READING
PASSAGE 3
Read the following poem about a special place to call home. Then answer questions 17-22 in
your answer booklet
Rocking House
by C. Drew Lamm
When I was young my mother rocked me
her rocking chair waves on maternal sea.
I slept to a rhythm deep inside
ebb and flow — briny night ride.
When I was older we moved to this boat
that rocks all night — holds me afloat.
In morning light I stretch, rise
still held tight while riding tides.
Sun from sea washes my walls.
Sky-spawned rain spills waterfalls.
Ocean below me, I drift above fish.
Cast a pebble from my window. Make a wish.
Water stars shimmer up from the deep
Moon above, beneath while I sleep.
A rocking boat bed that holds my dreams,
my tears, my fears, my in-betweens.
I'm now too heavy for a lap to hold
no one rocks a child this old.
Yet every night I sway in sea air
rocked aloft by Neptune's lair 1.
1 Neptune's lair—the hiding place of Neptune,
ancient Roman god of the sea
Grade 6 Reading Item Sampler 2008-2009
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READING
Held in my bed in the bow of my boat
in the hold of my ship, home I float.
Buoyed, tossed, swayed by ocean's flow
a gift to grow up this wild and slow.
Like reins on a horse as it canters the moors2
or string on a kite while it soars
I tie my house to the end of the pier
so when I come home, it will still be here.
As I set my own sails, make my way
anchor pulled up, inner compass in play
thrum of billow, seasoning of sea
my rocking house harbor now rides inside me.
2 moors—wild area of countryside
Grade 6 Reading Item Sampler 2008-2009
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READING
MULTIPLE-CHOICE ITEMS
A.1.3.1
17. Based on the poem, sleeping on a boat
is like being on a mother's lap because
both
A hold the speaker tight.
B
* C
are like flying a kite.
have a rocking motion.
A.1.3.2
19. Which line best supports the
generalization, "no one rocks a child
this old"?
A "I slept to a rhythm deep inside"
B
C
"Sun from sea washes my walls"
"Yet every night I sway in sea air"
D are like reins on a horse.
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* D "I'm now too heavy for a lap to
hold"
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B.1.1.1
18. How does the narrator most likely feel
about living on a boat?
A afraid
* B
C
lucky
bored
A.1.3.1
20. When the narrator says, "Water stars
shimmer up from the deep," the phrase
"water stars" most likely refers to the
A fish that live in the water.
* B
C
reflections of light on the water.
pebbles the narrator threw in the
water.
D sleepy
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D wishes the narrator made over the
water.
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Grade 6 Reading Item Sampler 2008-2009
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B.2.1.2
21. Read the following lines from the
poem.
"Like reins on a horse as it canters the
moors/or string on a kite while it
soars/I tie my house to the end of the
pier"
The poet uses a simile to compare his
house to a horse to show the house's
A height.
B
C
beauty.
strength.
READING
B.2.1.4
22. What does the narrator mean by the last
line of the poem, "my rocking house
harbor now rides inside me"?
A The narrator has lost his house.
B
C
The narrator feels like a cantering
horse.
The narrator stays at a harbor all
the time.
* D The narrator carries the memories
of childhood.
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* D movement.
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Grade 6 Reading Item Sampler 2008-2009
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