Free printable CAASPP practice test for Grade 8

English Language Arts

Circle the letter of the best answer, or two letters where a question asks for two. No time limit.

1. Section Four

   The alarm was not loud. On Kestrel Station, nothing was loud at three in the morning except the ventilation fans, so the soft double chime from the hallway panel was enough to wake Noor Haddad.

   She padded out in her socks and squinted at the screen. GARDEN WATER LOOP: TEMPERATURE LOW. Beneath the warning, a number glowed amber: 39 degrees.

   Noor was fourteen, and she had lived on the Moon for seven months, long enough to understand what most of the panels meant. The garden module was her mother's domain: four long rows of tomatoes, beans, and lettuce growing under violet lamps, nourished by a loop of water that the station purified and reused again and again. The loop ran along the module's outer wall, where a small heater kept it from feeling the cold of the lunar night pressing against the other side.

   The number blinked. 38 degrees.

   Noor's mother was not on the station. Neither was Chief Okafor, nor four of the other five adults, who had driven the big rover toward the crater rim two days earlier to install a new solar array and would not return until tomorrow afternoon. The only other person aboard was Dr. Feld, who had come down with a fever and was sleeping it off in the medical bay with the assistance of some extremely powerful medicine.

   Noor tried to wake him anyway. She knocked, then shook his shoulder. He opened one eye, murmured, "Mm, the carrots," and drifted back to sleep.

   She hurried to the radio. Chief Okafor's standing order was printed on a card beside it: IF ANYTHING BREAKS WHILE WE ARE OUT, CALL US AND WAIT. Below it, in smaller letters, was the regulation every child on the station knew by heart: No one under eighteen operates life-support equipment alone.

   "Rover One, this is Kestrel," Noor said. "The garden water loop is cooling, and I think the line heater has failed."

   For a long moment there was only static. Then the chief's voice came through in fragments, as if someone were tearing it into strips.

   "Noor... copy... the loop... relay is... wait... section four... blue binder... trust you to..."

   Then nothing. Noor checked the schedule taped above the radio. The relay satellite that carried their signals over the horizon had just slipped out of range, and it would not rise again for three hours.

   37 degrees.

   Noor did the calculation out loud, the way her mother had taught her, to keep her voice steady. The temperature was falling about one degree every eight minutes, and water froze at 32. In forty minutes the line would begin to freeze, and because freezing water expands, a pipe packed with ice would split. Months of recycled water would spill across the floor, and every plant in the module would wither long before the rover came home.

   "Wait," she whispered. "She said wait."

   But the chief had also said section four. And blue binder. And trust.

   The blue binder sat on her mother's shelf in the garden module, its spine worn soft from use. Noor had watched her mother consult it a hundred times. She carried it to the pipe wall and flipped to the fourth tab, which was labeled EMERGENCY BYPASS. There were three steps: close valve A; open valve B, which would divert the water through a second pipe along the warm inner wall; and switch on the backup heater.

   Three steps. Her mother could complete them in a minute, but Noor's hands were trembling so badly that the pages rattled.

   She thought of the card beside the radio. She thought of the tomato plants, whose yellow flowers she had helped pollinate with a paintbrush only last week. She thought of the chief's voice dissolving into static: trust you to... To do what? To wait? To act? The rest of the sentence was somewhere out in space, and Noor would have to finish it herself.

   35 degrees.

   Valve A turned easily, but valve B did not. It was stiff from months without use, and Noor had to brace her foot against the wall and pull with both hands until it finally gave with a groan. Water rushed into the bypass pipe; she could hear it gurgling past her ear. She flipped the heater switch and sat down hard on the floor.

   34. 34. 35. 37.

   By the time the number reached 50, Noor had stopped trembling. She opened the station log and recorded everything: the time of the alarm, each step from the binder, and every temperature reading. At the end she typed, "I operated life-support equipment alone. I broke the rule." Then she sat among the tomato plants and waited for the satellite to rise.

   The rover returned the following afternoon. Chief Okafor read the log without a word while Noor stood beside her, studying her own boots. From the garden module came the sound of Noor's mother inspecting the valves.

   At last the chief closed the log. She picked up the blue binder, turned it over thoughtfully in her hands, and held it out to Noor.

   "Section four," she said. "Keep this on your shelf from now on."

   Then she went to remove her suit, and Noor was left holding the binder, still uncertain whether she was in trouble.

   1.

   The story is told from Noor's limited point of view. What does the reader understand at the end that Noor does not?

   1. AThe chief plans to send Noor back to Earth for breaking the rule.
   2. BDr. Feld repaired the water loop while Noor was asleep.
   3. CThe chief is not punishing Noor; she is trusting her with more responsibility.
   4. DNoor's mother was the one who broke the line heater.
2. 2.

   Why can Noor get no further instructions from Chief Okafor after the first message?

   1. AThe cold of the lunar night has frozen the radio on board the rover.
   2. BDr. Feld switched off the radio before he went to sleep.
   3. CThe relay satellite that carries the signal has moved out of range.
   4. DThe chief refuses to answer until the morning shift begins.
3. 3.

   Which statement best expresses a theme of the story?

   1. ARules should be ignored whenever they become inconvenient.
   2. BMachines are certain to fail at the moment they are needed most.
   3. CWaiting for help is always safer than acting in an emergency.
   4. DFollowing orders matters, but an emergency can demand one's own judgment.
4. 4.

   Which TWO details best support the idea that Noor's choice was carefully reasoned rather than reckless? Choose two answers.

   1. AShe worked out that the line would start to freeze in about forty minutes.
   2. BShe padded out to the hallway panel in her socks.
   3. CShe followed the three written steps in section four of the blue binder.
   4. DShe sat down hard on the floor after flipping the heater switch.
   5. EHer hands were trembling so badly that the pages rattled.

5. Read this aloud to your child.

   Dim the Skyline for the Birds

   Every spring and fall, billions of birds pass over North America on their way between their winter homes and their summer nesting grounds. Most songbirds, including warblers, thrushes, and sparrows, make this journey at night, using the stars and Earth's magnetic field to find their way. When they fly over a brightly lit city, however, many of them get into serious trouble.

   Artificial light draws night-migrating birds off course, especially on cloudy or foggy nights. Confused by the glare, they circle lit buildings until they are exhausted, or they crash into windows. Scientists estimate that collisions with buildings kill hundreds of millions of birds in the United States every year.

   That is why this newspaper urges the city of Riverton to adopt a "Lights Out" policy. During the spring and fall migrations, city-owned buildings should switch off lights in empty offices, lobbies, and decorative spotlights between 11 p.m. and dawn, and the city should encourage private building owners to do the same. Several large cities already run programs like this, and where buildings have dimmed their lights, researchers have counted far fewer dead birds below their windows.

   The change would cost the city almost nothing. In fact, it would save money, because every light switched off is electricity that taxpayers no longer have to buy.

   Some readers may doubt that the problem is serious here. But last May, a reader on Linden Street found a small yellow bird lying stunned beneath her apartment window, which proves that the problem in Riverton grows worse every year.

   The birds that pass over Riverton have flown thousands of miles to reach our sky. The least we can do is turn off the lights and let them pass.

   5.

   Which statement best summarizes the talk?

   1. AScientists still do not know how songbirds find their way at night.
   2. BRiverton should dim its lights during migration because the lights kill birds.
   3. CRiverton's buildings waste too much electricity in every season.
   4. DRiverton should build shelters for birds that are injured by its buildings.

6. Read this aloud to your child.

   Why the Sky Is Blue and Sunsets Are Red

   On a clear afternoon the sky overhead is a deep blue, yet a few hours later, near the horizon, the same sky can blaze orange and red. Both colors come from the same sunlight. The difference lies in how that light travels through the air.

   Sunlight looks white, but it is actually a mixture of all the colors of the rainbow. Each color travels as a wave of a different length. Red light has the longest wavelength of the visible colors, while blue and violet have the shortest.

   On its way to your eyes, sunlight passes through the atmosphere, which is made mostly of tiny molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. These molecules are far smaller than the wavelengths of visible light, and when light strikes them, some of it bounces off in new directions. This process is called scattering. Molecules this small scatter short wavelengths much more strongly than long ones, so blue light is scattered far more than red. The scattered blue light reaches your eyes from every part of the sky, and the whole sky glows blue. Scientists call this effect Rayleigh scattering, after the British physicist who explained it in the late 1800s.

   Violet light is scattered even more than blue, so why isn't the sky violet? Sunlight contains less violet than blue to begin with, and human eyes are more sensitive to blue.

   At sunrise and sunset, the sun sits low on the horizon, and its light must travel through much more air to reach you. Along that long path, most of the blue light is scattered away before it arrives. What remains is mostly the longer wavelengths: yellow, orange, and red. Dust, smoke, or tiny droplets in the air can deepen these colors even further, which is why some sunsets seem to set the whole sky on fire.

   6.

   According to the talk, why doesn't the sky look violet, even though violet light is scattered the most?

   1. AViolet light cannot pass through molecules of oxygen.
   2. BViolet light has the longest wavelength of all the colors.
   3. CNitrogen in the air absorbs all of the violet light.
   4. DSunlight has less violet than blue, and our eyes respond more to blue.
7. 7.

   Before the sun came up, the farmers had already milked the cows.

   Which choice best describes the words in bold?

   1. Aa phrase that tells when
   2. Ba dependent clause that tells when
   3. Ca dependent clause that tells under what condition
   4. Dan independent clause
8. 8.

   Which sentence uses commas correctly?

   1. AMount Rushmore, which shows the faces of four presidents is located in, the Black Hills of South Dakota.
   2. BMount Rushmore which shows the faces of four presidents, is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
   3. CMount Rushmore, which shows the faces of four presidents, is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
   4. DMount Rushmore, which shows the faces of four presidents, is, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
9. 9.

   The astronomer pointed out a comet to the students with a long, glowing tail.

   This sentence has a misplaced modifier. Which revision corrects it?

   1. AThe astronomer pointed out a comet with a long, glowing tail to the students.
   2. BA comet with a long, glowing tail that the astronomer pointed out to the students.
   3. CWith a long, glowing tail, the astronomer pointed out a comet to the students.
   4. DThe astronomer pointed out a comet with a long, glowing tail to the parents.
10. 10.

    Last winter, Malik and his partner, Hannah, competed in their first debate tournament at a nearby high school. First, they spent three weeks reading articles and building arguments for both sides of the question. On the morning of the tournament, they rehearsed their opening speeches one last time in the hallway. In the first round, Malik forgot one of his main points, but Hannah smoothly covered for him. By the final round, the partners were answering their opponents' questions with calm confidence. My aunt keeps three beehives in her backyard and sells the honey at a farmers market. Although they did not win a trophy, Malik and Hannah left the tournament eager to compete again.

    Which sentence does NOT belong in this paragraph?

    1. AFirst, they spent three weeks reading articles and building arguments for both sides of the question.
    2. BIn the first round, Malik forgot one of his main points, but Hannah smoothly covered for him.
    3. CMy aunt keeps three beehives in her backyard and sells the honey at a farmers market.
    4. DBy the final round, the partners were answering their opponents' questions with calm confidence.