Why does Amira practice the two ordinary bars before the solo instead of practicing the solo itself?
Read a Literary Passage · ELPAC Grades 6–8 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.
Second Chair
For two years Amira had been the second trumpet in the Lincoln Middle School jazz band, which meant she learned every solo and played none of them. She practiced them anyway, in the garage, with the door pulled halfway down so the neighbors would only get half the noise.
On the Thursday before the spring concert, Ronnie Vasquez broke his wrist skateboarding, and Mr. Ferreira handed Amira the solo folder without any ceremony at all. “Bar forty-one,” he said. “It's yours.”
She had imagined the moment so often that the real thing arrived secondhand, like a jacket someone else had already worn in. At the first rehearsal her hands shook so badly that the opening four bars came out thin and apologetic. The band played on. Mr. Ferreira did not stop them, and somehow that was worse than being stopped.
That night she did not practice the solo at all. She practiced the two bars before it, the ordinary measures where the trumpet only holds a single note under the saxophones, until she could play them without thinking about what came next.
On Saturday the stage lights turned the auditorium into a warm wall of dark. Amira found the single note under the saxophones and held it. When bar forty-one arrived she was already inside the music, and she walked through the door without noticing she had opened it.
The question
Choose the best answer.
Why does Amira practice the two ordinary bars before the solo instead of practicing the solo itself?
- She has forgotten how the solo is supposed to go.
- She wants the approach to the solo to be automatic, so that nerves cannot stop her before she reaches it.Correct answer
- Mr. Ferreira told her those two bars were the hardest part of the piece.
- She hopes Ronnie will recover in time to play bar forty-one himself.
Why “She wants the approach to the solo to be automatic, so that nerves cannot stop her before she reaches it.” is correct
This is the passage's central inference, and the evidence is split between two paragraphs. Her rehearsal failed in the bars leading up to the solo, when her hands were shaking, so she drills the approach 'until she could play them without thinking about what came next'. The last paragraph confirms the plan worked: she holds the note, and bar forty-one arrives while she is already inside the music.
Why the other answers are wrong
- She has forgotten how the solo is supposed to go. — She has learned every solo for two years and practices them in the garage; memory is not the problem.
- Mr. Ferreira told her those two bars were the hardest part of the piece. — The passage calls those measures 'ordinary', and Mr. Ferreira gives her no instructions beyond 'Bar forty-one. It's yours.'
- She hopes Ronnie will recover in time to play bar forty-one himself. — Nothing suggests she wants to give the solo back, and Ronnie's wrist is broken days before the concert.
Practice more of this
More reading practice for Grades 6–8, or see the ELPAC practice test for grades 6–8. For other grades, see free ELPAC practice tests by grade.
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