Benchmark Boot Camp

SECTION I

Reading Comprehension: Quick Tips

• Read the question first

• Find proof in the text

• Inference = clues + logic

• Main idea ≠ one detail

• Eliminate wrong answers

• Choose the BEST answer

STAAR Question Language Quiz

Which strategy would best help you answer the questions?

Excerpt from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

1 (1) Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmers wife. (2) Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon for many miles. (3) There were four walls, a floor, and a roof, which made one room, and this room contained a rusty looking cookstove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and the beds.

Excerpt from “Forerunners” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Long I followed happy guides,

I could never reach their sides;

Their step is forth, and, ere the day

Breaks up their leaguer1, and away.

(5) Keen my sense, my heart was young,

Right good-will my sinews strung,

But no speed of mine avails

To hunt upon their shining trails.

On and away, their hasting feet

(10) Make the morning proud and sweet;

Flowers they strew,—I catch the scent;

Or tone of silver instrument

Leaves on the wind melodious trace;

Yet I could never see their face.

1. leaguer – a military camp

Excerpt from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Across the courtesy bay, the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans. Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and I’d known Tom in college. And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago.

(1)Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven―a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such acute limited excellence at twenty- one that everything afterward savours of anticlimax. (2) His family was enormously wealthy―even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach―but now he’d left Chicago, and come east in a fashion that rather took your breath away; for instance, he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. (3) It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.

Why they came east I don’t know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together. This was a permanent move, said Daisy over the telephone, but I didn’t believe it―I had no sight into Daisy’s heart, but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game.

Excerpt from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Morning-room in ALGERNONs flat in Half-Moon Street. The room is luxuriously and artistically furnished. The sound of a piano is heard in the adjoining room. LANE is arranging afternoon tea on the table, and after the music has ceased, ALGERNON enters.

ALGERNON: Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?

LANE: I didn’t think it polite to listen, sir.

ALGERNON: I’m sorry for that, for your sake. I don’t play accurately ― anyone can play accurately ― but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for life.

Excerpt from “The Skylight Room” by O. Henry

1 (1) First Mrs. Parker would show you the double parlours. (2) You would not dare to interrupt her description of their advantages and of the merits of the gentleman who had occupied them for eight years. (3) Then you would manage to stammer forth the confession that you were neither a doctor nor a dentist. (4) Mrs. Parker's manner of receiving the admission was such that you could never afterward entertain the same feeling toward your parents. (5) It was them that had neglected to train you up in one of the professions that fitted Mrs. Parker's parlours.

Section II – Revising & Editing Tips

• Read the question first

• Look for keywords like change, correct, improve, or revise

• Identify what type of change is needed: punctuation, grammar, capitalization, word choice, sentence structure

• Eliminate answers that don’t match the type of revision

• Choose the BEST answer

Excerpt from “The Skylight Room” by O. Henry

1 (1) First Mrs. Parker would show you the double parlours. (2) You would not dare to interrupt her description of their advantages and of the merits of the gentleman who had occupied them for eight years. (3) Then you would manage to stammer forth the confession that you were neither a doctor nor a dentist. (4) Mrs. Parker's manner of receiving the admission was such that you could never afterward entertain the same feeling toward your parents. (5) It was them that had neglected to train you up in one of the professions that fitted Mrs. Parker's parlours.

(1) Children can learn to play the piano as early as five years old, but the ideal age to learn is between six and nine years old. (2) Some factors to consider include a child’s hand size, coordination, and dexterity. (3) Whether or not a child can sustain focus and has the motivation to practice will influence their growth and confidence behind the keys. (4) While learning at a young age is preferable, it is never too late to start.

Excerpt from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Across the courtesy bay, the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans. Daisy was my secondvcousin once removed, and I’d known Tom in college. And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago.

(1) Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven―a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such acute limited excellence at twenty- one that everything afterward savours of anticlimax. (2) His family was enormously wealthy―even in college his freedom

with money was a matter for reproach―but now he’d left Chicago, and come east in a fashion that rather took your breath away; for instance, he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. (3) It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.

Why they came east I don’t know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together. This was a permanent move, said Daisy over the telephone, but I didn’t believe it―I had no sight into Daisy’s heart, but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game.

(1) People often romanticize circumstances ranging from war to toxic relationships to a myriad of mental disorders. (2) People who have truly experienced them or witnessed those who have will tell you that there is nothing glamorous about them. (3) To think them otherwise is dangerous. (4) Many who view them through this idealistic, poetic lens have only experienced them through the distance of some narrator, artist, poet, or playwright and don’t understand how debilitating they can be or the lasting trauma they can impart on their victims.

Excerpt from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

1 (1) Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmers wife. (2) Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon for many miles. (3) There were four walls, a floor, and a roof, which made one room, and this room contained a rusty looking cookstove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and the beds.