Grade 10 FAST Reading practice

Read the complete passage before selecting an answer. Ask which words support the choice, and compare them with the explanation.

These original questions target selected grade-level skills. They are independent practice and do not predict an official FAST score.

The Value of a Gift These original adaptations draw on the Midas myth. They alter its setting and emphasis; neither is a translation of an ancient text. Text 1: The Collector [1] The ruler requested a gift that would make every object he touched become gold. At first, the change seemed to settle every uncertainty about value. A branch, a cup, a rough stone: each became something he could count and possess. The palace filled with objects that reflected his face. [2] At supper, the bread hardened beneath his fingers. The cup was magnificent, but what he lifted to his mouth could not satisfy thirst. For the first time, the ruler understood that a thing's price and its use were not the same. His perfect collection had made ordinary life impossible. [3] When the gift was taken away, he reached for a clay bowl. A small crack crossed its side. He turned the bowl in his hands without asking what it might be worth. Then he drank. Text 2: The Ranking [4] Mira designed a system that gave every contribution to the club a score. Public tasks earned visible points: presenting a proposal, leading a meeting, winning a prize. She expected the ranking to settle arguments about who worked hardest. For a few weeks, the list seemed to do exactly that. [5] Then the meetings began to falter. Members prepared speeches but neglected the equipment. A student who used to welcome newcomers stopped arriving early. Those tasks were difficult to count, and the system had made them difficult to value. The rankings rose while the club became less useful to its members. [6] Mira did not erase the records. She removed the single ranking and asked members to describe work the list had missed. The accounts disagreed in places; they could not be sorted as neatly as numbers. At the next meeting, someone had checked the microphone and placed an extra chair by the door. Neither action produced an announcement. Both changed what the room could hold.

How does Text 2 adapt the central problem of the Midas myth?

1. It removes the distinction between an attractive reward and practical usefulness.
2. It makes Mira's problem depend on a supernatural event.
3. It replaces turning objects into gold with reducing different contributions to one visible measure of value.
4. It replaces the ruler's harmful gift with a system that has no disadvantages.

Intended benchmark: ELA.10.R.3.3. A single example does not establish mastery or complete benchmark coverage.

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