Last Updated on May 16, 2024
CHSPE Reading Practice Test 2023 (Questions Answers): English-language arts ELA Reading Practice Test. The California High School Proficiency Exam (CHSPE) Reading subtest has 54 reading comprehension questions. Here you can try 22-question answers for CHSPE Test Prep better.
CHSPE Reading Practice Test 2023
| Test Name | CHSPE Practice Test |
| Section | Reading Test |
| Region | California |
| Test Type | Multiple choice question |
| Total questions | 22 |
| Questions type | Sample test |
Read this text. Then answer the questions.
“Drifting in Static”
Leslie Allen
A rising tide of man-made noise is disrupting the lives of marine animals.
The deep is dark, but not silent; it’s alive with sounds. Whales and other marine mammals, fish, and even some invertebrates depend on sound, which travels much farther in water than light does. The animals use sound to find food and mates, to avoid predators, and to communicate. They face a growing problem: Man-made noise is drowning them out. “For many of these animals it’s as if they live in cities,” says marine scientist Brandon Southall, former director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) ocean acoustics program.
Two years ago the problem made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case that might have been called U.S. Navy v. Whales. The Court’s decision protected the right of naval vessels to test submarine-hunting sonar systems, whose intense sound pulses have been linked to several mass whale strandings. But the Navy is not the lone villain. Oil company ships towing arrays of air guns fire round-the-clock fusillades loud enough to locate oil buried under the seafloor–and also to be heard hundreds of miles away. Undersea construction operations drive piles into the seafloor and blast holes in it with explosives.
And most of the rising tide of noise–a hundred-fold increase since 1960, in many areas–is created simply by the dramatic growth in shipping traffic. “Shipping noise is always there,” Southall says. “It doesn’t have to be lethal to be problematic over time.” The problem is getting steadily worse for another reason. As we’re making more noise, we’re also making the ocean better at transmitting it. Seawater is absorbing less sound as carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning seeps into the ocean and acidifies it.
Noise drives many species of whales, dolphins, and other marine animals to change their behavior markedly–their calling, foraging, and migration patterns–even when it’s not enough to drive them onto a beach. Cod and haddock in the Barents Sea have been found to flee the area when air guns start firing, drastically reducing fish catches for days. Large baleen whales are of special concern. They communicate over vast distances in the same frequencies, around the lowest C on a piano, that ship propellers and engines generate. On most days, says Christopher W. Clark, director of the bioacoustics research program at Cornell University, the area over which whales in coastal waters can hear one another shrinks to only 10 to 20 percent of its natural extent.
Clark studies endangered northern right whales, whose habitat includes busy shipping lanes for the port of Boston. In 2007 he and his colleagues deployed a network of seafloor recorders and automated listening buoys in Massachusetts Bay. From three years of continuous recordings, they then compiled a complete underwater “noise budget.” Color animations of the data show the calls of right whales getting all but obliterated as ships pass. “The whales’ social network is constantly being ripped and reformed,” Clark says. Unable to communicate, individual whales have trouble finding each other and spend more time on their own.
The ten listening buoys now bobbing in Massachusetts Bay could actually help the animals. The researchers are sharing their real-time data on whale locations, transmitted from the buoys via satellite, with tanker captains, who can then slow down their ships or alter course to avoid whales. It’s a small note of hope in the din. “Science can only help in so many ways,” Clark says. “Then we have to decide whether the animals are important to us.”
Text by Leslie Allen / Illustration by Stefan Fichte / National Geographic Creative
Q1. According to the text, what two elements combine to make marine noise a problem?
- A. shipping noise and acidified seawater
- B. animals’ calls and migration patterns
- C. listening buoys and real-time data
- D. Navy sonar and oil company drilling
Q2. Which of these statements includes a central idea from the text?
- A. The ten listening buoys now bobbing in Massachusetts Bay could actually help the animals.
- B. Unable to communicate, individual whales have trouble finding each other and spend more time on their own.
- C. The animals use sound to find food and mates, to avoid predators, and to communicate.
- D. A rising tide of man-made noise is disrupting the lives of marine animals.
Q3. According to the graphic at the top of the text, which of these is most likely to cause damage to marine animals’ hearing?
- A. submarines
- B. air guns
- C. wind
- D. cargo ships
Q4. Read the excerpt from “Drifting in Static.”
Cod and haddock in the Barents Sea have been found to flee the area when air guns start firing, drastically reducing fish catches for days. How does the author use this statement to develop the argument that noise causes marine animals to change their behavior?
- A. She supplies a contrast to the ways land animals behave.
- B. She explains the behavior of animals in quiet areas.
- C. She provides an example that supports the argument.
- D. She criticizes the levels of noise in the Barents Sea.
Q5. From the author’s argument, you can infer that one way to help reduce marine noise from all sources would be to
- A. stop using air guns
- B. burn less fossil fuel
- C. end marine oil drilling
- D. change shipping routes
Q6. Read the excerpt from “Drifting in Static.”
On most days, says Christopher W. Clark, director of the bioacoustics research program at Cornell University, the area over which whales in coastal waters can hear one another shrinks to only 10 to 20 percent of its natural extent.
The most likely meaning of bioacoustics is
- A. the study of noise made by humans
- B. the analysis of animal senses
- C. the study of underwater organisms and habitats
- D. the science of sounds that affect living creatures
Q7. The author’s description of the depths of the sea in the second paragraph demonstrates the
- A. magnitude of undersea noise
- B. extent of the silence of deep water
- C. fact that deep-water noise is generated by humans
- D. dangers facing marine animals in deep water
Q8. The author’s main purpose in this article is to
- A. explain why whales have become endangered
- B. argue that humans should make less deep-sea noise
- C. persuade people to burn less fossil fuel
- D. explain the problems caused by deep-sea noise
Read the passage. Then answer the questions.
Excerpt from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Anonymous, fourteenth century
Thus the king sat before the high tables, and spake of many things; and there good figure Sir Gawain was seated by Guinevere the present queen, and on her other side sat Agravain, both were the king’s sister’s sons and full gallant knights. And at the end of the table was Bishop Bawdewyn, and Ywain, King Urien’s son, sat at the other side alone. These were worthily served on the dais, and at the lower tables sat many valiant knights. Then they bare the first course with the blast of trumpets and waving of banners, with the sound of drums and pipes, of song and lute, that many a heart was uplifted at the melody. Many were the dainties, and rare the meats, so great was the plenty they might scarce find room on the board to set on the dishes. Each helped himself as he liked best, and to each two were twelve dishes, with great plenty of beer and wine.
Excerpt from A Connecticut Yankee in King
Arthur’s Court
Mark Twain
In the middle of this groined and vaulted public square was an oaken table which they called the Table Round. It was as large as a circus-ring; and around it sat a great company of men dressed in such various and splendid colors that it hurt one’s eyes to look at them. They wore their plumed hats, right along, except that whenever one addressed himself directly to the king, he lifted his hat a trifle just as he was beginning his remark. Mainly they were drinking–from entire ox horns; but a few were still munching bread or gnawing beef bones. There was about an average of two dogs to one man; and these sat in expectant attitudes till a spent bone was flung to them, and then they went for it by brigades and divisions, with a rush, and there ensued a fight which filled the prospect with a tumultuous chaos of plunging heads and bodies and flashing tails, and the storm of bowlings and barkings deafened all speech for the time; but that was no matter, for the dog-fight was always a bigger interest anyway; the men rose, sometimes, to observe it the better and bet on it, and the ladies and the musicians stretched themselves out over their balusters with the same object; and all broke into delighted ejaculations from time to time. In the end, the winning dog stretched himself out comfortably with his bone between his paws, and proceeded to growl over it, and gnaw it, and grease the floor with it, just as fifty others were already doing; and the rest of the court resumed their previous industries and entertainments.
Q9. Both texts describe King Arthur’s court. How do the tones of the texts differ?
- A. The first is mocking, while the second is suspenseful.
- B. The first is serious, while the second is humorous.
- C. The first is ironic, while the second is gloomy.
- D. The first is informal, while the second is formal.
Q10. What impression does the author create of the court in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?
- A. an impression of simplicity and modesty
- B. an impression of cheerfulness and anticipation
- C. an impression of darkness and danger
- D. an impression of splendor and celebration
Q11. Gawain and Agravaine are described as “full gallant knights” in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. From this description, you can infer that they are
- A. brave
- B. large
- C. graceful
- D. impolite
Q12. Why does Twain choose to describe the dogs at court in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court?
- A. to suggest that the dogs are more civilized than the humans
- B. to suggest that the court is not very civilized
- C. to show how important dogs are to the court
- D. to show that the court is refined but exciting
Q13. Read this excerpt from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
It was as large as a circus-ring; and around it sat a great company of men dressed in such various and splendid colors that it hurt one’s eyes to look at them.
What tone does the author’s use of hyperbole create?
- A. a gloomy tone
- B. a realistic tone
- C. a threatening tone
- D. a comical tone
Q14. Read this excerpt from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Many were the dainties, and rare the meats, so great was the plenty they might scarce find room on the board to set on the dishes. The phrase “rare the meats” implies that
- A. there was only meat at the table
- B. the meats were not well cooked
- C. the meats were costly and unusual
- D. there were several kinds of meat
Q15. The author’s description of the setting in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court suggests that the story will be
- A. tragic
- B. comic
- C. adventurous
- D. suspenseful
Read the passage. Then answer the questions.
Olympic Upset
Diane Zahler
In 1936, the summer Olympic Games were held in Berlin, Germany. These Games were significant in a number of ways. They were the first to be televised; they were the first to feature the torch relay, in which the Olympic torch was carried by runners from Olympia in Greece; they were the first to hold competitions in basketball, canoeing, and field handball. And they were the first Games held after Adolph Hitler’s rise to power in Germany.
The Games were awarded to Germany before the National Socialist, or Nazi, party came to power in 1933, and as the Nazis’ racist views became evident, the Olympic committee grew worried that other countries might boycott the Games. The Nazis assured the committee that they would not use the Olympics to promote Nazi ideology, but Hitler planned to utilize the Games to advance the Nazi political agenda. The official Nazi newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, published editorials stating that Jewish and black athletes should not be allowed to compete. There was a huge, worldwide outcry against this, however, and the Nazis, to ensure that the Games weren’t cancelled, did not bar athletes from other countries. They allowed only one Jewish athlete on their own team, though–Helene Mayer, an awardwinning fencer whose father was Jewish. The Nazis’ greatest hopes rested on Carl Ludwig (Luz) Long, a German long jumper whose looks and great strength exemplified the Nazi physical ideal–the blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryans whom the Nazis called the master race.
The Germans built a huge stadium and over 100 other buildings; everything was completed in time for the Games. Estimates are that the cost to the government was at least $30 million. Anti-Semitic posters and flyers were taken down from all around the city; Berlin was readied for the influx of nearly 4,000 athletes from 49 countries as well as spectators and journalists from all over the world. The opening ceremonies went off without a hitch, and it quickly became clear that the Germans would win many medals. In the track and field competition, however, where Luz Long was predicted to excel, there was an unexpected challenge: Jesse Owens.
Jesse Owens was an African American from Alabama, a runner and long jumper who, by the time of the Berlin Olympics, had already broken several world records. Owens was immediately an audience favorite, even among the Germans. His initial attempts in the qualifying competition for the long jump were problematic, though. A leap that he thought was a practice jump was actually his first official attempt. On his second try, he foot-faulted. He only had one more chance. It wasn’t until his third try that he qualified for the finals.
Jesse Owens won gold medals in the 100-meter run (10.3 seconds, an Olympic record), the 200-meter run (20.7 seconds, a world record), and the 4 × 100-meter relay (39.8 seconds), and he beat Luz Long handily in the long jump (8.06 meters [26.4 feet]). Long was the first to congratulate Owens on his win, and the two athletes embraced–in front of Adolph Hitler, watching in the stands.
While the German athletes won the greatest total number of medals, Owens had the best individual performance, putting the lie to the Nazis’ theories of the racial inferiority of blacks. Ironically, he and Luz Long remained friends after the Games, and though Long was killed in World War II, Owens continued to correspond with his family for years afterward.
Q16. Read this excerpt from “Olympic Upset.”
Anti-Semitic posters and flyers were taken down from all around the city; Berlin was readied for the influx of nearly 4,000 athletes from 49 countries as well as spectators and journalists from all over the world.
What can you infer from this statement?
- A. The Nazis were ashamed of their anti-Semitism.
- B. The Nazis had changed their minds about anti-Semitism.
- C. The Nazis had barred all Jewish and black athletes from the Games.
- D. The Nazis wanted the world to be impressed by Berlin.
Q17. Read this excerpt from “Olympic Upset.”
While the German athletes won the greatest total number of medals, Owens had the best individual performance, putting the lie to the Nazis’ theories of the racial inferiority of blacks.
What does the phrase “putting the lie to the Nazis’ theories” mean?
- A. lying about the theories
- B. exposing lies about the Nazis
- C. showing that the theories were lies
- D. proving that the theories were not lies
Q18. What is the effect of the author’s description of Jesse Owens’s difficulties in qualifying for the long-jump finals?
- A. It creates suspense.
- B. It provides humor.
- C. It sets the scene.
- D. It foreshadows his loss.
Q19. Luz Long’s embrace of Jesse Owens after Owens’s win at the long jump showed
- A. a long-standing friendship
- B. courage and good sportsmanship
- C. his hatred of Nazi ideals
- D. fear of the authorities
Q20. The Nazis’ most probable feelings about Luz Long after the Olympics were
- A. pride and respect
- B. disappointment and betrayal
- C. suspicion and uncertainty
- D. fear and contempt
Q21. Read this excerpt from “Olympic Upset.”
The Nazis assured the committee that they would not use the Olympics to promote Nazi ideology, but Hitler planned to utilize the Games to advance the Nazi political agenda.
The most likely meaning of ideology is
- A. history of ideas
- B. study of identity
- C. system of beliefs
- D. science of heredity
Q22. Which of these statements best summarizes the text?
- A. Jesse Owens helped show the world that the Nazi ideology was flawed.
- B. Luz Long proved that the Nazis were wrong about Jewish and black athletes.
- C. The 1936 Berlin Olympics marked the beginning of World War II.
- D. Even in the 1930s, American athletes were superior to other athletes.
See Also:
Sample Reading Tests
Sample Math Tests
Sample English Grammar Tests
Sample Critical Reading Tests