Grade Six Language Arts Assessment

Second Six Weeks

NameDate

Drama Club Meeting

A membership meeting for the meridian Middle School Drama Club will be held Monday, September 19, in the media center from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Come meet current members of our club to find out how much fun it is to be a thespian. The Drama Club is open to all middle school students.

We need all kinds of people to be in Drama Club.

  • People with desire to be on stage such as actors, comics, singers, and dancers – we need you. Come and entertain your peers.
  • People who like to work off stage – we need you. We can teach you how to be a prop manager, a screen technician, a lighting technician, and a sound technician.
  • People who are creative and artistic — we need you. Backdrop artists, costume designers, and cover designers are needed.
  • People who like to work with computers – we need you. Help print our programs or control the special effects graphics.
  • There is a place for everyone who wants to join Drama Club.

This year’s production is “Middle School Madness.”

We meet Monday and Thursday every week from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Sign up on the bulletin board in the cafeteria, and show up in the media center on Monday. You should come because you will have fun. Free refreshments will be served. See you there!

Drama Club Meeting article

1. (IT 7) What is the author's purpose for writing this announcement?

  1. to inform
  2. to entertain
  3. to persuade
  4. to express an opinion

2. (IT 7) Is the announcement successful in achieving its purpose? Why or why not?

3. (AV 1, 8) "Come meet current members of our club to find out how much fun it is to be a thespian."

Thespian - (thes' pe n)

adj. - having to do with the drama; dramatic

noun - an actor

A thespian, as used in the sentence above, would

  1. use computers to create programs and posters
  2. design costumes
  3. work with lighting and props
  4. perform on stage

Festival of Mummies

One day in 1996, Mohamed Aindi was riding his donkey along the road to Bawiti, capital of Bahareya, in Egypt. Aindi’s donkey tripped and its leg slipped into a tomb. When Aindi, who guards antiquities (ancient relics), peered inside he knew immediately what he was seeing–numerous mummies covered in gold.

Egyptologist Zawi Hawass was quickly called to the site. Although Hawass has found many mummies in many tombs during his career, he was amazed by these tombs, which contained what he calls “festival of mummies.”

“I didn’t think such beautiful mummies could exist” says Hawass. “The eyes of some seemed to gaze at me as if they were alive. Others were wrapped in plain linen and reminded me of the mummies depicted by Hollywood filmmakers.”

Last March, Hawass returned to the site with a team of archaeologists and laborers. Over a month, the team excavated four multi-chambered tombs containing 105 mummies. Hawass says the mummies still smelled of the resin (a substance obtained from tree sap) used to embalm them nearly 2,000 years ago. The mummies date back to the first and second centuries A.D., when Rome ruled Egypt.

During their work on the first tomb, Hawass’s team found mummies of men, women, and children, many wearing gilded masks with elaborate decorations of Egyptian gods. (When something is gilded, it has a thin covering of gold.) “In one corner of the tomb,” says Hawass, “I saw a touching scene–a woman lying beside her husband, her head turned affectionately toward him. I was then drawn to a woman, about 5 feet tall, wearing a beautiful gilded plaster crown with four decorative rows of red curls ending in spirals that frame her forehead and extend behind her ears.”

The team found many other artifacts with the mummies, including earrings, necklaces and amulets, a variety of pottery vessels from food trays to wine jars, and a number of coins. Hawass says the team will resume excavations at the site in November and work there for at least another 10 years.

4. (RP 2) Hawass says the team will resume excavations at the site in November and work there for at least another 10 years. What do you predict the archaeologist will find. Use evidence from the article to support your answer.

5. (RP 4, IT 8) Which statement best summarizes this passage?

  1. People in ancient Egypt wore a variety of jewelry.
  2. Zawi Hawass has found many mummies in many tombs in his career.
  3. There are a lot of interesting things in Egypt.
  4. Tombs containing mummies were discovered and explored in Bawiti, Egypt, in 1996.

6. (AV 1) What does the word Egyptologist mean? Use the context as a guide. (

  1. A person who solves mysteries
  2. A person who breeds donkeys
  3. A person who enjoys learning about mummies
  4. A person who studies the architecture and culture of Ancient Egypt

7. (IT 2) Which of the following is an opinion statement.

  1. Mummies are found in tombs.
  2. Mummies are interesting to study.
  3. Many mummies are buried with artifacts.
  4. Some mummies are wrapped in plain linen.

8. (RP 1) Would you recommend this article to a classmate who already knows a lot about Egyptian mummies? Why or why not?

9. (IT 2) What incident caused the discovery of mummies covered in gold?

  1. Mohamed Aindi attended a festival of mummies.
  2. The mummies smelled of resin.
  3. Aindi's donkey tripped and its leg slipped into a tomb.
  4. Mohamed Aindi joined a team of archaeologists and laborers.

10. (LT 6) The article, "Festival of Mummies," is an example of which of the following genre?

  1. science fiction
  2. fantasy
  3. fable
  4. literary non-fiction

Parts of a Book

11. (IT 1)Where is the best place to look in the book Africa: A Land of Empiresto find out on which page chapter 5 begins?

  1. index
  2. glossary
  3. table of contents
  4. title page

12. (IT 1) What part of speech is antiquity?

  1. verb
  2. adjective
  3. noun
  4. adverb

13. (IT 1) On which pages would you find information about Sonni Ali?

  1. 125-130
  2. 152-153
  3. 105-108
  4. 135-139

10/13/05