TELPAS Practice

Why can everyone in the gym hear the triangle?

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.

Jenny’s Triangle

Jenny wanted to play the drums in the third-grade music show. But on the first day of practice, Mr. Parker handed her a small metal triangle and a thin metal stick.

Jenny frowned. “It only makes one sound,” she whispered to her friend Paloma.

For two weeks, Jenny practiced with the band. She learned to count the beats and wait. Her triangle played only once, at the very end of the song, after the drums stopped.

On the night of the show, the gym was full of families. When the drums stopped, the room was silent. Jenny tapped the triangle. Ting! The bright sound rang across the whole gym.

After the show, Jenny’s dad hugged her. “I could hear you all the way from the back row,” he said. Jenny smiled. One sound had been enough.

The question

Choose the best answer.

Why can everyone in the gym hear the triangle?

  • Jenny hits it as hard as she can.
  • Mr. Parker turns up a microphone.
  • The room is silent when she plays it.Correct answer
  • Her dad is sitting in the front row.

Why “The room is silent when she plays it.” is correct

This asks the student to connect two details to explain an event. The drums stop, “the room was silent,” and then Jenny taps the triangle. One small sound in a quiet room carries a long way. The story does not say this is the reason, so the student must infer it.

Why the other answers are wrong

  • Jenny hits it as hard as she can. — The story says she tapped it, which is a light hit.
  • Mr. Parker turns up a microphone. — No microphone is mentioned in the story.
  • Her dad is sitting in the front row. — Her dad says he heard her from the back row.

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.