ELPAC Practice

Which sentence uses the wrong verb tense? (Our Trip to the Tide Pools)

Read a Student Essay · ELPAC Grades 3–5 reading. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.

An essay written as if by a classmate, with numbered sentences. The student finds the sentence containing the error.

Read the essay. Then answer the questions.

Our Trip to the Tide Pools

  1. Last month my class took a field trip to the tide pools at the beach.
  2. Our teacher told us to walk carefully because the rocks were wet and slippery.
  3. We found sea stars, snails, and two tiny crab hiding under a rock.
  4. My friend Marco touched a sea anemone, and it closes around his finger.
  5. He jumped back, and everyone laughed, including Marco.
  6. A ranger explained that tide pool animals live in water and in air every day.
  7. When the tide goes out, they have to stay wet until the water comes back.
  8. Before we left, we put every rock back exactly where we found it.
  9. I hope we can go back next year to see what else lives there.

The question

Choose the best answer.

Which sentence uses the wrong verb tense?

  • Sentence 1: “Last month my class took a field trip to the tide pools at the beach.”
  • Sentence 2: “Our teacher told us to walk carefully because the rocks were wet and slippery.”
  • Sentence 4: “My friend Marco touched a sea anemone, and it closes around his finger.”Correct answer
  • Sentence 7: “When the tide goes out, they have to stay wet until the water comes back.”

Why “Sentence 4: “My friend Marco touched a sea anemone, and it closes around his finger.”” is correct

This tests keeping verbs in the same time frame. The essay tells about a trip that already happened, and sentence 4 starts in the past with "touched" but switches to the present with "closes"; it should be "closed". Sentence 7 is a useful contrast: it uses the present tense correctly, because it states a general fact about tide pools rather than an event from the trip.

Why the other answers are wrong

  • Sentence 1: “Last month my class took a field trip to the tide pools at the beach.” — "Last month" and "took" both point to the past, so the tense is correct.
  • Sentence 2: “Our teacher told us to walk carefully because the rocks were wet and slippery.” — "Told" and "were" are both past tense, matching the story of the trip.
  • Sentence 7: “When the tide goes out, they have to stay wet until the water comes back.” — This sentence describes something that is always true about tide pools, so the present tense is correct.

Practice more of this

More reading practice for Grades 3–5, or see the ELPAC practice test for grades 3–5. 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.