Why does Nadia keep the keys in her backpack all summer instead of telling her uncle about the university?
Read a Literary Passage · ELPAC Grades 11–12 reading. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.
A short story or scene, with questions about characters, events and what words mean in context.
Read the passage. Then answer the questions.
The Second Set of Keys
Nadia had worked the front counter at her uncle's tire shop every summer since she was fourteen, and she knew the rhythm of it the way she knew the walk from the bus stop. Customers came in angry about a slow leak and left calm. The phone rang twice and then stopped. On Fridays her uncle counted the register twice and got a different number both times.
In June he handed her a second set of keys. “You open on Tuesdays,” he said, and went back to the lift without waiting for an answer.
She did not tell him that she had already sent in her housing deposit, or that the university was four hours north, or that the counselor had underlined the word irreversible next to the date on the form. She told herself there was time. The keys went into the zip pocket of her backpack, where they knocked against her water bottle all summer.
By August the pocket had worn thin. She had opened the shop thirty times. She had learned which suppliers answered the phone before eight and which invoices her uncle let drift, and she had started, without deciding to, writing the day's numbers in a notebook so that Friday's count came out the same twice.
On her last Tuesday she arrived early, turned on the compressor, and stood in the cold smell of rubber, waiting for something to tell her what she owed the place. Her uncle came in at seven with two coffees, which he had never once done. “The notebook,” he said. “Leave it where I can find it.”
He did not ask her to stay. That was the part she turned over on the drive north, and the part she came back to in October when the dining hall was loud and nobody knew her name. He had given her the keys and then he had given her the road, and she was not sure, yet, which one had cost him more.
The question
Choose the best answer.
Why does Nadia keep the keys in her backpack all summer instead of telling her uncle about the university?
- She is putting off a conversation whose outcome she has already settled.Correct answer
- She has not yet sent the housing deposit and might still change her mind.
- Her uncle has told her not to apply to schools far from home.
- She is waiting for him to offer her a full-time job instead.
Why “She is putting off a conversation whose outcome she has already settled.” is correct
This tests inference about motive from what a character does not say. The passage lists three things Nadia keeps to herself: the deposit already sent, the four-hour distance, and the counselor's underlined word 'irreversible'. All three show the decision was made before the keys were offered, so the keys knocking around a worn pocket are the image of a postponed conversation, not an open choice.
Why the other answers are wrong
- She has not yet sent the housing deposit and might still change her mind. — The passage states that she had already sent the housing deposit, so the decision was not still open.
- Her uncle has told her not to apply to schools far from home. — Her uncle forbids nothing; he says almost nothing at all, which is what leaves the silence for her to break.
- She is waiting for him to offer her a full-time job instead. — Nothing suggests she wants a permanent job, and the second set of keys is an offer she avoids rather than one she is waiting for.
Practice more of this
More reading practice for Grades 11–12, or see the ELPAC practice test for grades 11–12. For other grades, see free ELPAC practice tests by grade.
This is an independent study resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the California Department of Education or the official ELPAC program. All questions here are original practice material written to match the published task formats.