Grade 9 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 Inventions Both selections are original adaptations of the ancient Icarus story. They are not translations or historical accounts. Text 1: The Waxmaker's Son [1] The inventor tested each joint before placing the wings across his son's shoulders. From the cliff, the water looked smooth enough to walk on. He explained the narrow course between the spray below and the heat above. The boy repeated the warning, impatient to feel what the feathers could do. [2] For a time, he followed. Then the island grew small, and the air seemed to offer a freedom that no instruction could contain. He climbed above his father's outstretched hand. When the first feather loosened, he reached to catch it, as though recovering one feather might repair the whole design. Below him, the sea no longer looked smooth. [3] The father turned at the sound of his name. The scattered feathers told him what the distance concealed. The invention had made escape possible; it had not made its limits disappear. Text 2: The Demonstration [4] In the engineering lab, Ina's glider could remain aloft longer than any earlier model. A warning line on the display marked the motor's tested temperature. During the public demonstration, the glider climbed and applause rose with it. Ina's partner signaled that the temperature was approaching the line. [5] She imagined tomorrow's headline if she brought the glider down before setting a record. Then she noticed a vibration the team had never measured. The warning was no longer an obstacle between her and success. It was the only part of the future they had tested. She reduced power and guided the glider to the floor. [6] The audience applauded less loudly than before. Ina wrote the temperature and the vibration in the log while the room emptied. The next morning, the team began with that entry. There would be another demonstration, but it would not begin with a claim that the previous flight had proved everything.

How do the adaptations differ in their treatment of the warning?

1. Both characters follow every warning and achieve the same result.
2. The first warning is invented after the failure; the second is never communicated.
3. Both adaptations remove the relationship between ambition and consequences.
4. The first character treats a limit as something to escape; the second comes to see a limit as useful knowledge.

Intended benchmark: ELA.9.R.3.3. A single example does not establish mastery or complete benchmark coverage.

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