TELPAS Practice

When it is daytime where you live, what is most likely true on the other side of Earth?

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.

Day and Night

Every morning, the sun seems to come up in the east. Every evening, it seems to go down in the west. But the sun is not really moving across the sky. It only looks that way because Earth is moving.

Earth is always spinning, like a top. It takes about one day to make one full turn.

As Earth spins, one side of it faces the sun. That side gets sunlight, so it is daytime there. The other side faces away from the sun. That side is dark, so it is nighttime there.

Each morning, the place where you live turns toward the sun again, and a new day begins.

The question

Choose the best answer.

When it is daytime where you live, what is most likely true on the other side of Earth?

  • It is daytime there, too.
  • Earth has stopped spinning there.
  • It is nighttime there.Correct answer
  • The sun is coming up in the west there.

Why “It is nighttime there.” is correct

This asks the student to apply the passage to a new question. If your side of Earth faces the sun, the other side faces away from it, and paragraph 3 says that side has night. The passage does not answer this exact question, so the student has to reason it out.

Why the other answers are wrong

  • It is daytime there, too. — Only the side facing the sun has day; the other side faces away.
  • Earth has stopped spinning there. — The passage says Earth is always spinning.
  • The sun is coming up in the west there. — The passage says the sun seems to come up in the east.

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.