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English
FREE RESPONSE (ESSAY)
GRADE 8
2007
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English
FREE RESPONSE (ESSAY)
GRADE 8
2007
Description
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The free response part of the test contributes 50% of the total test score.
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This test consists of a passage with five multiple choice items and one writing assignment.
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The multiple choice items on this part of the test will contribute to the multiple choice part of the total test score.
Instructions
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Be sure that you have a GRADE 8 FREE RESPONSE BOOKLET.
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This is a TIMED test. You will have 45 minutes to answer the multiple choice questions and write the essay.
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Spend no more than 5 minutes on the multiple choice questions.
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Read the assignment carefully before you begin to write.
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You may not use a dictionary or thesaurus.
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A separate page for planning your essay is provided. Spend no more than 10 minutes planning your essay.
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Lined pages are given for your written work. Only essays written on the lined pages will be scored.
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Use blue or black ink to write your essay. You may write in pencil if you wish to do so, but pen is preferable.
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Feel free to make corrections and revisions directly on your written work.
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Although pencil must be used to answer the multiple choice questions, you may use a pen when writing your essay on
the lined pages.
Time: 45 minutes total
No part of this test may be copied or reused without
permission of Laying the Foundation®, Inc.
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1
English Grade 8
The Assignment:
In this passage, Laura Hillenbrand describes the power of racehorses and the skill of the jockeys
who ride them.
Hillenbrand’s main purpose is to explain the delicate and dangerous nature of riding Thoroughbred
horses.
Read the passage carefully. In a well-written essay, explain how the author uses diction, figurative
language, and one or more of the appeals to achieve this purpose.
Excerpt from Seabiscuit
Laura Hillenbrand
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A Thoroughbred racehorse is one of God’s most
impressive engines. Tipping the scales at up to 1,450
pounds, he can sustain speeds of forty miles per hour.
Equipped with reflexes much faster than those of the most
quick-wired man, he swoops over as much as twenty-eight
feet of earth in a single stride, and corners on a dime.
His body is a paradox of mass and lightness, crafted to
slip through air with the ease of an arrow. His mind is
impressed with a single command: run. He pursues speed
with superlative courage, pushing beyond defeat, beyond
exhaustion, sometimes beyond the structural limits of bone
and sinew. In flight, he is nature’s ultimate wedding of form
and purpose.
To pilot a racehorse is to ride a half-ton catapult. It is
without question one of the most formidable feats in sport.
The extraordinary athleticism of the jockey is unparalleled.
A study of the elements of athleticism conducted by Los
Angeles exercise physiologists and physicians found that
of all major sports competitors, jockeys may be, pound for
pound, the best overall athletes. They have to be. To begin
with, there are the demands on balance, coordination, and
reflex. A horse’s body is a constantly shifting topography,
with a bobbing head and neck and roiling muscle over the
shoulders, back, and rump. On a running horse, a jockey
does not sit in the saddle, he crouches over it, leaning all of
his weight on his toes, which rest on the thin metal bases
of stirrups dangling about a foot from the horse’s topline.
When a horse is in full stride, the only parts of the jockey
that are in continuous contact with the animal are the insides
of the feet and ankles—everything else is balanced in
midair. In other words, jockeys squat on the pitching backs
of their mounts, a task much like perching on the grille of
a car while it speeds down a twisting, potholed freeway in
traffic. The stance is, in the words of University of North
Carolina researchers, “a situation of dynamic imbalance
and ballistic opportunity.” The center of balance is so
narrow that if jockeys shift only slightly rearward, they will
flip right off the back. If they tip more than a few inches
forward, a fall is almost inevitable. A Thoroughbred’s neck,
No part of this test may be copied or reused without
permission of Laying the Foundation®, Inc.
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while broad from top to bottom, is surprisingly narrow in
width, like the body of a fish. Pitching up and down as the
horse runs, it offers little for the jockey to grab to avoid
plunging to the ground and under the horse’s hooves.
Race riding is exceptionally exhausting. It is common
for aspiring jockeys to be so rubber-legged upon
dismounting from their first circuit around the track that
they are unable to walk back to the barn. Strength is not
just a tool for winning, it is necessary for survival. Jockey
Johnny Longden was once rammed in midrace, knocked
from his stirrups and sent flying downward in front of a
pack of horses. He was saved by a jockey riding alongside
him, George Taniguchi, who was so powerful that he was
able to catch Longden with one hand. Taniguchi didn’t
know his own strength, and in attempting to push Longden
back into the saddle he instead hurled him right over the
back of his horse. Longden found himself in the same
predicament on the other side of his mount until jockey
Rogelio Trejos, whose horse was about to run Longden
down, lunged forward, snagged the jockey with the ease of
an outfielder and righted him in the saddle, also with one
hand. Incredibly, Longden won the race. The Daily Racing
Form called it “the ultimate impossibility.”
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4
English Grade 8
Begin your essay on the lines below.
PLEASE MAKE SURE TO TAKE TIME AND PLAN YOUR ESSAY BEFORE
BEGINNING TO WRITE ON THE LINED SHEETS THAT FOLLOW.
No part of this test may be copied or reused without
permission of Laying the Foundation®, Inc.
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5
English Grade 8
No part of this test may be copied or reused without
permission of Laying the Foundation®, Inc.
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6
English Grade 8
No part of this test may be copied or reused without
permission of Laying the Foundation®, Inc.
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7
English Grade 8
No part of this test may be copied or reused without
permission of Laying the Foundation®, Inc.
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8
English Grade 8
This is the end of the Free Response section of the test.
If time permits, proofread your essay.
No part of this test may be copied or reused without
permission of Laying the Foundation®, Inc.
9
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Excerpt from SEABISCUIT: AN AMERICAN LEGEND by Laura Hillenbrand. Copyright © 2001 by Laura
Hillenbrand. Reprinted with permission of Random House, Inc.
No part of this test may be copied or reused without
permission of Laying the Foundation®, Inc.
10
English
FREE RESPONSE (ESSAY)
GRADE 8
2007
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professional development sessions for teachers. Any student materials collected are
therefore used for this purpose. Check the box if you would not like your work used
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LTF746