Grade 5 ELA Practice Test: Theme, Point of View and Comparing Texts
- Theme, Point of View and Comparing Texts
- 15 questions
- 20 minutes
Questions 1-9 are about two short stories, Text 1 and Text 2. Questions 10-15 practice theme and point of view on their own. Tip: a theme is a lesson about life written as a full sentence, not a one-word topic.
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Question 1
Read Text 1 and answer questions 1-4.
Text 1: The Volcano
(1) I had worked on my volcano for weeks. On the morning of the science fair, I carried it into the gym, and my elbow bumped the door. The cone cracked right down the middle.
(2) My best friend, Arturo, looked at the mess and then at his own project, a neat poster about magnets. "You can share my table," he said. "We'll fix it together."
(3) For the next twenty minutes, we patched the crack with tape and clay from the art room. It wasn't pretty. When the judges came by, the lava bubbled out of the side instead of the top. Everyone laughed, and so did I.
(4) I didn't win a ribbon that day. But when I think about the fair, I don't remember the crack. I remember Arturo's hands, covered in clay, right next to mine.
Which statement best expresses a theme of Text 1?
Correct answer: C
The narrator does not win, yet the memory that lasts is Arturo helping, so the story values friendship over prizes. The narrator had already planned carefully, so the crack is not a lesson about planning.
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Question 2
Text 1 (see above):
Which sentence from Text 1 best supports the theme?
Correct answer: D
This sentence shows what the narrator truly values about the day: working side by side with a friend. The other sentences describe events of the story but do not show the lesson.
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Question 3
Text 1 (see above):
From which point of view is Text 1 told?
Correct answer: A
The narrator uses "I" and "my" and is the one who carried the volcano, so the story is in first person. Arturo is a character the narrator talks about ("My best friend, Arturo").
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Question 4
Text 1 (see above):
How does the point of view affect what the reader learns in Text 1?
Correct answer: B
A first-person narrator can share only his or her own thoughts, such as what the narrator remembers in paragraph 4. The reader learns what Arturo says, but not what he thinks.
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Question 5
Read Text 2 and answer questions 5-9.
Text 2: The Key
(1) Grace had never liked the new girl, Ruth, who talked too loudly and always sat alone at lunch.
(2) One snowy afternoon, Grace dropped her house key somewhere on the walk home. She searched the sidewalk until her fingers ached with cold.
(3) Ruth came around the corner, saw her searching, and knelt down without a word. Together they brushed through the snow, inch by inch, until Ruth held up the key.
(4) The next day at lunch, Grace carried her tray past her usual table and sat down across from Ruth.
Which statement best expresses a theme of Text 2?
Correct answer: D
Grace disliked Ruth at the start, but after Ruth helps her, Grace chooses to sit with her. Keeping a key safe is a small detail of the plot, not the lesson the whole story builds toward.
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Question 6
Text 2 (see above):
How can the reader tell that Text 2 is told in the third person?
Correct answer: B
A third-person narrator is not a character, so the story refers to Grace and Ruth by name or as "she" and "her." Ruth never tells the story, and the amount of setting detail does not decide the point of view.
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Question 7
Text 2 (see above):
What does Grace's choice in paragraph 4 show?
Correct answer: A
Grace walks past her usual table on purpose to sit with the girl she used to dislike, which shows a change of heart. The story gives no sign that her table was full.
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Question 8
Text 1 and Text 2 (see above):
How are the two stories alike?
Correct answer: C
Arturo helps when the volcano cracks, and Ruth helps when Grace loses her key. Only Text 1 is in first person, and only Text 2 involves losing something outdoors.
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Question 9
Text 1 and Text 2 (see above):
How is the helper in Text 2 different from the helper in Text 1?
Correct answer: A
Text 1 calls Arturo "my best friend," while Text 2 says Grace "had never liked" Ruth. Neither helper is asked for help, and Ruth helps "without a word."
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Question 10
Which sentence is written from the first-person point of view?
Correct answer: B
First-person pronouns include I, me, we, us and our. "We" and "our" show that the speaker is part of the action. "She" and "they" are third-person pronouns.
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Question 11
Which of these is a theme rather than a topic?
Correct answer: C
A topic is what a story is about, often a word or phrase like "friendship." A theme is the message about that topic, written as a complete statement, such as "Telling the truth takes courage."
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Question 12
Mila the mouse wanted to build the tallest acorn tower in the field. Each time she rushed and stacked three acorns at once, the tower fell. Her little brother added one acorn at a time and checked each before adding the next. By sunset, his tower stood taller than the fence post.
What is the theme of this fable?
Correct answer: D
Mila's tower keeps falling when she hurries, while her brother's slow, careful method succeeds. The lesson is about how to work, not about who is smarter.
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Question 13
I could not believe Mom made me go to the art museum on a Saturday. The halls were silent, the paintings were dull, and my feet hurt after five minutes.
How does the narrator's point of view shape the description of the museum?
Correct answer: A
The narrator is unhappy about going ("I could not believe Mom made me go"), so every detail is negative: silent halls, dull paintings, sore feet. Nothing positive is mentioned, so the description is not balanced.
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Question 14
A story about a soccer game is told by the goalie, who uses "I" and "me."
If the same story were told by the team's coach instead, what would most likely change?
Correct answer: C
Changing the narrator changes the point of view: the reader would hear the coach's thoughts instead of the goalie's. The events of the game, such as the score, would stay the same.
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Question 15
Which clue best shows that a narrator is also a character in the story?
Correct answer: B
A narrator who says "I" and takes part in the events is a character, which is first-person point of view. Titles, past tense and named characters appear in third-person stories too.
Questions you leave blank are not counted as wrong.
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