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=PSSA Reading Examples: Let's Try It Out!!=

= Surfing Iowa = = by Karen DelleCava =

== My best friend Randy and I have been surfing ever since we could lift surfboards. From then on, we would only come out of the water to eat and sleep. To tease me, Mom used to check behind my ears and ask, “Jeff, are you growing gills?” As long as I kept up my grades, though, Mom and Dad were cool about it. ==

== Then, one night after dinner, out of nowhere, Dad said, “There’s no easy way to say this, Jeff.” He talked for a few minutes about work and new opportunities. Then he said it. //Relocate//. The word played over and over in my head like a bad song that I couldn’t shake out. ==

== I checked my globe. I knew it. Landlocked. Not one speck of blue anywhere near Iowa. I slumped on the floor, spinning the globe with my big toe. //This can’t be happening//, I thought. //What about Randy?// My stomach felt worse than if I’d swallowed a gallon of salt water. ==

== After I spent some serious time moping around, it hit me. The weeks ahead were like an ice pop melting in the sun. I had to move to Iowa — nothing would change that. But I had been trying to make the ice pop last by watching it drip all over my hand. I decided to slurp it down and enjoy all of it. ==

== So Randy and I hit the surf faster than newly hatched sea turtles. I grabbed every wave I could. Older, more experienced surfers wanted the choice waves for themselves, but I stayed in there with them. ==

== Water churned under my board and fizzed around my ankles. I was up, riding the crest of a frothy wave. I leaned. Another wave chased me. My feet pressed against the waxy surface, steering smoothly to shore. ==

“Maybe.” I wasn’t convinced.
QUESTIONS:

D. surrounded by trees
=== //The student is asked to determine from context that the word “landlocked” means “far from oceans.” Since the sentence following the underlined word says, “Not one speck of blue anywhere near Iowa,” and since Jeff has been discussing surfing in the ocean, it is clear that option A is the correct response. Options B, C, and D include plausible but incorrect definitions of the term.// ===

=== //The student is asked to choose the sentence that is a simile. Option B, “The weeks ahead were like an ice pop melting in the sun,” compares the weeks ahead to an ice pop melting in the sun, using the term “like,” so it is the correct response. Options A, C, and D include sentences from the story that do not contain any similes.// ===