Grade 8 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.

Two Guides Text 1: The Gatekeeper [1] Every apprentice in the hill town visited the gatekeeper before taking the mountain road. Mara expected a secret instruction, perhaps a word that would open the stone door at the summit. Instead, the old woman gave her an empty cup. “Bring back what makes the climb possible,” she said. [2] Mara filled the cup at the first spring, then drank the water on the steep ascent. At a narrow ledge, a traveler steadied her arm. She could not put that help into the cup. Higher up, she used a memory of the morning's sunlight to choose between two paths. The cup remained empty. [3] At the summit, the stone door stood open. Mara returned ashamed of bringing nothing. The gatekeeper asked her to describe the climb. As Mara named the spring, the traveler and the remembered light, the woman set the empty cup on a shelf. “Then it carried what it needed to carry,” she said. Text 2: The Repair Table [4] When the community repair group met, Theo always waited for Ms. Chen to identify the fault. Her experience made the broken radios on the table seem less mysterious. One evening she placed an unplugged radio before him and asked what he could establish without guessing. [5] Theo listed what he observed, compared a working cable, and asked another volunteer to check his notes. Ms. Chen did not supply the answer when he looked up. She asked which observation supported his next step. The work was slower than watching her repair it, but the notes began to form a route he could follow. [6] The radio eventually played, though the sound was weak. Theo started to hand it back. Then he opened his notebook to a fresh page and wrote the next question. Ms. Chen moved to another table. For once, her departure did not feel like being left alone.

How do the texts use the mentor archetype similarly?

1. Both guides help learners develop judgment instead of simply supplying an answer.
2. Both guides provide a physical object that solves every difficulty.
3. Both guides deliberately prevent learners from completing a task.
4. Both guides insist that cooperation weakens independence.

Intended benchmark: ELA.8.R.3.3. A single example does not establish mastery or complete benchmark coverage.

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