What does Lan do when she first translates Ms. Delgado's words for her father?
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.
Words in Between
Since the fourth grade, Lan had been her family's translator. She explained letters from the gas company, argued with the automated phone menu at the bank, and once spent a whole Saturday helping her father fill out a form for a fishing license. She was good at it. Most of the time she did not even notice she was doing it.
The parent-teacher conference was different, because this time the conversation was about her. Ms. Delgado slid a progress report across the table and explained, pleasantly, that Lan's science grade had slipped because three lab reports were missing.
Her father looked at Lan, waiting. Lan looked at the progress report. "She says I am doing well in science," Lan told him in Vietnamese, "but I need to turn in a few things."
It was not a lie, exactly. It was a translation with the sharp corners sanded off. Her father nodded and smiled at Ms. Delgado, and Ms. Delgado smiled back, and for a moment everyone at the table seemed perfectly satisfied except Lan.
Walking to the car afterward, she felt the missing reports in her chest like three stones. At the curb, she stopped. "Ba," she said, "I left something out." This time she translated every word, including the ones she wished were different. Her father listened without interrupting. Then he unlocked the car and said, "Tonight we will sit at the kitchen table, and you will show me the first one."
The question
Choose the best answer.
What does Lan do when she first translates Ms. Delgado's words for her father?
- She translates every word exactly as Ms. Delgado said it.
- She refuses to translate and asks Ms. Delgado to speak more slowly.
- She makes the news about her science grade sound less serious than it is.Correct answer
- She tells her father that the teacher lost her lab reports.
Why “She makes the news about her science grade sound less serious than it is.” is correct
This tests comparing what a character is told with what she passes on. Ms. Delgado says Lan's grade "had slipped because three lab reports were missing"; Lan tells her father she is "doing well in science" but needs "to turn in a few things." Placing the two versions side by side shows what she softened.
Why the other answers are wrong
- She translates every word exactly as Ms. Delgado said it. — She translates every word only later, at the car, after admitting she "left something out."
- She refuses to translate and asks Ms. Delgado to speak more slowly. — She does translate, just not completely, and she never asks the teacher to slow down.
- She tells her father that the teacher lost her lab reports. — She never blames the teacher; the reports are missing because Lan did not turn them in.
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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