Common Core: 8th Grade English Language Arts : Language
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Common Core: 8th Grade English Language Arts
All Common Core: 8th Grade English Language Arts Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #81 : Language
Which of the following provides the correct spelling for a word that means “more than is usual or necessary”?
Excessive
Ecsessive
Exescive
Exessive
Exsessive
Excessive
Answer: Excessive
Example Question #82 : Language
Which of the following provides the correct spelling for a word that best describes someone with extremely colorful or elaborate behavior?
Flameboyent
Flamboyant
Flambuoyant
Flamboyint
Flemboyiant
Flamboyant
Answer: Flamboyant
Example Question #83 : Language
Which of the following properly spells a word that would describe an attractive or enviable life?
Glamourous
Glamaurous
Glammerous
Glamerus
Glamorous
Glamorous
Glamorous
Example Question #81 : Language
Select a word that could replace the underlined word, without changing the meaning of the provided sentence.
Jessica was so pleased that her parents were taking her to Florida.
devastated
fearful
delighted
sad
delighted
In order to avoid changing the meaning of the sentence, we need to replace the underlined word with a synonym.
"Pleased" means to be happy about. Of the choices provided, "delighted" means the same thing as "pleased" and "happy".
"Sad", "devastated", and "fearful" are all antonyms of "pleased", they mean the opposite of being happy.
Example Question #82 : Language
Select a word that could replace the underlined word, without changing the meaning of the provided sentence.
Tim was fearful about his first day at his new job.
confident
anxious
encouraged
excited
anxious
In order to avoid changing the meaning of the sentence, we need to replace the underlined word with a synonym.
Both "fearful" and "anxious" mean to be scared.
"Excited", "confident", and "encouraged" are all antonyms of scared, they mean to feel comfortable or happy.
Example Question #83 : Language
Select a word that could replace the underlined word, without changing the meaning of the provided sentence.
Kelly was so drained from staying up late at the sleepover.
energized
activated
rested
drowsy
drowsy
In order to avoid changing the meaning of the sentence, we need to replace the underlined word with a synonym.
"Drained" and "drowsy" both mean to be tired. "Energized", "activated", and "rested" are all antonyms, they all mean to be awake.
Example Question #84 : Language
Adapted from "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe (1846)
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled — but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity1. A wrong is unredressed2 when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.
It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation3.
He had a weak point — this Fortunato — although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared. He prided himself upon his connoisseurship in wine. Few Italians have the true virtuoso spirit. For the most part their enthusiasm is adopted to suit the time and opportunity, to practice imposture upon the British and Austrian millionaires. In painting and gemmary, Fortunato, like his countrymen, was a quack, but in the matter of old wines he was sincere. In this respect I did not differ from him materially; — I was skillful in the Italian vintages myself, and bought largely whenever I could.
It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend. He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much. The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells. I was so pleased to see him that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand.
I said to him — “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking today. But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts.”
“How?” said he. “Amontillado? A pipe? Impossible! And in the middle of the carnival!”
“I have my doubts,” I replied; “and I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting you in the matter. You were not to be found, and I was fearful of losing a bargain.”
“Amontillado!”
“I have my doubts.”
“Amontillado!”
“And I must satisfy them.”
“Amontillado!”
“As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchresi. If any one has a critical turn it is he. He will tell me ——”
“Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry4.”
“And yet some fools will have it that his taste is a match for your own.”
“Come, let us go.”
“Whither?”
“To your vaults.”
In the sixth paragraph, the underlined and bolded word "pipe" most nearly means __________.
a song played in a high octave
a conduit used to conduct liquids or gasses over large distances
an instrument used for smoking tobacco
a musical instrument
a wine cask of specific size
a wine cask of specific size
We'll need to use context clues to figure out what the author means when he uses the word "pipe." Don't jump to conclusions and pick the most familiar answer choice without considering the word in the passage. Make sure to find it in the paragraph indicated and consider it's specific context—that is, the words and sentences around it—before picking your answer choice.
The context in which the word "pipe" appears is as follows:
I said to him — “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking today. But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts.”
“How?” said he. “Amontillado? A pipe? Impossible! And in the middle of the carnival!”
We can tell from this exchange that "pipe" is being used as a noun that indicates some sort of unit or container of amontillado. Music and songs aren't mentioned at all, so neither "a musical instrument" nor "a song played in a high octave" is correct. "Pipe" might often be used to mean "a conduit used to conduct liquids or gasses over large distances," but that's not how it's being used here. It indicates a definite amount of amontillado, not a conduit through which a non-definite amount of something might travel. Furthermore, "an instrument used for smoking tobacco" is also another common use of the word "pipe," but we can figure out that this isn't the correct answer by noting that "amontillado" is closely compared with "sherry" when Fortunato insults Luchresi by saying, "Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry." "Sherry," the footnotes inform us, is a type of fortified wine, so "amontillado" must be something very similar to a type of fortified wine. We can infer that it is most likely also a liquid, so "an instrument used for smoking tobacco" can't be correct, because it would at least need to deal with something solid, not liquid. The correct answer is "a wine cask of specific size." This captures the "unit of measurement" aspect as well as the fact that it has to do with a liquid.
Example Question #85 : Language
Adapted from "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe (1846)
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled — but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity1. A wrong is unredressed2 when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.
It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation3.
He had a weak point — this Fortunato — although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared. He prided himself upon his connoisseurship in wine. Few Italians have the true virtuoso spirit. For the most part their enthusiasm is adopted to suit the time and opportunity, to practice imposture upon the British and Austrian millionaires. In painting and gemmary, Fortunato, like his countrymen, was a quack, but in the matter of old wines he was sincere. In this respect I did not differ from him materially; — I was skillful in the Italian vintages myself, and bought largely whenever I could.
It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend. He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much. The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells. I was so pleased to see him that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand.
I said to him — “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking today. But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts.”
“How?” said he. “Amontillado? A pipe? Impossible! And in the middle of the carnival!”
“I have my doubts,” I replied; “and I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting you in the matter. You were not to be found, and I was fearful of losing a bargain.”
“Amontillado!”
“I have my doubts.”
“Amontillado!”
“And I must satisfy them.”
“Amontillado!”
“As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchresi. If any one has a critical turn it is he. He will tell me ——”
“Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry4.”
“And yet some fools will have it that his taste is a match for your own.”
“Come, let us go.”
“Whither?”
“To your vaults.”
Based on the passage, which of the following is closest to the meaning of "amontillado"?
A fruit that has historically been particularly expensive in Italy
A valuable type of wine
A small sculpture carved out of ice
A rare variety of ancient painting
A type of poem with a very specific rhyme scheme
A valuable type of wine
"Amontillado" is an important word to understand in this story. It appears in the title, and the characters spend a lot of their dialogue discussing it. So, what is it? We'll have to use context clues to figure this out.
Not counting the title, when is amontillado first mentioned in the story? The narrator—whom we know to be out to get revenge on Fortunato, since he's directly told us this—meets Fortunato at the carnival and says "But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts." Fortunato is flabbergasted at this news. ("Impossible! And in the middle of the carnival!") The narrator mentions that he "was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting you in the matter." Why would the narrator want to consult Forunato about amontillado? What do we know about Fortunato's expertise? We're told earlier that Fortunato "prided himself upon his connoisseurship in wine" and that "In painting and gemmary, Fortunato, like his countrymen, was a quack, but in the matter of old wines he was sincere." Ok, so maybe amontillado has something to do with wine. Let's read on.
As the two characters continue to talk, the narrator says, “As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchresi. If any one has a critical turn it is he. He will tell me ——” At this point Fortunato interrupts, saying, “Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry4.” Aha! This is a useful comparison for our purposes. The gist of Fortunato's statement is "Luchresi isn't that smart. He can't tell apart amontillado and sherry." This tells us that amontillado must necessarily be quite similar to sherry, or it wouldn't be a demonstration of how skilled and smart you are to be able to tell them apart. The footnotes tell us that "sherry" is a type of fortified wine. So, it turns out that our initial hypothesis was correct—amontillado must be a type of wine, or something very like wine. Given this, the best answer choice—and the correct one—is "a valuable type of wine."
Example Question #4 : Use Context Clues To Determine Word Meanings: Ccss.Ela Literacy.L.8.4.A
Adapted from “Feathers of Sea Birds and Wild Fowl for Bedding” from The Utility of Birds by Edward Forbush (ed. 1922)
In the colder countries of the world, the feathers and down of waterfowl have been in great demand for centuries. These materials have been used as filling for beds and pillows. Such feathers are perfect insulators of heat, and beds, pillows, or coverlets filled with them represent the acme of comfort and durability.
The early settlers of New England saved for such purposes the feathers and down from the thousands of wild-fowl which they killed, but as the population of people increased, the quantity of feathers furnished in this manner became insufficient, and the people sought a larger supply in the vast colonies of ducks and geese along the Labrador coast.
The manner in which the feathers and down were obtained, unlike the method practiced in Iceland, did not tend to conserve and protect the source of supply. In Iceland, the people have continued to receive for many years a considerable income by collecting eider down (the small, fluffy feathers of eider ducks), but there they do not “kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.” Ducks line their nests with down plucked from their own breasts and that of the eider is particularly valuable for bedding. In Iceland, these birds are so carefully protected that they have become as tame and unsuspicious as domestic fowls In North America. Where they are constantly hunted they often conceal their nests in the midst of weeds or bushes, but in Iceland, they make their nests and deposit their eggs in holes dug for them in the sod. A supply of the ducks is maintained so that the people derive from them an annual income.
In North America, quite a different policy was pursued. The demand for feathers became so great in the New England colonies during the middle of the eighteenth century that vessels were sent to Labrador for the express purpose of securing the feathers and down of wild fowl. Eider down having become valuable and these ducks being in the habit of congregating by thousands on barren islands of the Labrador coast, the birds became the victims of the ships’ crews. As the ducks molt all their primary feathers at once in July or August and are then quite incapable of flight and the young birds are unable to fly until well grown, the hunters were able to surround the helpless birds, drive them together, and kill them with clubs. Otis says that millions of wildfowl were thus destroyed and that in a few years their haunts were so broken up by this wholesale slaughter and their numbers were so diminished that feather voyages became unprofitable and were given up.
This practice, followed by the almost continual egging, clubbing, shooting, etc. by Labrador fishermen, may have been a chief factor in the extinction of the Labrador duck. No doubt had the eider duck been restricted in its breeding range to the islands of Labrador, it also would have been exterminated long ago.
Based on the context in which it is used, what is the most likely meaning of the underlined word “egging” in the passage’s last paragraph?
The act of throwing eggs at a target
The encouraging of someone
The laying of eggs
The hatching of eggs
The gathering and removing of eggs
The gathering and removing of eggs
The word “egging” appears in the following sentence in the passage:
This practice, followed by the almost continual egging, clubbing, shooting, etc. by Labrador fishermen, may have been a chief factor in the extinction of the Labrador duck.
The word “egging” is here clearly describing something with a bad connotation, as it appears in parallel with “clubbing” and “shooting.” We can infer that it must mean doing something to hurt the ducks, as “clubbing” and “shooting” have that in common. This lets us discard the answer choices “the laying of eggs” and “the hatching of eggs.” These wouldn’t hurt the ducks, and at any rate, ducks lay their own eggs and then those eggs hatch; neither answer choice makes sense when used to describe something humans could do to duck eggs. While to “egg someone on” can mean to encourage that person, that is not the meaning that is being used in the passage, so we can ignore this answer choice as well. This leaves us with “the act of throwing eggs at a target” and “the destruction of eggs.” Nothing suggests that the eggs are being thrown at the ducks, so the better answer choice is the more general one, “the gathering and removing of eggs.” Indeed, this makes more sense, as the hunters could probably eat or sell the eggs.
Example Question #86 : Language
Adapted from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)
He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove or upon the cliffs with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlor next the fire and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to, only look up sudden and fierce and blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day when he came back from his stroll he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road.
I was far less afraid of the captain than anybody else who knew him. There were nights when he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses round and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing. His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they were—about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By his own account he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men upon the sea, and the language in which he told these stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as the crimes that he described. My father was always saying the inn would be ruined, for people would soon cease coming there to be tyrannized over and put down, and sent shivering to their beds; but I really believe his presence did us good. People were frightened at the time, but on looking back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a quiet country life, and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog" and a "real old salt" and such like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.
In the last line of the passage, the word "terrible" is used to mean which of the following?
Evil and maliscious
Unskilled and weak
Of low quality
Formidable and powerful
Ill and nauseous
Formidable and powerful
We can figure out what particular definition of "terrible" is meant in the passage by considering the context in which the word is used—that is, the meaning of the rest of the words around it. Let's consider the clause in which "terrible" appears. The narrator is talking about the unusual sailor staying in his family's inn, and says,
. . . it was a fine excitement in a quiet country life, and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog" and a "real old salt" and such like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.
So, some young men call the sailor a "true sea-dog" and a "real old salt." These are meant to be positive names, as we can tell because the narrator says that these young men "pretend to admire" the sailor. They also say that the sailor is "the sort of man that made England terrible at sea." If the young men are saying otherwise nice things about the sailor, it wouldn't make sense for them to suddenly and without warning switch perspectives and say something insulting, like that the sailor made England "unskilled and weak" at sea, or "evil and malicious" at sea. The answer choices "of low quality" and "ill and nauseous" don't make any sense as potential meanings for "terrible," so the correct answer must be the only remaining answer choice, "formidable and powerful." This answer makes sense, because as a meaning of "terrible," it would allow the young men to be saying something positive about the sailor, which would match the tenor of the other things they say about him.
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All Common Core: 8th Grade English Language Arts Resources
