TELPAS Reading and Writing, Grades 8–9 Practice Tests

Part 1

Because deserts get very little rain, many desert plants store water in their thick ________ so they can survive long dry seasons.

1. Which word best completes the sentence? (A) stems (B) clouds (C) roofs (D) rivers

Part 2

Although the team members had different ideas about the project, they all agreed that clear communication was ________ for their success.

1. Which word best completes the sentence? (A) forgettable (B) accidental (C) invisible (D) essential

Part 3

Liam kept practicing the difficult piano piece ________ his fingers felt tired, because the recital was only two days away.

1. Which word best completes the sentence? (A) even though (B) unless (C) as soon as (D) so that

Part 4

In a fair experiment, a scientist changes only one ________ at a time so that she can tell exactly what caused the result.

1. Which word best completes the sentence? (A) chapter (B) variable (C) conclusion (D) audience

Part 5

Oak Hill Middle School students who want to help at the Riverside Park cleanup this Saturday must return a signed permission form to Ms. Carter in Room 112 by Wednesday. On Saturday, volunteers will meet at the park entrance at 8:30 a.m., where they will receive gloves and trash bags. Please wear closed-toe shoes and bring a refillable water bottle. Volunteers will work in teams until noon. Afterward, the Parent Club will serve sandwiches under the picnic shelter. Students can earn up to four community service hours.

1. What must students do BEFORE Saturday to take part in the cleanup? (A) Pick up gloves and trash bags (B) Give a signed form to Ms. Carter (C) Meet at the park entrance (D) Bring sandwiches for their whole team

Part 6

If you walk through the older parts of many American towns, you may notice faded words painted high on brick walls. These are called “ghost signs.” In the late 1800s and early 1900s, before electric signs were common, businesses paid painters to put advertisements directly on buildings. Over many years, rain and sunlight wore the paint away until only pale letters remained. Today, some towns work to protect these signs because they show what people once bought, sold, and valued. A ghost sign can be like a page from an old newspaper that was left out in the weather.

1. What is the author’s main purpose in this paragraph? (A) To explain what ghost signs are and why they matter (B) To tell the life story of one sign painter (C) To describe how modern electric signs are built (D) To persuade businesses to paint new signs on their walls

Part 13 — Read the article. Then answer the questions.

Seven Miles Down: The Mariana Trench

[1] Much of the deep ocean floor is made of wide, flat plains covered in mud. In a few places, however, the seafloor drops away into long, narrow valleys called trenches. The deepest of these is the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, not far from the island of Guam. The trench is shaped like a crescent, or a curved sliver of moon, and it stretches for about 1,500 miles. That is roughly twice as long as Texas is wide.

A Crack Between Plates

[2] The trench exists because Earth’s outer layer is broken into huge pieces called tectonic plates. These plates move very slowly, only a few inches a year. In this part of the Pacific, two plates are pushing against each other. The older, heavier Pacific Plate is sliding underneath the smaller Mariana Plate and sinking down into Earth. As the Pacific Plate bends downward, it pulls the seafloor with it, and this creates the deep, curved trench. Scientists call this process subduction.

How Deep Is Deep?

[3] The deepest known spot in the trench is called the Challenger Deep. It lies almost 36,000 feet, or nearly seven miles, below the surface of the ocean. Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on land, rises about 29,000 feet above sea level. If Everest were placed at the bottom of the Challenger Deep, its peak would still be covered by more than a mile of water.

[4] Conditions at the bottom are extreme. Sunlight fades as it travels through water, and below about 3,300 feet there is no sunlight at all, so the trench is completely dark. The water is only a few degrees above freezing. Most challenging of all is the pressure. The weight of all the water above presses down with more than 1,000 times the force of the air at sea level. That is like having more than the weight of an elephant pressing on a space the size of a postage stamp.

Life in the Dark

[5] For a long time, many scientists believed that nothing could live in such a place. They were wrong. Deep-sea cameras and robots have found shrimp-like animals called amphipods, sea cucumbers, and many kinds of tiny bacteria in the deepest parts of the trench. A pale, soft fish called a snailfish has been filmed swimming about five miles down.

[6] How do these creatures survive? Their bodies are built for the conditions. Many of them have soft, flexible bodies. They also have no air-filled spaces that the pressure could crush, such as the swim bladders that many fish use. In addition, they do not need sunlight to find food. Instead, they eat “marine snow,” tiny bits of dead plants and animals that drift slowly down from the waters above, like snowflakes falling through the dark.

Visiting the Deep

[7] Only a small number of people have ever traveled to the bottom of the Challenger Deep. The first two explorers reached it in 1960 in a heavy steel vessel called the Trieste. The trip down took almost five hours, and they stayed on the bottom for only about twenty minutes. Because such dives are dangerous and very expensive, scientists today usually send robotic vehicles with cameras and sensors instead.

[8] Even with this technology, most of the deep seafloor has never been seen up close. Some scientists like to say that we have better maps of the surface of Mars than of the bottom of our own ocean. Every expedition to the trench brings back new questions, and sometimes it brings back pictures of creatures no one has ever seen before.

1. What is the section “A Crack Between Plates” mostly about? (A) How moving plates formed the trench (B) Why the trench is shaped like the moon (C) How scientists measure a plate’s speed (D) Which islands are close to the trench
2. What does the word “extreme” mean in paragraph 4? (A) calm and easy to predict (B) changing quickly from one day to the next (C) only a little different (D) very harsh and far from normal
3. Why does the author include the information about Mount Everest in paragraph 3? (A) To help readers picture how deep the trench is (B) To compare the weather on land and at sea (C) To explain how the trench got its name (D) To show that mountains also form under the ocean
4. Which sentence best describes how paragraphs 5 and 6 are organized? (A) They tell the events of one dive in time order. (B) They show a belief was wrong and explain how life survives. (C) They compare two trenches in different oceans. (D) They describe a problem that scientists still cannot solve today.
5. Which sentence best summarizes the article? (A) Snailfish and amphipods are the only animals strong enough to live at the very bottom of the sea. (B) The trench is the ocean’s deepest place, and life survives there while people keep exploring it. (C) Mount Everest is taller than any mountain in the ocean, so explorers prefer to study it. (D) The trench was formed in 1960 when two explorers used a steel vessel to reach the seafloor.

Part 15 — Read the story. Then answer the questions.

Follow the Forks

[1] Every Tuesday at five o’clock, Nora Bennett tied on a red apron and took her place at the counter of Bennett’s Grill, the small restaurant her parents had run on Main Street for eleven years. On most nights, the dinner crowd kept her so busy that she barely had time to finish her homework between orders. But three weeks earlier, city crews had torn up Main Street to replace the old water pipes. Now a wall of orange barrels and a huge sign that said ROAD CLOSED stood right in front of the restaurant’s windows.

[2] This Tuesday, the dining room was so quiet that Nora could hear the clock above the door ticking. Her father stood at the grill, scraping a surface that was already spotless. Her mother sat in a booth, frowning at a stack of receipts. Nora’s nine-year-old brother, Theo, had built a tower of sugar packets eleven stories high, and nobody had told him to stop.

[3] At seven o’clock, Nora carried a tray of clean glasses toward the kitchen and heard her parents talking in low voices. “If it stays like this until the road opens in October,” her mother said, “I don’t know how we’ll pay the bills.” “We’ll manage,” her father answered. “We always do.” But his voice was thin, like a rope pulled too tight, and Nora felt her stomach sink. She set the tray down quietly and backed away before they could see her face.

[4] The only customer that evening was Mrs. Palmer, a retired art teacher who had come in every Tuesday for as long as Nora could remember. When Nora refilled her iced tea, Mrs. Palmer glanced around the empty room. “Where is everyone tonight?” she asked. Nora sighed. “I think people believe we’re closed. They can’t see our windows behind the barrels, and the back door on Pecan Alley doesn’t have a sign.”

[5] Mrs. Palmer tapped her fork on her plate while she thought. “So the problem isn’t your food,” she said slowly. “It’s that nobody can find your door.” She pulled a pen from her purse and began to sketch on a napkin. “A sign is only a picture with a message, you know. And pictures happen to be my specialty.”

[6] Within minutes, Nora had an idea. She dragged three flat cardboard boxes out of the storeroom, and Mrs. Palmer painted giant signs that said WE’RE OPEN! and ENTER ON PECAN ALLEY. Theo wanted to help, too. “What if we draw forks on the sidewalk,” he said, “like a trail? People could follow the forks all the way to the back door.” Nora hesitated, then looked at her mother. “Can we?” Her mother laughed for the first time all evening. “Anything is better than watching your dad clean a clean grill.”

[7] As the sun went down, Nora and Theo knelt on the sidewalk with a bucket of colored chalk. They drew one bright yellow fork after another, from the corner of Main Street, around the barrels, and down the alley to the back door. When a young couple walking a dog stopped to stare, Nora’s cheeks burned. She was sure they thought she was acting like a little kid. Then the woman smiled and pointed at the trail. “Bennett’s is open? We thought you closed weeks ago!” Five minutes later, the couple was sitting in a booth, reading the menu.

[8] By eight-thirty, five tables were full. It was not a real dinner rush, but the dining room hummed with voices and the sizzle of the grill. Two members of the road crew followed the forks in, still wearing their orange vests. Their boss promised Nora’s father that he would ask the city to put up an official sign that said BUSINESSES OPEN.

[9] After the last customer left, Nora’s father wrapped her in a hug that smelled like onions and hot oil. “Tonight wasn’t about the money,” he said. “It was about remembering that we’re not invisible.” Nora stepped outside to turn the sign on the door to CLOSED. Under the streetlight, the yellow forks glowed on the sidewalk, and she was already planning what she and Theo would draw next Tuesday.

1. In paragraph 1, why are there orange barrels in front of the restaurant? (A) City crews are replacing the water pipes. (B) The city is building a new parking lot there. (C) A parade will pass down Main Street. (D) The restaurant is being painted.
2. Why does the author include the detail about Theo’s tower of sugar packets in paragraph 2? (A) To show that nobody is busy enough to stop him (B) To show that Theo is helping his parents work (C) To explain why the restaurant ran out of sugar (D) To show that Theo wants to become a builder
3. In paragraph 3, the father’s voice is “thin, like a rope pulled too tight.” What does this suggest? (A) He is too tired to speak very loudly after work. (B) He is angry with Nora’s mother. (C) He has a sore throat from the smoke. (D) He is more worried than his words show.
4. Which phrase from paragraph 3 shows how Nora feels about what she hears? (A) until the road opens in October (B) talking in low voices (C) felt her stomach sink (D) carried a tray of clean glasses
5. According to paragraphs 4 and 5, what is the real reason the restaurant is empty? (A) Customers like a new restaurant better. (B) The food has become too expensive. (C) The family closes early on Tuesdays. (D) People cannot tell that it is open.
6. Why does Nora’s mother agree to Theo’s idea in paragraph 6? (A) She knows the city will pay for the chalk. (B) She wants Theo to practice his drawing skills outside. (C) She is sure the trail will fill every table. (D) She thinks trying something is better than waiting.
7. Look at the picture. Which paragraph does the picture show? (A) Paragraph 2 (B) Paragraph 5 (C) Paragraph 7 (D) Paragraph 9
8. In paragraph 9, what does Nora’s father mean when he says “we’re not invisible”? (A) Nora and Theo worked where everyone could watch them. (B) People can still notice and support the restaurant. (C) The restaurant is easy to see from the highway. (D) The family can finally pay for brighter lights.
9. Which sentence best tells what the story is mostly about? (A) A retired art teacher teaches Nora and her brother how to draw pictures with sidewalk chalk. (B) City workers close Main Street for many months, so the Bennett family decides to move their restaurant away. (C) When road work hides her family’s restaurant, Nora and others find a creative way to bring customers back. (D) Nora learns to cook her father’s best recipes during a quiet evening at the family grill.

Part 17 — Read the article. Then answer the questions.

All Safe: The Invention of the Safety Elevator

[1] People have been lifting heavy loads with ropes and wheels for thousands of years. In ancient Rome, workers turned large wooden wheels to raise animals up through trapdoors into the Colosseum. Later, in mines and factories, hoists pulled by horses, water wheels, and eventually steam engines carried coal, stone, and goods from one level to another. These machines could lift very heavy loads, but they were built to carry things, not people.

[2] These early lifts had one terrible weakness: everything depended on a single rope. If the rope snapped, the platform fell to the bottom of the shaft, along with whatever was on it. Because of this danger, few people were willing to ride a lift. Buildings rarely rose higher than five or six stories, because climbing more stairs than that was exhausting. In fact, the top floors were often the cheapest rooms in a building.

[3] In 1852, a mechanic named Elisha Otis was working at a factory in Yonkers, New York. He needed to move heavy equipment to an upper floor, and he wanted to make sure it could not crash down. His solution was a clever safety brake. Otis attached a strong steel spring to the top of the platform and connected it to the lifting rope. Along each side of the shaft, he installed a ratchet, a rail with teeth like a saw. As long as the rope was pulling, the spring stayed bent. But if the rope broke, the spring snapped straight and pushed metal hooks into the teeth of the rails. The platform locked in place almost instantly.

[4] Otis knew that people would not trust his invention just because he described it, so he decided to show them. In 1854, at a large exhibition in New York City, he stood on an open platform high above a crowd. Then he ordered an assistant to cut the rope with an axe. The crowd gasped as the platform dropped, but it fell only a few inches before the brake caught it. Otis is reported to have called out, “All safe, gentlemen, all safe!”

[5] The demonstration made Otis famous, and orders began to arrive. In 1857, the first passenger elevator with his safety brake was installed in a five-story store on Broadway in New York City. It was powered by steam and moved at less than one mile per hour, which is slower than a person walks. Still, it changed the way people thought about tall buildings.

[6] Once elevators were safe, the top floors of buildings became desirable instead of unwanted, since they offered quiet, fresh air, and wide views without a tiring climb. Builders began to use strong steel frames, and by the late 1880s the first skyscrapers were rising in American cities. Today, elevators are powered by electric motors and computers, but modern ones still have emergency brakes that work on the same basic idea Otis demonstrated in 1854. Some of today’s skyscrapers have more than 100 floors, and they all depend on safety brakes like the one that a careful mechanic invented to protect his factory’s equipment.

1. What is paragraph 2 mostly about? (A) Why early lifts were dangerous and limited buildings (B) How workers repaired ropes that had snapped (C) Why the top floors were always the most expensive rooms (D) How steam engines were used to power early lifts
2. Which phrase from paragraph 3 helps the reader understand what a “ratchet” is? (A) a strong steel spring (B) a rail with teeth like a saw (C) heavy equipment to an upper floor (D) the top of the platform
3. Why did Otis have the rope cut in front of a crowd in 1854? (A) To show how quickly an old lift could fall (B) To warn people never to ride on platforms (C) To prove that his safety brake really worked (D) To test a new kind of rope for his factory
4. How does the author mainly organize the article? (A) In time order, from ancient lifts to modern buildings (B) By comparing two inventors who were rivals (C) As a list of reasons to take the stairs (D) From the least important to the most important fact about lifts
5. Based on the article, what was the most important result of the safety elevator? (A) It helped factories stop using horses. (B) It made steam engines faster than the electric motors of today. (C) It helped make tall buildings practical and popular. (D) It made stairs unnecessary in all buildings.

Part 19 — Read the story. Then answer the questions.

Measure Twice

[1] Caleb Turner had exactly three weeks until his mother’s birthday, and he had a plan. Ever since they had moved to their new apartment in Austin, she had been stacking her books in wobbly piles on the floor, so he would build her a bookshelf. When he saw a flyer for a free after-school woodshop at the community center, it felt as if the answer had arrived all by itself.

[2] The woodshop smelled like sawdust and machine oil. It was run by Mr. Hollis, a retired carpenter with bushy white eyebrows and hands covered in tiny scars. On the first day, he didn’t let anyone touch a saw. Instead, he made the six students practice with tape measures and pencils until Caleb thought he might fall asleep. “Measure twice, cut once,” Mr. Hollis repeated, tapping the workbench. “Wood doesn’t forgive you for being in a hurry.”

[3] Caleb nodded politely, but he was in a hurry. By the second week, the other students were still sanding small wooden boxes, and he was racing ahead on his bookshelf. He measured the first side panel, marked it, and cut it. He glanced at the second board, decided it looked about the same length, and cut that one too without measuring.

[4] On Thursday, he glued and screwed the pieces together and stood the shelf up proudly. It leaned to the left like a tired old man. When he set a heavy book on the top shelf, the whole thing rocked back and forth. One side panel was nearly half an inch shorter than the other. Caleb’s face turned hot, and he grabbed the shelf, ready to carry it straight to the scrap pile.

[5] “Hold on,” said Mr. Hollis. He disappeared into the storage closet and returned with a small three-legged stool. Its legs were three different lengths, and its seat tilted at a strange angle. “The first thing I ever built,” he said, “when I was about your age. My grandfather made me keep it. He told me to look at it every time I wanted to rush.” Caleb laughed in spite of himself. “You kept it all these years?” “Fifty-one years,” Mr. Hollis said. “It’s the best teacher in this room.”

[6] Instead of throwing the bookshelf away, they studied it together. Mr. Hollis showed Caleb how to remove the screws without splitting the wood, how to measure the longer panel against the shorter one, and how to trim it with a hand plane, a little at a time, checking again and again. It was slow work. Twice Caleb wanted to give up, and twice Mr. Hollis simply handed him the tape measure without a word.

[7] The finished bookshelf was four days late. Caleb gave it to his mother on a Saturday morning with a card that said Happy Birthday (Sort Of). She ran her hand along the smooth edge, then filled every shelf, one book at a time. The bookshelf didn’t lean even a little.

[8] At the next session, a new boy named Dylan joined the woodshop. He grabbed a board and headed straight for the saw. Caleb stepped in front of him, holding out a tape measure. “Hold on,” he said with a grin. “Let me show you something first.”

1. Why does Caleb want to build a bookshelf? (A) Mr. Hollis asks every student to build one. (B) His mother needs a place for her books. (C) He wants to sell it at the community center. (D) His teacher assigned it as homework.
2. What does Mr. Hollis mean when he says, “Measure twice, cut once”? (A) Use two different tape measures so that you are more accurate. (B) Cut each board two times to make the edges smooth. (C) Check carefully before you do something you can’t undo. (D) Work twice as fast as the other students in class.
3. Which sentence from paragraph 3 shows the mistake that makes the bookshelf lean later? (A) Caleb nodded politely, but he was in a hurry. (B) He measured the first side panel, marked it, and cut it. (C) By the second week, the other students were still sanding small wooden boxes, and he was racing ahead on his bookshelf. (D) He glanced at the second board, decided it looked about the same length, and cut that one too without measuring.
4. In paragraph 4, the shelf “leaned to the left like a tired old man.” What does this comparison help the reader understand? (A) The shelf was painted a dull gray color. (B) The shelf was too heavy for Caleb to lift. (C) The shelf was very old and made of used wood. (D) The shelf was clearly crooked and weak.
5. How does Caleb feel when he discovers the problem in paragraph 4? (A) surprised but secretly pleased (B) curious and eager to test it again (C) embarrassed and ready to give up (D) calm and proud of his hard work
6. Why does Mr. Hollis show Caleb the three-legged stool? (A) To ask Caleb to repair the stool for him (B) To give Caleb a place to sit while he works (C) To show that everyone makes mistakes when they rush (D) To prove that stools are easier to build than shelves
7. Which word best describes Mr. Hollis in paragraph 6? (A) nervous (B) patient (C) boastful (D) careless
8. What does the ending of the story suggest about Caleb? (A) He has learned the lesson and is ready to share it. (B) He plans to quit the woodshop after his project. (C) He thinks Dylan is too young to join the class. (D) He wants to keep Dylan away from the saws for the rest of the year.

Part 20 — Read the letter. Then answer the questions.

Letter from Star Camp

[1] Dear Grandpa,

I’m writing this by the light of a red flashlight, which is the only kind we are allowed to use outside after dark here at Star Camp. Our counselor says white light ruins your night vision, and it can take twenty minutes or more for your eyes to get used to the dark again. I never knew that before this week!

[2] I have to be honest. The first night, I almost called Mom and asked her to come get me. Everything felt strange: the dry mountains, the creaky bunk beds, and the fact that I didn’t know a single person. My roommate, Isla, is from Dallas and talks faster than anyone I’ve ever met, and at first I just nodded and said nothing. At dinner I sat at the end of the long table and pushed my macaroni around my plate. That night I lay awake listening to the wind, feeling like a fish out of water.

[3] Then, on the second night, our counselor took us to a field on top of the mountain, and everything changed. Grandpa, I have never seen so many stars. Out here there are hardly any towns, so there is very little light pollution, which is the glow from streetlights and buildings that hides the stars in cities. The Milky Way looked like a long, pale cloud stretched across the whole sky. Isla grabbed my arm and whispered, “Is that real?” and we both started laughing. Since then, we’ve been almost inseparable.

[4] We have learned so much. We looked at Saturn through a big telescope, and I could actually see its rings. They looked so tiny and perfect that I thought someone had stuck a sticker on the lens! We also learned how to find the North Star. First you find the Big Dipper. Then you follow the two stars at the end of its cup, which are called the pointer stars, and they lead you right to the North Star. Our counselor says that sailors and travelers used the North Star to find their way north for hundreds of years.

[5] When I get home, I want to take your old binoculars out to the pasture behind your house and show you how to find the North Star myself. You always say you can’t tell one star from another. Well, now I can teach you! I’ve also decided that I might want to be an astronomer someday. Or maybe a camp counselor. Or both. Mom says I have plenty of time to decide, but I’m already making a list of the constellations I want to learn before next summer.

[6] Tell Grandma I’m eating my vegetables (mostly). I’ll see you in ten days.

Love,

Megan

1. What is the main purpose of Megan’s letter? (A) To invite her grandfather to visit the camp (B) To ask her grandfather to pick her up early (C) To explain to her grandfather how telescopes and binoculars work (D) To tell her grandfather about her camp experiences
2. Which phrase helps the reader understand what “light pollution” means in paragraph 3? (A) a field on top of the mountain (B) the glow from streetlights and buildings (C) grabbed my arm and whispered (D) a long, pale cloud stretched across the whole sky
3. How do Megan’s feelings change from paragraph 2 to paragraph 3? (A) She goes from feeling excited to feeling bored, tired, and grumpy. (B) She goes from feeling angry to feeling nervous and shy. (C) She goes from feeling lonely to feeling amazed and connected. (D) She goes from feeling proud to feeling homesick and sad.
4. Why does Megan want to take her grandfather’s binoculars out to the pasture? (A) She wants to look at Saturn’s rings one more time. (B) She needs to return them before her camp ends. (C) She wants to teach him a skill she learned at camp. (D) She wants to find the Milky Way for a school report.

Part 7

1. My cousin ________ in Houston since she was five years old. Which word correctly completes the sentence? (A) living (B) has lived (C) lives (D) is live

Part 8

1. This year’s science fair projects were ________ than last year’s, so the judges needed extra time. Which word correctly completes the sentence? (A) the creative (B) more creative (C) creativer (D) most creative

Part 9

1. Each of the players on the team have a different job during practice. The underlined word is not correct. Which word should replace it? (A) haves (B) were (C) having (D) has

Part 10

1. After the guide explained the rules, the students divided theirselves into four groups. The underlined word is not correct. Which word should replace it? (A) ourselves (B) themself (C) himself (D) themselves

Part 11

1. When did the first astronauts landed on the Moon?

Part 12

Yesterday our class arrived to the park early and planted six young tree near the pond.

Part 14 — Writing: Describe the Picture

• describe the place and the people
• explain what the different people are doing
• tell why you think these people are doing this and how the park might change in the future

Part 16 — Writing: A Time You Solved a Problem Together

• what the problem was and who was in your group
• what each person did to help
• how the problem was solved and what you learned about working with others

Part 18 — Writing: Explain the Graph

• describe what the graph shows, including the highest and lowest months
• explain one possible reason for the changes
• predict how many books students might borrow in March and explain why