ELPAC Practice

Which sentence has a noun that should be plural?

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 has a noun that should be plural?

  • Sentence 1: “Last month my class took a field trip to the tide pools at the beach.”
  • Sentence 3: “We found sea stars, snails, and two tiny crab hiding under a rock.”Correct answer
  • Sentence 5: “He jumped back, and everyone laughed, including Marco.”
  • Sentence 8: “Before we left, we put every rock back exactly where we found it.”

Why “Sentence 3: “We found sea stars, snails, and two tiny crab hiding under a rock.”” is correct

This tests plural nouns. Sentence 3 says "two tiny crab," but a number greater than one needs the plural "crabs." Many languages do not mark plurals after a number, so this is a very common error for English learners; reading the number and the noun together aloud is a quick check.

Why the other answers are wrong

  • Sentence 1: “Last month my class took a field trip to the tide pools at the beach.” — "The tide pools" is already plural, and "a field trip" and "the beach" are correctly singular.
  • Sentence 5: “He jumped back, and everyone laughed, including Marco.” — "Everyone" is a singular word in English even though it means many people.
  • Sentence 8: “Before we left, we put every rock back exactly where we found it.” — "Every rock" is correctly singular, because "every" is followed by a singular noun.

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.