Grade 4 ELA Practice Test: Main Idea and Summarizing
- Main Idea and Summarizing
- 10 questions
- 15 minutes
Questions 1-6 are about a passage on honeybees, and questions 7-10 use two short paragraphs and summary skills. Tip: a good summary tells the most important ideas in your own words and leaves out opinions.
Tap an option to mark your answer. You can change your mind, or tap the same option again to leave the question blank. The correct answers and explanations appear when you finish the test.Tap an option to answer; tap it again to leave the question blank.
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Question 1
Read the passage and answer questions 1-6.
The Waggle Dance
(1) A honeybee that finds a patch of flowers full of nectar cannot draw a map or point with a finger. Instead, it flies back to the hive and dances.
(2) Inside the dark hive, the bee walks in a straight line while shaking, or waggling, its body from side to side. Then it circles back to where it started and does the straight waggle walk again. This movement is called the waggle dance.
(3) The dance holds two important clues. The direction of the straight walk shows which way to fly, compared with the direction of the sun. The length of the waggle part tells how far away the flowers are. A longer waggle means a longer trip.
(4) Other bees crowd close to the dancer. They feel its movements and smell the flowers on its body. Then they zoom out of the hive to find the food themselves.
(5) The waggle dance is one of the most remarkable ways that animals share information. A single dance can send many helpers to the very flowers the first bee found.
What is the main idea of the passage?
Correct answer: B
Every paragraph explains how the waggle dance works and how it helps other bees find flowers. The hive and the nectar are only details.
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Question 2
Use "The Waggle Dance."
Which sentence is the best summary of paragraph 3?
Correct answer: D
Paragraph 3 gives two clues: direction and distance. A summary should name both. The other choices are not in the paragraph.
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Question 3
Use "The Waggle Dance."
A bee does a waggle dance with a very long waggle part. What does this tell the other bees?
Correct answer: A
Paragraph 3 says, "A longer waggle means a longer trip," so the flowers are far away. The passage does not connect the length to the amount of nectar.
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Question 4
Use "The Waggle Dance."
According to paragraph 4, how do the other bees learn what kind of flowers to look for?
Correct answer: C
Paragraph 4 says the bees "smell the flowers on its body." Nothing is said about tasting honey or carrying petals.
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Question 5
Use "The Waggle Dance."
Why does the author begin by saying the bee "cannot draw a map or point with a finger"?
Correct answer: B
The opening sets up a problem: how can a bee give directions? The rest of the passage shows the answer, the dance. The author never says bees are not smart.
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Question 6
Use "The Waggle Dance."
"Then they zoom out of the hive to find the food themselves."
What does zoom mean in this sentence?
Correct answer: C
The bees have just learned where the food is and rush off to find it, so "zoom" means move fast. Bees do buzz, but the sentence is about how they leave.
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Question 7
Aluminum cans can be recycled again and again. A used can is cleaned, melted, and shaped into a new can. Making a can from recycled aluminum takes much less energy than making one from brand-new metal. That is why many towns collect cans in special bins.
What is the main idea of this paragraph?
Correct answer: D
The paragraph explains that cans can be reused and that this takes less energy. The bins and the cleaning step are supporting details, and strength is never mentioned.
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Question 8
Sea turtles spend almost their whole lives in the ocean. Females, however, crawl onto sandy beaches to lay their eggs. Each one digs a hole, lays her eggs, covers them with sand, and returns to the sea. Weeks later, the baby turtles hatch and head toward the water.
Which is the best summary of this paragraph?
Correct answer: A
A summary covers the whole paragraph: the mothers come ashore to lay eggs, and the babies return to the water. One choice is an opinion, and the others give just one detail or add a detail that is not stated.
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Question 9
Use the paragraph about sea turtles in question 8.
Which word in the paragraph signals a contrast?
Correct answer: C
"However" shows that something is different from what came before: turtles live in the ocean, but females come onto land. "Later" signals time order, not contrast.
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Question 10
Which of these belongs in a good summary of a nonfiction passage?
Correct answer: A
A summary is short and tells only the key ideas in your own words. It leaves out opinions, small details, and copied sentences.
Questions you leave blank are not counted as wrong.
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