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9.11 SBAC Practice

Last updated over 1 year ago
8 questions
Three Golden Apples
By Nathaniel Hawthor
As Hercules came upon a giant, black clouds gathered about and burst into a tremendous storm, so that Hercules found it impossible to hear what the giant said.
At last, the storm swept over, and the giant roared out to Hercules anew.
“I am Atlas, the mightiest giant in the world! And I hold the sky upon my head!”
“So I see,” answered Hercules. “But, can you show me the way to the garden of the Hesperides?”
“What do you want there?” asked the giant.
“I want three golden apples,” shouted Hercules, “for my cousin, the king.”
“There is nobody but myself,” declared the giant, “to gather the golden apples. If it were not for the task of holding up the sky, I would make half a dozen steps across the sea, and get them for you.”
“You are very kind,” replied Hercules. “And cannot you rest the sky upon a mountain?”
“None of them are high enough,” said Atlas. “But, if you were to stand on the summit, your head would be almost level with mine. What if you should take my burden on your shoulders, while I get the apples?”
“How long will it take to get the golden apples?”
“It will be done in a few moments,” cried Atlas.
“Well, then,” answered Hercules, “I will relieve you of your burden.”
A little while later, the giant was back with apples in hand, and Hercules was glad to see him.
“It is a beautiful spot, that garden of the Hesperides. And the dragon with a hundred heads is a sight worth seeing.”
“You have done the business as well as I could. I heartily thank you for your trouble. And now, as I have a long way to go, and am rather in haste-and as the king, my cousin, is anxious to receive the golden apples-will you be kind enough to take the sky off my shoulders again?”
“Why, as to that,” said the giant, chucking the golden into the air twenty miles high, or thereabouts and catching them as they came down, “as to that, I consider you unreasonable. Cannot I carry the golden apples to the king, your cousin, much quicker than you could? As His Majesty is in such a hurry to get them, I promise to take my longest strides.”
Hercules grew impatient and shrugged his shoulders, and a few stars tumbled out of place.
“Oh that will never do!” cried Giant Atlas laughing. “I have not let fall so many stars within the last five centuries. By the time you have stood there as long as I did, you will begin to learn patience!”
“Do you intend to make me bear this burden forever?” shouted Hercules.
“I bore it a good while longer, in spite of the backache. Well, then, after a thousand years, if I happen to feel in the mood, we may a possibly shift about again. You are certainly a very strong man, and can never have a better opportunity to prove it.”
“Incredibly unfair!” cried Hercules, with another hitch of his shoulders. “Just take the sky upon your head one instant, will you? I want to make a cushion of my lion’s skin, for the weight to rest upon. It really chafes me, and will cause unnecessary inconvenience in so many centuries as I am to stand here.”
“That’s no more than fair, and I’ll do it!” declared the giant, for he had no unkind feelings towards Hercules, and was merely acting with too selfish consideration of his own ease. “For just five minutes, then,  I’ll take back the sky.”
Ah, the thick-witted old rogue of a giant! He threw down the golden apples, and received back the sky, from the head and shoulders of Hercules. And Hercules picked up the three golden apples, that were as big or bigger than pumpkins, and straightaway set out on his journey homeward, without paying the slightest heed to the thundering tones of the giant, who bellowed after him to come back.
And there stand the giant to this day; or at any rate, there stands a mountain as tall as he, and which bears his name; and when the thunder rumbles about its summit we may imagine it be the voice of Giant Atlas, bellowing after Hercules!
Required
1

1. The following question has two parts.

PART A:  What conclusion about Hercules is supported by the text?

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1

PART B: Which sentence from the passage BEST supports your answer to part A?

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1

In "The Three Golden Apples," the narrator writes, "Straightaway, Hercules set out on his journey homeward, without paying the slightest HEED to the thundering cries of the giant."  What does the use of the word HEED mean in this context?

Read the text and answer the question.

A Masterpiece Surprise
by Elise Broach

Marvin the beetle saw the bottle of ink. It was high up on James's
desk, and it appeared to be open.

Curious, Marvin crawled across the floor to the desk and quickly
climbed to the top. James had spread newspaper over the desk and
two or three sheets of the art paper his father had given him. On one
page he'd made some experimental scribbles and had written his
name. The pen, neatly capped, rested at the edge of the paper, but
the bottle of ink stood open, glinting in the weak light.

Without really thinking about what he was doing, Marvin crawled to
the cap of the bottle and dipped his two front legs in the ink that had
pooled inside. On his clean hind legs, he backed over to an unused
sheet of paper. He looked out the window at the nightscape of the
street: the brownstone opposite with its rows of darkened windows,
the snow-dusted rooftop, the street-lamp, the spidery branches of a
single tree. Gently, delicately, and with immense concentration, Marvin
lowered his front legs and began to draw.

The ink flowed smoothly off his legs across the page. Though he'd
never done anything like this before, it seemed completely natural,
even unstoppable. He kept glancing up, tracing the details of the scene
with his eyes, then transferring them onto the paper. It was as if his
legs had been waiting all their lives for this ink, this page, this lamp-lit
window view. There was no way to describe the feeling. It thrilled
Marvin to his very core.

He drew and drew, losing all sense of time. He moved back and forth
between the ink cap and the paper, dipping his front legs gently in the
puddle of black ink, always careful not to smear his previous work. He
watched the picture take shape before his eyes.

And then the light changed. The sky turned from black to dark blue to
gray, the streetlamp shut off, and James's room was filled with the
noise of the city waking. A garbage truck groaned and banged as it
passed on the street below. James stirred beneath his bedcovers.
Marvin, desperate to finish his picture before the boy awakened,
hurried between the page and the ink cap, which was almost out of
ink. At last he stopped, surveying his miniature scene.

It was finished.

It was perfect.

It was breathtaking.

Marvin's heart swelled. He felt that he had never done anything so fine
or important in his entire life. He wiped his ink-soaked forelegs on the
newspaper and scurried behind the desk lamp, bursting with pride, in
a fever of anticipation, just as James threw off his blankets.

"Huh," James said, walking toward his desk. "I wonder where this
came from."

Marvin stiffened and retreated farther behind the desk lamp.
James gasped.

Marvin watched James's pale face, his eyes huge as he stared at the
drawing. He quickly looked behind him, as if the room might hold
some clue that would explain what he saw on his desk.

Then slowly, brows furrowed, James pulled out the chair and sat down.
He leaned over the picture. "Wow," he said. "Wow!"

Marvin straightened with pride.

James kept examining the drawing, then the scene through the
window, whispering to himself. "It's exactly like what's outside! It's
like a teeny-tiny picture of the street! This is amazing."
Marvin crept around the base of the lamp so he could hear the boy
better.

"But . . . how?" James picked up the pen and uncapped it, squinting.
He lifted the bottle of ink and frowned, screwing the ink cap back on.

"Who did this?" he asked, staring again at the picture.
And then, without planning to—without meaning to, without ever
thinking for a moment of the consequences—Marvin found himself
crawling out into the open, across the vast desktop, directly in front of
James. He stopped at the edge of the picture and waited, unable to
breathe.

James stared at him.

After a long silence, during which Marvin almost dashed to safety
behind the desk, James spoke.
"It was you, wasn't it?" he said.
Marvin waited.

"But how?"

Marvin hesitated. He crawled over to the bottle of ink.
James reached across the desk, and Marvin cringed as enormous
pinkish fingers swept tremblingly close to his shell. But the boy
avoided him, carefully lifting the bottle and shaking it. He unscrewed
the cap and set it down next to Marvin.

"Show me," he whispered.
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2

Summarize what happens during the time Marvin is drawing the
picture. Use key events from the text to support your summary.

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1

Read the sentence from the text.

Gently, delicately, and with immense concentration, Marvin lowered his
front legs and began to draw.

A synonym is a word that means the same or nearly the same as
another word. What is the synonym of immense?

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1

Read the lines from the text.

It was finished.
It was perfect.
It was breathtaking.

Pick the statement that best explains why the author chose to include
these lines.

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1

This question has two parts. First, answer Part A. Then, answer Part B.

Part A
Which statement best summarizes the main idea of the text?

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Part B
Which sentence from the text bestsupports your answer in part A?