Benchmark Unit 2 Assessment
Read the two classic stories below: 'A Weaving Contest' and 'The Bag of Gold.' Then answer the questions that follow each story. The questions will help you show your understanding of vocabulary, character motivations, cause and effect, theme, and text structure.
Group 1
A Weaving Contest
1 Long ago there lived a girl named Arachne who was a fine weaver. Some people said her weaving was nearly equal to that of the goddess Athena. But Arachne insisted that she was better than Athena.
2 Athena heard of the girl’s boasts. She wanted to give the girl a chance to apologize. She changed herself into an old woman. Then she went to visit Arachne.
3 At first the goddess spoke gently to the girl. “My dear, your weaving is beautiful. But do not set yourself above Athena. Ask her to forgive you for your bold words.”
4 “Go away, old woman,” Arachne snapped. “My weaving is better than anyone’s. I dare Athena to compete with me to see for herself.”
5 Athena threw off her disguise. “I accept your challenge, you vain girl,” she roared. “Let us sit at the looms and see who is the best.”
6 Arachne quickly agreed. She and Athena sat down at their looms in the sun. Weaving with threads of many colors, they made cloths like rainbows.
7 Each weaver’s cloth created a picture that told a story of the gods. Athena’s cloth showed the gods in their glory, sitting on their golden thrones.
8 Arachne’s cloth was different. She showed the gods looking silly and foolish. She even made fun of Zeus, the king of gods. Her weaving insulted the gods, yet it was beautifully done.
9 The beauty of the girl’s work only made Athena angrier. The goddess tore the weaving into shreds. With a wave of her hand, Athena turned Arachne into a tiny spider.
10 “Go now and spin your thread and weave your nets,” Athena commanded. From that day on, spiders have spun fine thread that they weave into webs.
Source 1.1
Group 2
Answer the following questions about 'A Weaving Contest.'
Question 2a
What does the word insisted mean as it is used in paragraph 1?
Question 2b
What is Athena’s motivation for visiting Arachne?
Question 2c
How does the illustration contribute to the passage?
Question 2d
How does paragraph 10 build on the other parts of the story?
Question 2e
How do Arachne’s actions contribute to the story events?
Group 3
Answer the following questions about 'The Bag of Gold.'
Source 3.1
The Bag of Gold by Aesop
1 There once was a man who buried a bag of gold in a secret place in his garden. Every day he dug up the bag, counted his gold, and buried it again. Then he sat back and sighed like a man who had just had a feast.
2 A thief who lived nearby grew curious about the man’s daily trips to his garden. One day he decided to spy on the man. When the thief saw the man’s bag of gold, he made a plan. That night, he dug up the bag of gold and ran off as fast as a frightened rabbit.
3 The next morning, the man discovered that his treasure was gone. He wept and moaned so loudly that a stranger passing by asked him what was wrong.
4 “A thief has stolen my gold!” the man cried, pulling at his hair.
5 “From your garden?” asked the stranger. “Why did you bury your gold? Why didn’t you spend it?”
6 “I would never spend a bit of it!” the man exclaimed, as if that were a ridiculous idea.
7 With that, the stranger tossed a rock into the hole. “Then you can bury that rock and be just as happy,” he laughed. “For you, the rock is worth as much as your lost treasure.”
Grade 3 • Unit 2 • Unit Assessment © Benchmark Education Company, LLC
Question 3a
How does the thief find out about the man’s gold?
Question 3b
Which words best describe the man who buried his gold in this passage? Select two answers.
Question 3c
What does the resolution of the passage show about the stranger?
Question 3d
Select two sentences from the passage that use nonliteral language.
Question 3e
Read this sentence from paragraph 3.
“He wept and moaned so loudly that a stranger passing by asked him what was wrong.”
Which word in the sentence gives a clue to the meaning of moaned?
Question 3f
What does the word ridiculous mean in paragraph 6?
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