Free printable CAASPP practice test for Grade 8

English Language Arts

Circle the letter of the best answer. No time limit.

1. The Mirror at the Cave

   Long ago, on the High Plain of Heaven, the sun goddess Amaterasu tended rice fields and watched over a great hall where sacred cloth was woven for the gods. Wherever she walked, light walked with her. Her warmth ripened the rice of heaven and the rice of the islands below, and every morning the people of those islands awoke to her gold.

   Her younger brother, Susanoo, was the god of storms, and he was as restless as the weather he ruled. When he came to visit his sister, he did not arrive quietly. He boasted and shouted, and when a contest between them ended, he declared himself the winner and celebrated by running wild.

   He demolished the low earthen walls between Amaterasu's rice fields so that their water drained away, and he choked her irrigation ditches with mud. The other gods came to Amaterasu with complaints, but she defended her brother. "He means no harm," she insisted. "He is careless, the way storms are careless."

   Then Susanoo climbed onto the roof of the weaving hall, tore a hole in it, and flung a wild, kicking colt down among the looms. The weavers fled in terror. Shuttles flew, threads snapped, and the half-finished cloth for the gods' festival was trampled into the dirt.

   This time Amaterasu did not defend her brother, nor did she argue with him. She simply turned, walked to the Rock Cave of Heaven, stepped inside, and rolled an enormous stone across its entrance.

   The world went dark.

   It was not the darkness of a single night, which eventually ends. It was a darkness with no morning hidden anywhere inside it. The rice stopped growing, and the rivers ran cold. In the world below, people could no longer distinguish one day from the next, and troubles crept out of every corner, the way mice come out when a house goes dark.

   So the gods assembled, more of them than anyone could count, on the dry bed of the Heavenly River to decide what to do.

   At first they argued. Some wanted to shout at the stone until Amaterasu surrendered. Tajikarao, the god of strength, rolled his enormous shoulders. "I could move that rock," he said. "But I cannot move her heart. If she does not wish to shine, she will only find another cave."

   Then Omoikane, the god of wisdom, who had been listening with his eyes closed, finally spoke. "We cannot drag the sun into the sky," he said. "We must coax her out. We must make her curious."

   So the gods went to work. A smith forged a mirror so brilliant that it seemed to contain a light of its own, while others strung hundreds of curved jewels on a long cord. They uprooted a sakaki tree, an evergreen sacred to the gods, and replanted it before the cave, hanging the jewels from its upper branches and the mirror from its middle ones. They gathered roosters, the long-crowing birds whose cries announce the dawn, and set them crowing, although no dawn was coming.

   Last of all, Ame-no-Uzume, the goddess of mirth, turned a large tub upside down before the cave and leaped on top of it. She began to dance, stamping until the tub boomed like a festival drum. She spun, waved, pulled ridiculous faces, and flung her arms about so comically that the watching gods could not contain themselves. First one laughed, then ten, then all of them, until their laughter rolled across the High Plain of Heaven and the sky itself seemed to tremble.

   Inside the cave, Amaterasu sat up. She had expected the world to mourn for her; instead, she heard roosters crowing, a drum booming, and the gods roaring with laughter. She pushed the stone open a crack.

   "While I am hidden, the world should be dark and sorrowful," she called. "Why are you all laughing?"

   Ame-no-Uzume stopped dancing. "We are celebrating," she called back. "A goddess even more dazzling than you has come among us!"

   Before Amaterasu could answer, the gods tilted the mirror toward the opening, and a blaze of light poured out of it. Amaterasu had never seen her own face shining back at her, and she did not recognize it. Wondering who this brilliant stranger could be, she leaned out of the cave to look more closely.

   That was the moment Tajikarao had been waiting for. He seized the edge of the stone, swung it aside, and took Amaterasu gently by the hand. Behind her, another god stretched a thick rope of twisted straw across the mouth of the cave. "You may not go back inside," he said. "The world cannot do without you."

   Light flooded the High Plain of Heaven and spilled down onto the islands below. The rice fields turned green again, and the people emerged from their houses, blinking. As for Susanoo, the gods banished him from heaven to wander the world below. Some say that is why ropes of twisted straw still hang at the entrances of shrines across Japan: to mark a holy place, and to remember how the light came back.

   1.

   Omoikane says, "We must coax her out." What does "coax" mean?

   1. Ato ignore completely
   2. Bto warn loudly
   3. Cto persuade gently
   4. Dto punish harshly
2. 2.

   Without the sun, "troubles crept out of every corner, the way mice come out when a house goes dark." What does this simile suggest?

   1. AThe gods sent troubles into the world to punish Susanoo.
   2. BMice and other small animals took over the world below.
   3. CThe people below hid in their houses like frightened mice.
   4. DWith the light gone, troubles that had stayed hidden came out freely.
3. 3.

   Why does the author include Tajikarao's words, "I could move that rock... But I cannot move her heart"?

   1. ATo suggest that Amaterasu has a heart as hard as stone
   2. BTo explain why the gods decide to punish Susanoo
   3. CTo show that force alone cannot solve the problem
   4. DTo show that the gods have already given up hope
4. 4.

   Why does Amaterasu push the stone open "a crack" after she hears the laughter?

   1. AShe wants to join Ame-no-Uzume's dance.
   2. BShe is frightened by the booming of the drum.
   3. CShe is puzzled that the gods seem joyful instead of grieving.
   4. DShe has forgiven Susanoo and is ready to come out of the cave.

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.

   The talk says the birds are "confused by the glare." What does the word "glare" suggest about the city's lights?

   1. AThey are as natural as the light of the stars above.
   2. BThey are harsh and blinding rather than helpful.
   3. CThey are beautiful for the birds to look at.
   4. DThey are too dim for the birds to notice.

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 has the longest wavelength of all the colors.
   2. BSunlight has less violet than blue, and our eyes respond more to blue.
   3. CViolet light is scattered only when the sun is low at sunrise and sunset.
   4. DNitrogen in the air absorbs all of the violet light.
7. 7.

   The players on the varsity basketball team ______ every afternoon.

   Which word or words best complete the sentence?

   1. Ais practicing
   2. Bpractice
   3. Cpractices
   4. Dhas practiced
8. 8.

   Please keep the plan for the surprise party between you and ______ until Friday.

   Which word best completes the sentence?

   1. Ame
   2. Bmyself
   3. Cmine
   4. DI
9. 9.

   Which sentence uses commas correctly?

   1. AThe Liberty Bell, which has a famous crack is displayed in Philadelphia.
   2. BThe Liberty Bell, which has a famous crack is displayed in, Philadelphia.
   3. CThe Liberty Bell, which has a famous crack, is displayed in Philadelphia.
   4. DThe Liberty Bell, which has a famous crack, is displayed in, Philadelphia.
10. 10.

    Members of the school board, our district should install solar panels on the roofs of its schools. According to the US Department of Energy, the cost of installing solar panels has fallen sharply since 2010. Electricity from the sun would lower the district's energy bills and free up money for teachers, books, and equipment. Some board members argue that the panels would cost too much to install in the first place. However, the savings on monthly electric bills would gradually pay back the cost of the panels. Solar panels would be a smart, money-saving investment for our district, and I urge the board to approve them.

    Who is the writer most likely writing this paragraph for?

    1. Athe crew of a fishing boat
    2. Bthe members of the school board
    3. Ca class of first graders
    4. Dthe fans at a professional baseball game