TELPAS Practice

Why does Henry give Jasmine the drawing?

Analyze and Evaluate Information and Ideas · TELPAS Grade 3 reading. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.

Reporting category 3: make inferences, draw conclusions, and think about why the author wrote a text and how it is built.

Read the passage. Then answer the questions.

The New Student

Henry started at Bowie Elementary in October. On his first day, he stood by the classroom door and held his backpack straps tight. He did not know anyone.

Ms. Garza asked Jasmine to be Henry’s buddy for the week. Jasmine showed him where to hang his backpack and where the class kept the pencils. At lunch, she saved him a seat next to her.

Henry did not talk much. But at recess, Jasmine saw him drawing in a small notebook. The pages were full of dragons, each one with long whiskers and bright scales.

“You drew these?” Jasmine asked. Henry nodded and smiled a little.

The next morning, Henry walked into class and went straight to Jasmine’s table. He handed her a folded paper. Inside was a dragon with a name written under it in big letters: JASMINE.

The question

Choose the best answer.

Why does Henry give Jasmine the drawing?

  • Ms. Garza tells him to.
  • He wants her to color the dragon in for him.
  • He is going to a new school.
  • He wants to thank her for being kind.Correct answer

Why “He wants to thank her for being kind.” is correct

This tests understanding a character’s reason for an action, which the story does not state directly. Jasmine helped Henry all week and noticed his drawings, and the dragon has her name on it. Putting those details together shows the gift is a thank-you.

Why the other answers are wrong

  • Ms. Garza tells him to. — Ms. Garza asks Jasmine to help Henry; she never tells Henry to make a drawing.
  • He wants her to color the dragon in for him. — The story says nothing about coloring the drawing.
  • He is going to a new school. — Henry has just started at this school; nothing says he is leaving.

Practice more of this

More reading practice for Grade 3, or see the TELPAS practice test for 3rd grade.

This is an independent study resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Texas Education Agency or the official TELPAS program. All questions here are original practice material written to match the published test design.