Test - 11th–12th Grade ELA Pretest

1 pt Chapter: 7 Standard: RI 8 DOK: 3

Following is an excerpt of a speech given by FDR while he was President of the United States. It was near the end of the Great Depression, and he was urging people to be brave as the country recovered. Because of his education, position, and experience Roosevelt’s information about banking is reliable and valid.

Excerpt from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Fireside Chat, Washington, DC, March 12, 1933

After all, there is an element in the readjustment of our financial system more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan.

You people must have faith; you must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system; it is up to you to support and make it work. It is your problem no less than it is mine. Together we cannot fail.

1. Knowing that this speech was given near the end of the Great Depression, which of the following best explains the speech’s importance?

The people needed a renewed sense of hope and responsibility after such difficult times.

The people caused the depression with irresponsibility; FDR wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again.

The people needed to feel that the president was their friend as much as their leader.

The people wanted to be reassured that the depression was really over.

1 pt Chapter: 11 Standard: L 4.b DOK: 1

The word readjustment, as it is used in the passage, suggests that the financial system was being adjusted —

for the first time.

again.

for the last time.

indefinitely.

1 pt Chapter: 11 Standard: RI 4 DOK: 2

Excerpt from Cotton Mather’s Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions

About Midsummer, in the year 1688, the Eldest of these Children, who is a Daughter, saw cause to examine their Washerwoman, upon their missing of some Linnen [linens] which twas fear’d she had stollen from them; and of what use this linnen might bee to serve the Witchcraft intended, the Theef’s Tempter knows! This Laundress was the Daughter of an ignorant and a scandalous old Woman in the Neighbourhood; whose miserable Husband before he died, had sometimes complained of her, that she was undoubtedly a Witch, and that whenever his Head was laid, she would quickly arrive unto the punishments due to such an one. This Woman in her daughters Defence bestow’d very bad Language upon the Girl that put her to the Question; immediately upon which, the poor child became variously indisposed in her health, and visited with strange Fits, beyond those that attend an Epilepsy or a Catalepsy, or those that they call The Diseases of Astonishment.

3. Mather writes about the girl becoming "variously indisposed in her health." In this context, what does indisposed mean?

Unwilling

Reluctant

Unwell

Wary

1 pt Chapter: 4 Standard: RL 9 DOK: 2

This nonfiction description of society and its persecution of those who did not conform to its norms later became a theme explored by what novelist?

Anne Bradstreet, in "To My Dear and Loving Husband"

Benjamin Franklin, in Poor Richard’s Almanac

Nathanial Hawthorne, in The Scarlet Letter

James Fenimore Cooper, in Leatherstocking Tales

1 pt Chapter: 7 Standard: RI 7 DOK: 3

How would viewing the film adaptation of The Crucible in conjunction with reading this passage most likely affect a student’s understanding of the Salem witch trials?

It would confuse the student because historical fiction tends to distort the truth.

It would help the student see how Mather’s writings inspired mass hysteria.

It would have no effect because dramatized accounts of history are not realistic.

It would help the student better understand Mather’s suspicions of accused witches.

11th–12th Grade ELA Pretest

11th–12th Grade ELA Pretest Sample