Mixed practice test 2, Grades 3–5 — question 7 of 24

Listen to the story. Then answer the questions.

Less Is More

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On the morning before the family party, Lucía stood next to her grandmother at the kitchen table. A tall stack of soft corn husks waited beside a big bowl of masa.

Lucía scooped a large spoonful of masa onto her first husk and spread it all the way to the edges. When she tried to fold it, the masa squeezed out of the sides and landed on her shoe.

Her grandmother did not laugh. She took a new husk, spread a thin layer of masa with the back of the spoon, and left a wide empty space at the bottom. "Less is more," she said.

By noon, Lucía had filled a whole pot by herself. When her cousins arrived that evening, she pointed to the neatest row of tamales and said, "Those are mine."

Choose the best answer.

Why does the masa squeeze out of Lucía's first tamale?

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