7th Grade GMAS Study Guide

Read this sentence.

I went to the spring to get some water, and I saw a deer drinking there.

Which type of sentence is this?

• simple

• compound

• complex

• compound-complex

Which is the BEST definition for the phrase relative seclusion as it is used in the excerpt from “Stop Feeding Wild Birds”?

Natural food locations are scattered everywhere. Birds that have to look for food on their own can easily find it in places where they can eat in relative seclusion. At artificial feeding sites, however, the birds often have to compete.

• quiet

• shelter

• privacy

• isolation

The trees sighed in the afternoon breeze.

This is an example of...

• personification

• simile

• metaphor

• hyperbole

She is as pretty as a picture.

This is an example of...

• alliteration

• idiom

• metaphor

• simile

When I asked Mrs. Richardson how recess was today, she exclaimed, "It was a zoo!"

Her response is an example of...

• simile

• metaphor

• idiom

• hyperbole

My father can lift two tons!

This is an example of...

• personification

• simile

• hyperbole

• idiom

Show your understanding of the idiom by drawing it's figurative meaning:

I’ve been on cloud nine all day!

The beautiful butterfly blew by the bay.

This is an example of:

• simile

• metaphor

• alliteration

• hyperbole

Read the paragraph from a student’s argumentative essay.

This week, our class will vote on how to use the money we raised through our annual Fall Festival. The class will decide whether the money should be spent on a class field trip or on a set of electronic tablets for the library. I think the funds should be spent on tablets. The tablets can be checked out by students for use at home, just like a library book. If the tablets are preloaded with educational games and books, then students will get hours of reading and working on other brain-challenging tasks.

Which sentence should be added to the paragraph to acknowledge the opposing claim?

• A. Tablets are more convenient to take back and forth to school than heavy books, and the tablets can be updated to include the most current information for any middle-school subject.

• B. Our librarian has agreed to load the tablets with educational games and books that are appropriate for any middle-schooler.

• C. Some classmates favor the field trip because it will be an unforgettable experience, but that experience lasts only one day, while the experiences offered by tablets will be ongoing.

• D. We have raised enough money to purchase at least ten tablets, maybe more, if we use the school account to purchase the tablets in bulk.

Read the paragraph.

¹ More than a hundred years ago, Europeans who wanted to drink coffee typically tied up coffee grounds in a little piece of cloth and boiled it in a pot of water. ² Some grounds usually got through the cloth and mixed with the drink. ³ The coffee also tasted very bitter. ⁴ Melitta Bentz invented a much better system for brewing coffee that involved using a heavy paper filter and a pot with holes punched in it. ⁵ When she poured the boiling water through this contraption, the paper held the coffee grounds, water drained through, and the resulting beverage was a ton better.

Which edit should be made to maintain the formal style of the paragraph?

• A. Change “a pot of water” to “some water” in sentence 1.

• B. Change “mixed” to “stirred” in sentence 2.

• C. Change “punched” to “placed” in sentence 4.

• D. Change “a ton better” to “much improved” in sentence 5.