English I STAAR Practice

Read:

(1) In the modern world, we want to make everything easy to do. (2) We would never think of making our own clothes and growing all our food. (3) It would take strength and countless hours to perform these tasks, and our economy provides these necessities for us.

Mary did not write an effective position statement for her paragraph. She would like to replace sentence 3 with a sentence that better articulates her position. Which of the following should she use?

• Perhaps it’s time to go back to the past - we might be better for it.

• We wouldn’t want to saddle up horses because that is a hard way to get around.

• But we didn’t have modern medicines either, and people died a lot younger.

Read:

(1) Our ancestors did not have the machines we have today to make difficult ordinary tasks easier. (2) Washing clothes, carrying wood, and shoveling coal all required a great deal of physical labor. (3) People had to be in good physical shape. (4) Without elevators, cars, and computerized robots, people had to climb stairs, walk to work, and perform backbreaking labor. (5) Almost every chore they needed to get done required a workout.

Mary’s paragraph needs a position statement. Which of these sentences could best follow sentence 4 and state the position that Mary is taking in this paper?

• It’s time to build a machine that makes us stronger and in better shape so we don’t really have to work hard.

• The cost of labor-saving devices continues to decline, making us do even less work in the future.

• We need to go back to doing activities that would make us fit even if they take more time and effort.

Read:

Francis Scott Key, a lawyer negotiating an important prisoner exchange during the War of 1812, was the accidental poet of our national anthem when he hastily jotted down “Defense of Fort McHenry,” after watching twenty five hours of bombardment. The flag flying over Fort McHenry had survived the night from the “twilight’s last gleaming” to the “dawn’s early light.” The resilience and endurance of that flag was Key’s inspiration. Today, the national anthem is played at every sports event, including the Olympics, and asks the same question every time it is sung: Does the flag still waver over “the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

Which sentence best states the main idea of the paragraph?

• The words to the national anthem remind us of the characteristics of America.

• The national anthem is a song of war and should not be sung at sports events.

Read:

Ray Brown works after school and on weekends delivering pizza, and he may one day be out of a job. A major car company and a pizza business are teaming up to deliver pizzas in driverless cars. Customers will have to come out of their homes, type in a code, and reach into the heated backseat compartment to extract the exact pizza from the stack of up to five orders. Currently, the driverless delivery service is being tested with a development engineer as driver behind blacked-out windows to determine customer interaction and to make sure the expensive radar and cameras are secured. If the test proves successful, driverless deliver of not only pizza but other products to homes and job sites may be a reality by 2021.

What is the primary purpose of the paragraph?

• To suggest that the pizza business will soon not need drivers

• To explain why driverless cars may be a rewarding technology advancement

• To summarize the problems of delivering pizza in driverless cars

Read:

(1) Cars today are designed to endure damaging road conditions like potholes and salt corrosion. (2) Cell phones could last for years but many people want to get the latest cell phone. (3) They just upgrade but they are satisfied with keeping their cars for a decade. (40 On the other hand, houses built today are made of materials that will last much past ten years. (5) Not by accident, that is the average time consumers spend in their homes these days before selling and moving.

Marco has not provided a thesis statement. Which of the following should come after sentence 5 to serve as a thesis statement for this paragraph?

• Consumers expect their products to be well built so they can sell them.

• Used houses, cars, and phones might not be the value that they seem.

• Consumers want something new every year or two except when it comes to cars.

• Cars last because consumers keep them, but houses and phones are disposable.

Read:

(1) The future is now! (2) With driverless cars, teens can practice driving on side streets but let the car drive on the highway. (3) Driverless cars help teens practice good road habits, like not driving while texting.

Jesse has not provided a position statement. Which of these sentences could come before sentence 2 and state the position Jesse is taking?

• Driverless cars are a good option for teens learning how to drive.

• Less responsibility might mean more freedom for teens.

Read:

Ray Brown works after school and on weekends delivering pizza, and he may one day be out of a job. A major car company and a pizza business are teaming up to deliver pizzas in driverless cars. Customers will have to come out of their homes, type in a code, and reach into the heated backseat compartment to extract the exact pizza from the stack of up to five orders. Currently, the driverless delivery service is being tested with a development engineer as driver behind blacked-out windows to determine customer interaction and to make sure the expensive radar and cameras are secured. If the test proves successful, driverless deliver of not only pizza but other products to homes and job sites may be a reality by 2021.

Which quotation from the paragraph shows the main idea?

• Ray Brown works after school and on weekends delivering pizza, and he may one day be out of a job.

• Customers will have to come out of their homes, type in a code, and reach into the heated backseat compartment to extract the exact pizza from the stack of up to five orders.

• If the test proves successful, driverless delivery of not only pizza but other products to home and job sites may be a reality by 2021.

Read:

(1) Emojis are graphics, specifically called ideograms, that are simple pictures of things ranging from smiley faces to pizza to flags. (2) Emojis were invented in Japan in the late 1990s, but became a worldwide phenomenon when major phone makers in the United States included them in their phones in 2011. (3) Some emojis, such as the laughing smiley face, seem to have a universally understood meaning. (4) People around the world easily understand many emojis. (5) However, some emojis take on specific cultural meaning for a particular region or country. (6) Because of this communicating with emojis can be less clear than communicating with text.

There is a redundant sentence in Dawn’s paragraph. Which of these sentences unnecessarily repeats information and should be deleted?

• Sentence 2

• Sentence 4

Read:

For many, the idea of bungee jumping is an extraneous risk and thus not worth taking. When everyday life has its own pitfalls and challenges, why would someone risk injury doing something unnecessary? A far more pragmatic point of view is to take risks only when you have something tangible to gain from them.

Which word in the third sentence has the same meaning as “real”?

• Pragmatic

• tangible

Read:

Francis Scott Key, a lawyer negotiating an important prisoner exchange during the War of 1812, was the accidental poet of our national anthem when he hastily jotted down “Defense of Fort McHenry,” after watching twenty five hours of bombardment. The flag flying over Fort McHenry had survived the night from the “twilight’s last gleaming” to the “dawn’s early light.” The resilience and endurance of that flag was Key’s inspiration. Today, the national anthem is played at every sports event, including the Olympics, and asks the same question every time it is sung: Does the flag still waver over “the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

The author’s purpose in writing the paragraph is to -

• Argue against singing the national anthem so often

• Explain the origins of the lyrics for the national anthem