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Standard Probe Grade 07 RL.7.2

Last updated almost 2 years ago
3 questions
Read the passage from the novel Wild River. Then answer the questions.
This passage comes from the New Meridian Released Items Grade 7 ELA 2018 Narrative Writing Task.

from Wild River

by P. J. Petersen

1 We floated for a while. It was warm in the sunshine, and Tanner took off his shirt. He caught one more fish and let it go. “Bigger,” he said. “But not big enough.”

2 I looked downstream. Then I took a really good look. “Tanner,” I said, “there’s nothing but rocks up ahead.”

3 He laughed and shouted, “Get ready for the chute!”
4 “The what?”

5 “The chute. River gets narrow for a minute. It’s like a waterslide. No big deal. Just keep going straight.”

6 I glanced over my shoulder. Tanner had put down his fishing pole and picked up his paddle.

7 I could hear the roar of water. That scared me a little. “It sounds like Niagara Falls,” I yelled.

8 “Relax, bro. It’s just a little waterslide.”

9 Up ahead I could see a steep cliff on one side. On the other side were big black rocks. In the middle was a little opening. I hoped our kayak would fit.

10 “Keep ‘er straight!” Tanner yelled.

11 The opening was wider than I’d thought at first. But I couldn’t see anything past it. And the roar got louder and louder.

12 The nose of the kayak went straight into the opening. Then we were headed down too fast for me to do anything but hold on. We hit a pool at the bottom and shot ahead.

13 “All right!” Tanner yelled.

14 I glanced back. The chute didn’t look very high. Or very steep. But I knew better.

15 “That was awesome,” Tanner said. “Brady and I didn’t get anything like that last year.”

16 I waited a minute, then asked, “Tanner, didn’t that scare you?”

17 “Sure,” he said. “That’s why it was fun.”

18 “Maybe for you,” I said. “I’m no hero.”

19 He didn’t answer. He was getting out his fishing pole again. A few minutes later he hooked a fish, but it got away. I kept the kayak steady in the current.

20 “Hey, Ryan,” he said, “that hero stuff—that’s garbage. The only heroes these days are in video games or comic books.”

21 “That’s easy for you to say.” I looked back at him for a second. “You ran into that burning house and saved that old guy.”

22 “I just happened to be there. You’d have done the same thing. Later on, they made a big deal about it. But it was no biggie.”

23 “I probably would have been too scared.”

24 “You’d have been scared, sure. Everybody gets scared. But that wouldn’t stop you. You do what you have to do.”

25 “Maybe,” I said. But I didn’t believe it.

26 We drifted along for a while. It was warm in the sun. Until some icy water splashed on me. Which happened every minute or two.

27 “We’re coming up on another chute,” Tanner said. He reeled his line, then picked up his paddle. “I think this one is shorter. Maybe a little steeper.”

28 This time there was no cliff. Just big boulders on both sides of the river. I could hear the water roaring. The sound scared me. Maybe not as much as the first time, but I was still scared.

29 We did everything right. The kayak was straight, and we were in the middle of the river. I lifted my paddle and braced myself for the slide.

30 “Hang on, buddy!” Tanner yelled.

31 Just as we started down, I saw something ahead. A big black log. Right in the middle of the chute. With a jagged end pointed straight at us. And it wasn’t moving. Not at all.

32 I opened my mouth to yell, but no words came out.

From WILD RIVER by P. J. Petersen, copyright © 2009 by P. J. Petersen. Used by permission of Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Any third-party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House, Inc. for permission.
Required
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What is one way the author develops the central idea of the passage?

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Part A
Which sentence best states a theme of the passage?

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Part B
Which two details from the passage best support that theme?