Grade Practice Test | Lumos Learning

Read the passage and answer the question.

In 218 B.C., Romans ruled most of the world that they knew about. They felt protected by the Alps – high, snow-covered mountains to the east and north of them that enemies would find very difficult to cross. Then Hannibal came from Carthage, in what is now North Africa, with 9000 infantrymen – soldiers on foot – and something even more surprising: elephants. Hannibal had crossed the Alps with 37 elephants – creatures so terrifying that the Romans, who had never seen such animals, were thrown into a panic.

Based on what you know in this passage, what do you predict happened next?

Read the story and answer the question.

“Inventions have long since reached their limit.” This was said by Julius Sextus Frontinus in AD 10. The Romans had invented aqueducts that could carry water for miles from lakes and rivers to dry places. Their engineers built roads that were so well-made that some of them still exist today. Their bridges spanned large distances. Frontinus decided that they had invented everything that could possibly be invented.

The patent office reviews new inventions to make sure that inventors are protected from those who might steal or copy their designs. The same statement made by Frontinus was later made by Charles H. Duell, who worked in the U.S. patent office in 1899. Telegraphs, phonographs, and steam engines had been invented. Mr. Duell became famous when he said, “Everything that can be invented has already been invented.”

Why have the statements by Frontinus and Duell both become famous?

Read the story and answer the question.

Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, was hiding in a hut in the forest. His enemies were seeking him far and wide.
Six times he had met them in battle, and six times he had failed. Hope and courage were gone.
Bruce had given up all as lost. He was about to run away from Scotland and to leave the country in the hands of his enemies.
Full of sorrow, he lay stretched on a pile of straw in the poor woodchopper's hut. While he laid there thinking, he noticed a spider spinning her web.
The spider was trying to spin a thread from one beam of the cottage to another. It was a long way between the beams, and Bruce saw how hard a thing it was for her to do.
"She will never do it," thought the king.
The little spider tried it once and failed. She tried it twice and failed. The king counted each time. At length, she had tried it six times and had failed each time.
"She is like me," thought the king. "I have tried six battles and failed. She has tried six times to reach the beam and failed."
Then starting up from the straw, he cried, "I will hang my fate upon that little spider.
If she swings the seventh time and fails, then I will give up all for lost. If she swings the seventh time and wins, I will call my men together once more for a battle with the enemy and
never give up much like the little spider."
The spider tried the seventh time, letting herself down upon her slender thread. She swung out bravely.
"Look! look!" shouted the king. "She has reached it. The thread hangs between the two beams. If the spider can do it, I can do it."
Bruce got up from the straw with new strength and sent his men from village to village, calling the people to arms.
The brave soldiers answered his call and came trooping in.
At length, his army was ready to fight, and when the king led them in a great battle against the enemy, this time, like the spider, Bruce won.
Title: The Beacon Second Reader
Author: James H. Fassett
Illustrator: Edna T. Hart
Release Date: 1914
What caused Bruce to be a brave leader at the end of the story?

Reading: Informational Text (RI.3.3)