Try your hand at a National Assessment of Educational Progress literacy test
Read the following story and poem from the 2022 NAEP and then answer the questions that follow. Clicking on the Answer + box after each question will give the correct answer.
1. Why did the King hang the bell?
- A. To remind the people to be good to one another
- B. To announce the times when he would give a speech
- C. To replace the old bell that had been broken
- D. To show the soldier that he had done wrong
A. To remind the people to be good to one another
2. In the story, why did the Mayor have the gravevine fastened to the bell?
- A. To please the people of Atri
- B. Because the rope was wearing out
- C. So the horse would eat it
- D. Because it was longer than the rope
B. Because the rope was wearing out
3. In the story, why did the soldier decide to get rid of his horse?
- A. He did not have enough room for all his horses.
- B. He was moving into town and would not need a horse.
- C. He thought he and the horse had been together too long.
- D. He thought the horse was too old to be useful.
D. He thought the horse was too old to be useful.
4. The following paragraph is from the story.
The poor old thing dragged his weary bones along for many hours, looking for bits of hay or patches of grass. He grew thinner and thinner and felt very very miserable.
What is the author mainly showing in this paragraph?
- A. How thin the horse has become
- B. How much the horse is suffering
- C. How many hours the horse has traveled
- D. How little there is for the horse to eat
B. How much the horse is suffering.
5. In the last section of the poem, what does the phrase “wet brown life” describe?
- A. The mud
- B. The old man’s hands
- C. The toads
- D. The falling raindrops
C. The toads
6. On page 2, the Mayor’s secretary says that the grapevine should be sufficient until the new rope is made. This means that the grapevine
- A. is longer than most grapevines
- B. will wear out faster than a rope would
- C. will work well enough for a short time
- D. can be attached easily to the bell
C. will work well enough for a short time
7. On page 2, the story says that the soldier had kept the horse as “a kind of souvenir.” This means that the horse
- A. reminded the soldier of the past
- B. was bought during the soldier’s travels
- C. had to do hard work for the soldier
- D. was given to the soldier as a reward
A. reminded the soldier of the past
Short answer or essay questions
8. In the poem, the old man and the speaker have different feelings about the toads. Explain the difference using information from the poem.
To show full comprehension, an answer would need to demonstrate an understanding of the different feelings the old man and the speaker have toward the toads and use information from the poem in the answer. For instance: The old man loved them and wanted to save them while the speaker is saying “you can’t save them all” and acting annoyed by how many times the old man stops the car.
The speaker was in a hurry to drive somewhere so he did not care about running over the toads. The old man cared about saving the toads and got out of the car to move them off the road.
9. What is one lesson that could be learned from both the story and the poem? Use information from both the story and the poem to explain your answer.
To show extensive comprehension, an answer would need to provide one lesson that could be learned from both the story and the poem and use information from both texts to explain the answer. For instance: The lesson is that you should treat animals with respect. The old man in the story learned he was
wrong to send his horse away and the old man in the poem kept trying to save the toads that were
blinded by the headlights.
The story and the poem teach you that it’s important to always be nice. In the story, the Mayor is
trying to teach the old soldier to be nice to his horse. In the poem, the grampa is trying to teach
his son or somebody young to be nice to everyone, even toads.
To save animals like the Mayor saved the horse and the old man saved the toads.
Who do you think is the most important character in the story “The Bell of Atri”? Use specific information from the story to support your answer.
To show full comprehension, an answer would need to provide an opinion about who is the most important character in the story and use specific information from the story to support the answer. For instance: The King is the most important character because he is the one who decided to hang the bell in the marketplace, and that started the whole story.
I think the Mayor’s secretary is most important because he suggested using a grapevine in place of the broken rope and then the horse ate the grapevine and rang the bell.
The soldier is most important because he mistreated the horse and was taught a lesson by the Mayor and townspeople to be nice to animals.
Maybe the horse is the most important because he rang the bell of Atri which is the title of the story.
The Mayor is because he made the soldier take back the old horse.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2022 Reading Assessment.