Why does the author end the passage with the mother's words, “Again next Saturday”?
Read a Literary Passage · ELPAC Grades 9–10 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.
Four Miles of Fog
Nadia had carried the permit in her wallet for six weeks before her mother agreed to sit in the passenger seat. The first three Saturdays they circled the empty lot behind the church, turning wide loops until the orange cones stopped mattering. On the fourth Saturday her mother pointed at the road that ran past the almond orchard.
“Four miles,” she said. “You will not meet anyone.”
Nadia met the fog instead. It came off the fields in low gray sheets, the way it does in the Valley in January, and by the second mile the orchard rows had dissolved into a single pale wall. She could see the yellow line and about two car lengths past the hood. Her hands went tight on the wheel.
“Slower,” her mother said. She did not raise her voice. She had not raised it once in four Saturdays, which Nadia found more unnerving than shouting would have been.
Nadia let the speedometer fall to fifteen. The engine noise dropped with it, and for a while the only sounds were the tires on wet asphalt and her mother breathing evenly beside her, as though this were a bus she happened to be riding.
A pair of headlights surfaced ahead, floated past, and vanished. Nadia's shoulders came down half an inch.
“You are doing what you should be doing,” her mother said. “Keep the line on your left. Count the driveways.”
At the fourth driveway Nadia turned onto the gravel, stopped, and put the car in park. Her fingers had left damp marks on the wheel. She waited for the review of everything she had done wrong, the one that had always followed her brother's lessons.
Her mother unbuckled her seat belt, leaned back against the headrest, and said, “Again next Saturday.”
The question
Choose the best answer.
Why does the author end the passage with the mother's words, “Again next Saturday”?
- To show that the mother was disappointed and wanted the lesson repeated.
- To explain that Nadia's permit requires a fixed number of practice hours.
- To show, without stating it, that the mother was satisfied with how Nadia drove.Correct answer
- To suggest that the fog would have cleared by the following week.
Why “To show, without stating it, that the mother was satisfied with how Nadia drove.” is correct
This is an author's-purpose question about an ending that works by what it leaves out. Nadia has just braced for a list of her mistakes, and instead her mother relaxes and proposes doing it again, which is approval expressed as an invitation. Ask the student what the mother does not say, and why the author chose to stop there.
Why the other answers are wrong
- To show that the mother was disappointed and wanted the lesson repeated. — Disappointment would fit the criticism Nadia expected, but the mother leans back rather than correcting her.
- To explain that Nadia's permit requires a fixed number of practice hours. — Practice hours are never mentioned; the permit appears only in the first sentence.
- To suggest that the fog would have cleared by the following week. — The line is about the next lesson, and the passage makes no prediction about the weather.
Practice more of this
More reading practice for Grades 9–10, or see the ELPAC practice test for grades 9–10. For other grades, see free ELPAC practice tests by grade.
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