Why does Ms. Carter ask students to draw the moon every night for a month?
Analyze and Evaluate Information in Spoken English · TELPAS Grades 4–5 listening. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.
Reporting category 3: make inferences from what was said, and work out a speaker's purpose, opinion, or what will happen next.
Listen to the teacher talk about the moon. Then answer the questions.
Why the Moon Changes Shape
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Ms. Carter: Have you ever noticed that the moon looks different from night to night? Sometimes it is a big, round circle. Other times it is a thin curve, like a fingernail. But the moon itself never changes shape. It is always a round ball.
Ms. Carter: The moon does not make its own light. The light we see is sunlight bouncing off the moon. The sun always lights up the half of the moon that faces it.
Ms. Carter: The moon travels around the Earth, and each trip takes about a month. As it moves, we see different amounts of its bright half. When we can see all of the bright half, we call it a full moon.
Ms. Carter: Starting tonight, I'd like each of you to look for the moon before bed and draw what you see in your science journal. If you cannot find it, write that down, too. In a month, you will have your own record of how the moon changes.
The question
Choose the best answer.
Why does Ms. Carter ask students to draw the moon every night for a month?
- so they will go to bed on time
- so they can practice drawing circles
- so they can see the changes for themselvesCorrect answer
- so the moon will change its shape
Why “so they can see the changes for themselves” is correct
The teacher's last sentence hints at the purpose: in a month the students will have their own record of how the moon changes. The student has to infer that she wants them to observe the pattern from her talk with their own eyes. One month matches the time she says the moon takes to go around the Earth.
Why the other answers are wrong
- so they will go to bed on time — Bedtime is when they draw, not the reason for drawing.
- so they can practice drawing circles — The moon will not always look like a circle, and drawing practice is not the point.
- so the moon will change its shape — Drawing the moon cannot change it, and the teacher says it never really changes shape.
Practice more of this
More listening practice for Grades 4–5, or see the TELPAS practice test for 4th and 5th 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.