12th Grade English Screening Assessment (Modified)

Read this short text and answer the questions.

Maya used to avoid the library after school. It was quiet in a way that made her feel watched, and she worried she would choose the “wrong” book. One day, a teacher asked her to help set up chairs for a poetry reading. Maya agreed because it was a job, not a test.

While she worked, she heard a poet read a few lines about being new in a place and pretending not to care. The words sounded like something Maya had been thinking but never said out loud. After the reading, she picked up a thin book from a display—short poems, lots of white space. She told herself she would only look at the first page.

On the bus ride home, Maya read three poems. None of them felt like a trap. They were small, but they made her notice things: the pattern of rain on the window, the way her friend’s laugh filled the back seat, the tightness in her own chest when she tried to act “fine.”

The next afternoon, she went back to the library. This time she didn’t worry about choosing the wrong book. She asked the librarian, “Do you have more like this—short, but honest?”