A selection from the California Test of Basic Skills ...
A selection from the California Test of Basic Skills, Twelfth Grade
It howled. It shrieked. It bellowed like a mad bull. It sucked in greedy gulps at the wide chimney. It found a tiny crevice under a shingle and whistled through it shrilly, again, again, again. Then a ripping sound. The shingle danced in tap shoes across the roof and took to the air like a strange flat bird to sail high, high northeast over fence and road, into the thrashing limbs of a bare tree. Now it moaned again in the half-empty barrel, roared around a corner, and flung a handful of gravel like small beads against a southern window. It wheezed, it whined, it boomed, it rumbled, it found a loosened wire and plucked out of it a plaintive " Oo-ee, oo-ee, oo-ee."
Sometimes the air was a whirl, a cloud, a solid curtain of dust whipped up from the frigid earth. By the picket fence, the wind would suddenly pounce with crazy fingers into its pile there: pieces of wood and wool, leaves, bark, a rag, a light bone, twigs, straw, an old flower head, a strip of metal, a matted paper. These bits it would toss up and over the fence, then shake sieve-like and let settle again. There was constant movement on the gravel walk leading to the barnyard, the rolling and rocking of loose stones too heavy to lift over those pebbles glued to the earth. This conglomerate stood out distinctly, all movable sand and dirt whipped away.
Across the barnyard, an intrepid gray hen was swept, her feet trying stubbornly to walk, her wings ballooned out from behind, her tail a spread fan. A horse moved in the other direction, from water trough to barn, mane and tail streaming, brown hair in tufts, head turned from its adversary, shoulder thrust forward. It seemed to lean with the wind as it went through the log-framed stable doorway. From this same doorway presently came a man, made gargoyle as the blast caught his black hair, his loose dull mackinaw and overalls. He fought madly to open and close the heavy barnyard gate and walked with weird, tense, half-turned caution to the house. His wife braced herself to hold the door until he was through it, and together they forced it shut against a sudden gust. The man swore and swept his hair back.
As though he had spoken a word of command, there was a sudden change, a great moaning sob and then a lull. It was like the stopping of a loud-ticking clock. Only an instant. Then the sound burst forth anew and louder. The howling, the roaring, the rumbling, the bellowing, the whining, the whistling--all blended into one horrible discord. And over the sound of the wind came a grinding, crashing, twisting, tearing. . .
They were at the window together, and said together, "The barn!" And there it was, the south slope of the roof standing up in air like an open book cover, weaving a little for seconds. . .The blast caught it, slammed it over the ridge, and down in a fury of sound and dust and flying splinters!
1. What is the first paragraph chiefly about?
A) The damage done by the wind
B) The way the wind moves things about
C) The funny things a wind can do
D) The sounds made by the wind
2. Which of these clauses best indicates the strength of the wind?
A) "the shingle danced in tap shoes" (paragraph 1)
B) "It sucked in greedy gulps" (paragraph 1)
C) "would suddenly pounce with crazy fingers" (paragraph 2)
D) "an intrepid gray hen was swept, her feet trying stubbornly to walk"
(paragraph 3)
3. The selection can best be described as
A) terrifying.
B) imaginary.
C) vivid.
D) objective.
4. Why did the man walk with "half-turned caution"?
A) To make sure the gate was closed
B) So that he would not have to face the wind
C) So that he could see where he was going
D) To see that the animals were safely in the barn
5. What would appear to be the purpose of the writer?
A) To describe the horror of a tornado
B) To give an appreciation of the damage done by the wind
C) To give the feeling of being a part of a destructive windstorm
D) To tell how a barn was destroyed by a high wind
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