Grade 7 ELA Practice Test: Reading Comprehension and Grammar

Passage A: The Interpreter

(1) Lina had rehearsed the speech in her head all morning: Mama, I can't keep missing class. But when her mother appeared at the front office of Ridgeview Middle School at noon, holding a folder of papers against her chest, the words dissolved. Her mother needed help with the enrollment forms for Lina's little brother, Sami, and Lina was the only one in the family whose English was fluent enough.

(2) The office smelled of copier toner and burnt coffee. Lina sat in a plastic chair beside her mother and translated question after question for the secretary, Mr. Brandt. Date of birth. Previous school. Allergies. Each time Mr. Brandt spoke a little too loudly, as if volume could carry words across a language, Lina felt her cheeks burn. Two eighth graders waiting at the counter were whispering, and Lina was certain they were whispering about her.

(3) "Ask him about the bus," her mother said in Arabic, tapping a line on the form.

(4) "Mama, it's fine. I'll find out later," Lina muttered. She just wanted to leave.

(5) Her mother studied her for a moment, then turned to Mr. Brandt herself. "Bus," she said slowly in English, pointing at the paper. "For Sami. In the morning… what time?"

(6) Mr. Brandt blinked. Then he smiled, lowered his voice, and wrote on a sticky note: 7:42, corner of Elm and Fifth. Her mother read it aloud twice, nodding, and tucked the note into her folder as if it were something precious.

(7) On the walk to the parking lot, Lina finally said what she had been holding in. "Everyone was staring at us. I hate being the one who always has to do the talking."

(8) Her mother stopped beside the car. "Back home, I was a pharmacist," she said quietly. "People came to me with their questions. Here, I must ask a stranger when a bus comes, and I must ask my daughter to speak for me. Do you think that is easy for me?"

(9) Lina opened her mouth, then closed it. She had always thought of these trips to the office as her own embarrassment. It had never occurred to her that her mother felt it too, and walked through the door anyway. She pictured the plastic chairs, Mr. Brandt's loud voice, and the whispering eighth graders, and this time she saw them through her mother's eyes.

(10) That night, Lina found her mother at the kitchen table with Sami's forms and a library book called Everyday English for Adults. Lina pulled out a chair and sat down. "Here," she said, pointing to the first page. "Let's start with the questions they always ask."