INSIDE Placement Test: P2 Reading

PART 2: Reading

DIRECTIONS The test administrator will go over the sample item with you.

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Some days, clouds gather in the sky. The air feels wet. Winds begin to blow. Lightning might even be seen. Thunder might be heard. Water falls from the clouds.

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Clouds can bring ______.

A duck swims on the water. Sometimes it needs to go somewhere. It lifts its wings and flaps them. The duck goes faster. It lifts out of the water. It rises into the air.

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The duck can ______.

Grandma needs to buy food. She will go to the store. So she finds a piece of paper. She gets a pencil out of her desk. She is out of sugar and needs more. She writes that down. She also needs more milk and some bread. She writes those things down, too.

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Grandma is making a ______.

Frances thought she saw something run across the floor. She got out of bed to look. She saw a mouse! It had giant front teeth. The mouse and Frances stared at each other for a long time. Suddenly, the mouse sprang forward and ran into a hole in the wall! Frances screamed.

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The mouse tried to ______.

Karla walked out onto her porch. It was a calm, dark night. She gazed up at the sky above her. She couldn’t see any clouds at all. Tiny dots of light filled the sky. Karla knew the bright spots were much bigger than they seemed. They were just very far away.

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Karla looked at the ______.

Joe looked around the corner. He didn’t see any of the other kids. The hall was dark and all the classroom doors were closed. He leaned against the wall, sighed deeply, and shrugged. He wished that school didn’t have to end for the summer. Joe began walking down the hall.

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Joe was ______.

Tina likes to play. Her favorite game is to pretend she is an animal. She likes to walk on her hands and knees. She also likes to rub against her mom’s legs. Tina’s mom likes to play with Tina. She scratches behind Tina’s ears. Tina purrs loudly.

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Tina pretends she is a ______.

Ben was a boy who loved to sing. When his friends came over to play he would sing as loud as he could. His friends would always laugh and clap. Ben would bow and grin. Every night, Ben would dream about singing on a stage. He wanted to sing for the whole world.

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Ben was ______ of his singing.

Lillian liked her project. She had spent hours reading about China. She had gone to the Asian market and bought chopsticks. She had cut beautiful pictures out of magazines. Her information was ready to be presented. But her stomach ached, and she wished her mother had let her stay home. As Mr. Murphy called her name, she took a deep breath. She walked to the front of the class. It was now time to face her fear of speaking in front of people.

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Lillian needed to be ______.

A mimosa is a shrub. It is native to tropical America. It has fernlike leaflets. When threatened, the leaves of the mimosa close up on themselves. The greater the threat seems, the faster they will close. A light touch might spark a slow response. A hard flick might make an entire plant’s leaves close quickly. An electrical signal moves down the stem. The distance along the plant that the response spreads also depends upon the stimulus. At the base of each leaflet, the signal tells the leaflet to close. It works the same way nerve cells work.

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The mimosa ______.

There are different types of ants. One type is called the leafcutter ant. Leafcutter ants are farmers. They cut pieces off leaves. They carry the pieces down to their nest. There, workers chew up and spit out the leaves. Then an ant will take fungal growth from an old garden and plant it on the new leaf bits. This way, they grow more fungus, which feeds the ants. Between three and eight million ants live in each colony. Each ant has a job to do, such as cutting leaves, preparing leaves, or planting the gardens.

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The ants have a ______.

Alpacas are llama-like animals with long, woolly hair. They have been domesticated for thousands of years and are kept mostly for their hair. When most people think of alpacas, they probably think of a spitting alpaca. But in truth, most alpacas rarely spit. Some go their entire lives without spitting. They only spit when threatened and generally only do so at other alpacas, not humans. Sometimes humans happen to get in the way. Alpaca spit is known for its extremely foul odor. The smell is caused by stomach acid. Their spit is comprised of mostly stomach acid, not saliva.

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Alpaca spit is used for ______.

The Australian Cattle Dog is a herding dog. This fearless breed was developed just for herding cattle. They nip the heels of cows to get them to move, which is where they get their nickname “Heelers.” Heelers are known for their energy and intelligence. Many Heelers are used by farmers and ranchers to control cattle. The dogs seem to thrive when they have jobs and are busy. Those that are kept as pets do best when they are given plenty of attention and exercise.

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Heelers like to be ______.

Did you know that the letter “E” is the most commonly used letter in the English language? Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel without using the letter “E.” To prevent himself from using the letter, he tied down the “E” type-bar on his typewriter. Gadsby, Wright’s novel, is over 50,000 words long. In its writing he had to avoid words such as “he,” “she,” and past tense verbs ending in “-ed.” People said it was impossible to write this way. However, Ernest Vincent Wright proved them wrong.

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Wright's novel was an ______ task.

Most documents created during the Middle Ages were not written on paper. Instead they were written on vellum. Vellum is a kind of parchment created from calfskin. Other animal hides were also used as paper. But calfskin was preferred because it is thin, smooth, and resilient. Vellum is far more long-lasting than paper. Even when paper became cheaper and more widely available in the late Middle Ages, many important documents were still written on vellum. Many medieval documents are still in excellent condition today because they were produced on vellum.

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Vellum is ______.

The story of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is well-known. During the War of 1812, British ships were bombarding Fort McHenry near Baltimore. A man named Francis Scott Key was inspired by the flag that waved over the fort the morning after they were attacked. Reportedly, the flag was of legendary dimensions. At 30 by 42 feet, the flag’s original size would have covered a quarter of a modern basketball court. It was 90 feet above the ground and could be seen from miles away. Francis Scott Key was, in fact, eight miles downriver when the flag inspired him to write the poem that would become our national anthem.

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The flag had great ______.

The rain pounded the windows, and Fredrick couldn’t shake the gloom that descended on him as they drove past the baseball field. He was supposed to have a baseball game, and the coach was going to put Fredrick in as the pitcher, but it was cancelled because of rain. Instead, Fredrick pulled out his baseball cards, hoping the familiar faces of the famous players would cheer him. First, Fredrick sorted the cards by team, then by the year the card was printed. He examined each one before carefully putting it back into its plastic cover and filing it away. When he finished, the rain had stopped, and he realized that he felt better.

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Fredrick ______ organized his cards.

Paul rolled along the sidewalk, crossing the cracks rhythmically until he reached the ramp, where he let his momentum carry him halfway up. He pushed against the wheels as he approached the corner, slowly. This doorway was his least favorite in the entire school. It was difficult to turn the 90-degree corner and then open the door into the same three feet of space that he and his wheelchair occupied. But after three years, he’d found that if he didn’t turn the corner completely, he could grab the door and open it without hitting his chair and without having to back up.

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Paul was ______.

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INSIDE Placement Test: P2 Reading

Clouds can bring ______.

The duck can ______.

Grandma is making a ______.

The mouse tried to ______.

Karla looked at the ______.

Joe was ______.

Tina pretends she is a ______.

Ben was ______ of his singing.

Lillian needed to be ______.

The mimosa ______.

The ants have a ______.

Alpaca spit is used for ______.

Heelers like to be ______.

Wright's novel was an ______ task.

Vellum is ______.

The flag had great ______.

Fredrick ______ organized his cards.

Paul was ______.

I read a good ________.

You will ______ lunch.

Clouds can bring ______.

The duck can ______.

Grandma is making a ______.

The mouse tried to ______.

Karla looked at the ______.

Joe was ______.

Tina pretends she is a ______.

Ben was ______ of his singing.

Lillian needed to be ______.

The mimosa ______.

The ants have a ______.

Alpaca spit is used for ______.

Heelers like to be ______.

Wright's novel was an ______ task.

Vellum is ______.

The flag had great ______.

Fredrick ______ organized his cards.

Paul was ______.

I read a good ________.

You will ______ lunch.