Free printable STAAR practice test for Grade 7

Reading Language Arts

Circle the letter of the best answer, or two letters where a question asks for two, and one letter in each row of a table and for each numbered blank. No time limit.

1. What Teresa Carried

   Teresa Lombardi woke because her bed was moving.

   For one confused second, she thought her little brother, Paolo, was shaking it as a joke. Then the whole room lurched sideways, and a roar like a freight train poured through the walls of their apartment on Green Street. Plaster dust sifted down from the ceiling like flour.

   "Under the table!" Mama cried. "Both of you, now!"

   Teresa crawled across a floor that heaved beneath her knees like the deck of Papa's fishing boat. The shaking went on and on. Later, people would say it had lasted less than a minute, but Teresa never quite believed them.

   Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped. The clock had fallen from its nail. Papa turned it over and read the time aloud in a strangely calm voice: twelve minutes past five. It was Wednesday, April 18, 1906, and the sun had not yet risen over San Francisco.

   Out on the street, neighbors stood in their nightclothes, calling to one another in Italian and English. The bakery chimney on the corner lay across the sidewalk in a heap of bricks. Far to the south, thin gray threads of smoke rose into the pale sky. Papa set off for the wharf to check on his boat.

   Mama was counting faces. "Where is Signora Pacelli?"

   The old widow lived alone on the top floor of the building next door. She was nearly eighty, and she was so proud that no one on Green Street had ever heard her ask for help.

   "I'll go," said Teresa, before she could think about it too long.

   Next door, at the top of the tilted stairway, the signora's door would not budge; the earthquake had squeezed its frame crooked. Teresa could hear the old woman murmuring prayers inside. She threw her shoulder against the door once, twice, and on the third try it burst open.

   Signora Pacelli was sitting on the floor among the pieces of her blue-and-white dishes, unhurt but trembling, patting the boards around her for her spectacles. Teresa found them beneath the stove, wiped them on her nightgown, and set them gently on the old woman's nose.

   The signora blinked up at her. "Ah. The little Lombardi girl," she said. "Not so little anymore."

   By noon, the threads of smoke had thickened into a brown wall that blotted out half the sky. Papa came back from the wharf with news. The earthquake had broken the city's water pipes, and firefighters were opening hydrants and getting nothing but a trickle. Soldiers had begun using dynamite to knock down buildings in the fire's path, hoping to leave the flames with nothing to eat.

   "We go west, to the park," Papa decided. "We take only what we can carry."

   Teresa ran upstairs for the one thing she had already chosen: a book of maps with gold letters on its cover, the prize she had won for the highest geography score at her school. She hugged it to her chest. Every river and mountain range in the world was inside it.

   Then, through the wall, she heard a scraping on the stairs next door. Signora Pacelli was trying to drag a wooden case down the steps by herself. Teresa knew what was inside: the accordion her late husband had played on Sunday afternoons.

   Teresa looked down at the book. Then she laid it on her bed, smoothed the cover once, and went next door.

   All afternoon the Lombardis walked west toward Golden Gate Park with thousands of other families. Trunks screeched as people dragged them over the cobblestones. Papa carried Paolo on his shoulders, Mama carried the blankets, and Teresa carried the accordion, which grew heavier with every block. Signora Pacelli walked beside her, one hand resting on the case as if to help.

   The fires burned for three days. When word came on Saturday morning that the flames were finally out, it brought other news as well: almost nothing was left of Green Street.

   That evening, among the rows of tents and the smell of supper cooking on outdoor stoves, Signora Pacelli opened the wooden case. She played slowly at first, as if the music had to remember her. Then faster. People drifted over from nearby tents, strangers from all across the city, and soon someone was clapping and Paolo was dancing in the grass.

   Teresa thought of her book of maps, gone now with everything else on Green Street. Sitting there in the lantern light, with Mama on one side and the signora on the other, she found that she did not need it to know where she was.

   1.

   Which sentence is the best objective summary of the story?

   1. AThe earthquake breaks the city's water pipes, so Teresa carries water up the stairs to put out a fire in Signora Pacelli's apartment.
   2. BDuring the earthquake and fires, Teresa rescues an elderly neighbor and gives up her prize book to carry the neighbor's accordion to the park.
   3. CTeresa is the bravest girl in all of San Francisco, and her story proves that every child should be willing to risk danger to help a neighbor.
   4. DTeresa saves her prize book of maps from the fire and uses it to guide her family and Signora Pacelli safely to the park.
2. 2.

   Which TWO details best support the idea that Teresa puts Signora Pacelli's needs ahead of her own belongings? Choose two answers.

   1. AEvery river and mountain range in the world was inside it.
   2. BThe bakery chimney on the corner lay across the sidewalk in a heap of bricks.
   3. CThen she laid it on her bed, smoothed the cover once, and went next door.
   4. DTeresa carried the accordion, which grew heavier with every block.
   5. EShe hugged it to her chest.
3. 3.

   How does the setting shape what the Lombardi family does?

   1. ABecause Green Street is near the wharf, the family escapes the fires in Papa's fishing boat.
   2. BBecause the earthquake strikes at night, the family sleeps through it and wakes to find the city burning.
   3. CBecause the fires never reach their street, the family stays home to help the neighbors.
   4. DWith the water pipes broken, the fires cannot be stopped, so the family leaves for the park.
4. 4.

   The soldiers hoped "to leave the flames with nothing to eat." What does this figurative language mean?

   1. AThey wanted to stop families from cooking indoors after the earthquake.
   2. BThey wanted to keep the city's food supply safe from the spreading fire.
   3. CThey wanted to save the bakeries so that people would have bread.
   4. DThey wanted to destroy whatever the fire could burn so it could not spread.
5. 5.

   What does Signora Pacelli most likely mean when she says Teresa is "Not so little anymore"?

   1. ATeresa looks blurry because the signora has lost her spectacles.
   2. BTeresa has just shown the courage of someone much older.
   3. CTeresa has grown too tall to fit on the stairway.
   4. DTeresa should have knocked instead of breaking the door.
6. 6.

   The narrator says Signora Pacelli was so proud that "no one on Green Street had ever heard her ask for help." How does this detail shape a later event?

   1. AIt explains why she tries to drag the heavy case down the stairs alone.
   2. BIt explains why she refuses to leave her apartment during the fire.
   3. CIt explains why she is angry when Teresa finds her spectacles.
   4. DIt explains why she plays the accordion only for her own family.
7. 7.

   Please write (1) ______ name at the top of every page of the test.

   Which word best completes the sentence?

   (1)	Ayour	Byou're	Cyoure	Dyore

8. 8.

   The first transcontinental railroad, finished in 1869, changed the way people and goods crossed the United States. According to the National Park Service, thousands of Chinese immigrants did much of the hardest work on the western part of the line. Before the railroad, a trip from the East Coast to California could take several months by wagon. However, trains on the new line could carry passengers across the country in about a week. ______

   Which sentence would be the best concluding sentence for this paragraph?

   1. ASome snowy owls fly south from the Arctic in winter to hunt in open fields.
   2. BOne company laid track heading east from California, while another laid track heading west from Nebraska.
   3. CBy linking the East and the West, the railroad helped tie the growing nation together.
   4. DMy best friend dyed her hair bright blue for the school talent show.
9. 9.

   Astronomers use powerful telescopes because you want to study stars and galaxies far beyond the solar system.

   The pronoun in bold does not match the word it refers to. Which word should replace it?

   1. Ahe
   2. Bthey
   3. Cwe
   4. Dit
10. 10.

    The farm's ______ includes two tractors and a hay baler.

    Which word is spelled correctly and completes the sentence?

    1. Amachinerry
    2. Bmachinery
    3. Cmachinary
    4. Dmashinery