to strikethan a match. Frank Epperson was an 11-yearold boy at the dawn of the 20th centurywhen he accidentally left a mixture of sodapowder and water out on the back porch onecold night. In it was the stick he’d used asa mixer. Next morning, Epperson found thesoda water frozen around the stick. Nearly 20111213In 1973 Frank Epperson’sgranddaughter Nancy helpedcelebrate 50 years of his “frozendrink on a stick.”98MCAS 2015 Gr8 ELA RIDyears passed before he realized that by addingsome flavoring, he could concoct a frostytreat, and with that he began to manufacturewhat he called “Eppsicles.” Eventually thename changed, and he earned royalties onmore than 60 million Popsicles. (That successinspired the creation of the Fudgsicle, theCreamsicle and the Dreamsicle.)Sometimes Lady Luck delivers theinvention but not the fortune that shouldgo with it. One day in 1839, a failedhardware salesman was tinkering at hisboardinghouse in Woburn, Massachusetts.He’d been hauled off to debtor’s prison sooften that he called it his “hotel.” Eventhere, he kept doing experiments, doggedlytrying to make a useful material out of asubstance from Brazil called rubber. Peoplebought it for erasing—“rubbing” outmistakes. Because it became brittle in thecold and melted in high heat, that was aboutall it was good for. The amateur inventortried mixing it with numerous chemicals allwithout success, until that day in Woburnwhen he blended rubber with sulfur—andhappened to drop the mixture onto a hotstove. After he cleaned it up, he realizedthat the rubber had suddenly become moresolid, yet was still flexible.Charles Goodyear had vulcanizedrubber, a process that gives it usefulproperties, such as strength, elasticity andstability. (Today it is used in everythingfrom automobile tires to golf balls.) Butthat practical discovery did little to helpGoodyear himself. His many patents wereregularly violated; when he died in 1860,he was more than 200,000 in debt.In one common scenario, inventors arehard at work trying to make one thing whenaccident intervenes to create somethingelse. The first practical synthetic dye was“invented” when an 18-year-old student
ELA Reading Comprehension 14in London was trying to synthesize anantimalarial drug; the material that led tothrowaway tissues was first intended as afilter for gas masks.In the late 1960s, 3M Companyresearcher Spence Silver was trying tocreate a superglue but ended up withthe opposite—a glue that wouldn’t dry,wouldn’t melt and hardly stuck to anything.It could just barely hold two pieces of papertogether. What the devil could he use thestuff for? Silver never did come up with agood answer, but five years later a fellowemployee, Art Fry, began using the glue onsmall scraps of paper, making bookmarksfor his church hymnal. It took another eightyears before “Post-it” sticky notepaperbecame an overnight sensation.“Eureka!” by Ken Chowder, from Smithsonian magazine (September 2003). Text copyright 2003 by Ken Chowder. Reprinted by permissionof the author. Photograph 1 copyright Andrew Brusso/CORBIS. Photograph 2 reprinted by permission of Raytheon Company. Photograph 3copyright Bettmann/CORBIS.ID:283639 C Common8 ID:294564 C Common10 According to paragraphs 1–3, what wasBerners-Lee doing when he conceived ofthe World Wide Web?A. building a cupboardA. religionB. brainstorming with friendsB. medicineC. attempting to get organizedC. an animalD. trying to make profitable goodsD. the weatherID:283648 A Common9 According to the article, which of thefollowing was most important to theinvention of the cotton gin?ID:283656 B Common11 In paragraph 4, what is the most likelyreason the author says to “go into yourkitchen and look around”?A. How New Ideas BecomePatentedA. to convince his readers he isspeaking the truthB. How the Mind Creates throughObservationB. to suggest that some devices couldbe improvedC. How Untried Methods Often MeetResistanceC. to point out that many new devicesare related to cookingD. How History Was Influenced byEveryday ContraptionsD. to provide readers with motivation tothink of their own ideas99MCAS 2015 Gr8 ELA RIDWhich of the following would be thebest heading for paragraph 7?
ELA Reading Comprehension ID:294079 D Common12 ID:283663 D Common14 According to the article, how wasCharles Goodyear most different fromother inventors in the article?How is the article mainly organized?A. in chronological orderB. by order of importanceA. He kept his discoveries hiddenfrom colleagues.C. by comparison and contrastD. through a series of examplesB. He did not understand the impactof his discoveries.C. He made discoveries that wereimportant to the world.ID:283665 C Common15 D. He did not achieve financial successthrough his discoveries.What is the definition of scenario as itis used in paragraph 13?A. disasterB. sacrificeC. situationID:283661 C Common13 Which of the following sentences bestsupports the main idea of the article?D. presentationA. “He conceived it and still controlsa lot of how it operates from hisunimposing office at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology.” (paragraph 1)B. “No fewer than seven differentuniversities have awarded himhonorary degrees.” (paragraph 1)C. “The creation of penicillin beganwith that unlikely turn of events.”(paragraph 5)D. “He’d been hauled off to debtor’sprison so often that he called it his‘hotel.’” (paragraph 11)100MCAS 2015 Gr8 ELA RID
ELA Reading Comprehension Question 16 is an open-response question. ead the question carefully.R Explain your answer. Add supporting details. Double-check your work.Write your answer to question 16 in the space provided in your Student Answer Booklet.ID:283668 Common16 Based on the article, explain what Louis Pasteur meant when he said, “Chance favors only theprepared mind.” Support your answer with relevant and specific information from the article.101MCAS 2015 Gr8 ELA RID
Grade 8 English Language ArtsReading ComprehensionSpring 2015 Released Items:Reporting Categories, Standards, and Correct Answers*StandardCorrect 01Reading2Item No.Page No.19423Reporting Category* Answers are provided here for multiple-choice items only. Sample responses and scoring guidelines for open-response items,which are indicated by the shaded cells, will be posted to the Department’s website later this year.102MCAS 2015 Gr8 ELA RID
Grade 8 English Language ArtsReading ComprehensionSpring 2015 Unreleased Common Items:Reporting Categories and StandardsItem No.Reporting e1103MCAS 2015 Gr8 ELA RIDStandard
The spring 2015 grade 8 English Language Arts Reading Comprehension test was based on grades 6–12 learning standards in two content strands of the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy (March 2011) listed below.
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The spring 2015 grade 8 English Language Arts Reading Comprehension test was based on grades 6–12 learning standards in two content strands of the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy (March 2011) listed below. Page numbers for the learning standards appear in parentheses. Reading (Framework, pages 47–52)
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Walaupun anatomi tulang belakang diketahui dengan baik, menemukan penyebab nyeri pinggang bawah menjadi masalah yang cukup serius bagi orang-orang klinis. Stephen Pheasant dalam Defriyan (2011), menggambarkan prosentase distribusi cedera terjadi pada bagian tubuh akibat Lifting dan Handling LBP merupakan efek umum dari Manual Material Handling (MMH). Pekerja berusahauntuk mempertahankan .
