STAAR English

Read paragraph 15.

His old scaly hand crawls over to touch my knee. His fingers are white, the nails cracking and dull, like old silver.

In this paragraph, the author uses imagery to —

• show the son’s fear of being touched by his father

• imply that the father may not really be dying after all

• emphasize how aged and decrepit the father appears to his son

• suggest that the son has little respect for his father

Why does the narrator use a metaphor to describe his response to playing the piano?

• To explain how he is able to remember a piece of music

• To show how sharing music increases enjoyment

• To suggest that owning a piano can spark enthusiasm

• To reveal the depth of his feelings towards the piano

What can the reader infer about the narrator’s wife based on her words?

• The wife believes it is more important to invest in the arts than in other things.

• The wife does not believe people should deny themselves things that they want

• The wife views the piano as an attractive addition to their living room.

• The wife sees music as a necessary outlet for her husband’s creativity.

Read this quotation from paragraph 1 of the excerpt from The Piano Shop on the Left Bank. What is the narrator’s purpose for including this description?

• To explain where he is shopping for a piano

• To highlight his doubts about wanting a piano

• To show how he exaggerates when describing events

• To reveal the strength of his desire to play the piano again

Read this quotation from paragraph 2 of the excerpt from the article “Those Old Piano Blues.”

Then a slow, downward sales arpeggio started.

What does the author’s use of musical terminology convey in the quotation?

• How the popularity of the piano has shifted like notes in a song

• How piano dealers use musical language when they speak

• How piano tones affect the price of the instruments

• How piano music will persist despite its decrease in popularity

Read this quotation from paragraph 10. What could happen if you allowed yourself to step outside the cages and breathe in the fresh air of your freedom? Based on the quotation, the author views her high-school years as a source of —

• transition

• confinement

• order

• discipline

Which sentence from paragraph 5 best illustrates the author’s feeling that her life experiences have made her more confident?

• During our visit we commented to each other how the colors, unlike the desert’s browns and dull greens, were an elegant mix of reds, pinks, and yellows.

• In high school, I was standing on top of the rocks, but no incisions had been made—no canyon had been formed.

• There was a river and it was flowing, but I did not see the layers beneath.

• I have faith that in the end that process will reveal magnificent layers that inspire rather than repress and remain buried.

Read this quotation from paragraph 7. He’s a Beartown man, his dad’s a Beartown man, and that may not mean a thing anywhere else, but it means something here. Based on the quotation, the reader can infer that Kevin feels —

• appreciated

• trapped

• loyal

• embarrassed

Read lines 26 and 27 from the poem. when the sky is a surreal sea in which you drown . . . This image can best be interpreted as meaning that —

• a child sees the sky as a magical ocean full of mysterious creatures

• the speaker hopes to save his daughter from a terrible future

• artists experience a sea of wild and unpredictable emotions

• there is a danger that artists may get lost in their own creations

Which line of dialogue provides the best evidence that the father is questioning his priorities?

• “Now all that seems so unimportant, you know?”

• “Remembering a man’s stories makes him immortal, did you know that?”

• “I had dinner with a prime minister once, William.”

• “I wasn’t going to tell you about the two-headed lady, Mr. Smarty-pants,” he says.