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Sample Questions

What questions are used in the NAEP reading assessment?

Explore sample questions from the reading assessment, and see how the NAEP reading questions relate to student performance.

 

Test Yourself in Reading

Select one of the grade tabs below to try out questions from the 2009 NAEP reading assessment. After answering all the questions, compare your score with that of students nationally.

Grade 4
Grade 8
Grade 12

 

 Grade 8 Sample Questions

View or download the reading passage, Alien Invasion and Home on the Range (147 KB PDF).

Question 1 of 7 :

What is the central purpose of "Alien Invasion"?

  1.     To point out that invasive species come from many different countries
  2.     To argue that invasive species are a serious problem that must be solved
  3.     To describe the damage that invasive species cause in Australia
  4.     To suggest that invasive species can be stopped only with the government's help
Next Button, click to proceed.
The correct answer is: B
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Question 2 of 7 :

"Alien Invasion" relies primarily on what form of evidence as support for its argument?

  1.     Quotations of famous scientists
  2.    Multiple definitions of invasive species
  3.     A series of examples of invasive species
  4.     Descriptions of different methods of control
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The correct answer is: C
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Question 3 of 7 :

According to "Alien Invasion," Australian farmers imported cane toads into Australia in order to

  1.    help save their native beetle populations
  2.    eat the sugarcane that was taking over their other crops
  3.    stop an alien species of beetle imported from Hawaii
  4.    eat beetles that were destroying sugarcane crops
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The correct answer is: D
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Question 4 of 7 :

What is the central purpose of "Home on the Range"?

  1.    To inform people about two opposing views
  2.    To convince people to take a particular point of view
  3.    To describe recent scientific discoveries
  4.    To challenge a common belief
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The correct answer is: A
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Question 5 of 7 :

In "Alien Invasion," on page 4, an Australian official says, "We cannot tolerate a situation" where cane toads are traveling across the Australian continent. This means that the official thinks that Australians cannot

  1.    find a solution to the problem posed by cane toads
  2.    understand why cane toads are such a problem
  3.    allow the cane toads to continue causing a problem
  4.    permit the cane toad problem to become well known
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The correct answer is: C
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Question 6 of 7 :

On page 5, when "Home on the Range" talks about vast parks in the Great Plains, this refers to parks that

  1.    have mostly flat land
  2.    have protected sections
  3.    are owned by private citizens
  4.    are extremely large
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The correct answer is: D
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Question 7 of 7 :

According to "Home on the Range," some scientists think that moving African animals to the Great Plains would help improve the area's

  1.    resistance to alien species
  2.    economy
  3.    biodiversity
  4.    research facilities
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The correct answer is: C
Done

The chart below shows the percentage of questions that you answered correctly, as well as how students at each of the achievement levels performed on this set of questions. For instance, eighth-grade students at or above Proficient had a percentage correct of 89% on average.

[Overall|68],[Below Basic|38],[Basic|69],[Proficient|89],[Advanced|97] Eighth-grade percentage correct on selected reading questions: 2009
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SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2009 Reading Assessment.

Eighth-Grade percentage correct on selected reading questions, by district: 2009
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2009 Reading Assessment.

View this set of questions in the NAEP Questions Tool to see student performance by participating states.