Nation's Report Card Home

Sample Questions

What questions are used in the NAEP reading assessment?

Explore sample questions from the reading assessment, and see how the NAEP reading questions relate to student performance.

 

Test Yourself in Reading

Select one of the grade tabs below to try out questions from the 2011 NAEP reading assessment. After answering all the questions, select "submit" and compare your answers to those of students who took the assessment. Click on the annotated passage to gain insight into the reading passage and the questions associated with it.

Grade 4
Grade 8

 

 Grade 8 Sample Questions

Click to see the reading passage.


Question 1

 

What is the main purpose of the article?

 A. To describe the events leading to the passage of the 19th Amendment
 B. To identify the states that first supported women's voting rights
 C. To discuss the most important leaders of the suffragist movement in the 1800s
 D. To explain why the Equal Rights Amendment has not been ratified

 

Question 2

 

Do you think the statements by Abigail Adams in the first paragraph are an effective way to begin the article? Explain why or why not using information from the article.

 

Question 3

 

According to the article, women in New Jersey in the 1700s could

 A. campaign for public office
 B. participate in political debates
 C. join political parties
 D. vote if they owned property

Question 4

 

According to the article, what was most surprising about the "Womanifesto"?

 A. It was written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
 B. It called for equal voting rights for men and women.
 C. It was based on the Declaration of Independence.
 D. It had such a large number of resolutions.

 

Question 5

 

On page 3, the article says that women in the suffrage movement "pressed their case state by state." This means that the women

 A. spoke with newspaper reporters in many states
 B. strongly urged the states to pass women's suffrage
 C. traveled in large groups together from state to state
 D. introduced the idea of women's suffrage to the states

 

Question 6

 

In her book, America's Women, what did Gail Collins suggest was the reason that the Wyoming Territory passed the first permanent suffrage law?

 A. Because the small number of women there would not have had much political influence
 B. Because the suffragist movement was very active in the western United States
 C. Because most politicians there chose not to vote on that resolution
 D. Because it was important for women to have the vote in such a dangerous area

 

Question 7

 

The section "Wyoming Is First" describes changes in United States society in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Choose one of these changes and explain its effect on women's progress in getting the vote.

 

 Click here to submit your responses.