TELPAS Practice

The word lifeless ends in -less. What does lifeless mean?

Understand Words and Language Structures · TELPAS Grades 4–5 reading. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.

Reporting category 1: work out what words and phrases mean from context, and understand how sentences and word forms work.

Read the text. Then answer the question.

Our Class Garden

Last fall, our class planted a small garden outside the window of Room 14. At first the dirt was hard and dry, and nothing grew. Then Mr. Davis showed us how to mix in compost and water the beds every morning. We were careful not to step on the tiny seedlings.

By spring we had lettuce, radishes, and carrots. The cafeteria even used some of our lettuce in a salad. Now, whenever the dirt looks dry, someone grabs the watering can. Nobody wants the garden to look lifeless again. Mr. Davis says that next year we can try tomatoes and peppers too, if we take good care of the soil over the summer.

The question

Choose the best answer.

The word lifeless ends in -less. What does lifeless mean?

  • full of life
  • living for a long time
  • able to live again
  • without living thingsCorrect answer

Why “without living things” is correct

This tests a common suffix. "-less" means "without," so lifeless means without life. The passage supports it: at first "nothing grew," and nobody wants the garden to look that way "again." Other -less words to practice with are careless, fearless, and endless.

Why the other answers are wrong

  • full of life — "Full of life" is the opposite. The suffix -less means without.
  • living for a long time — This does not use the meaning of -less.
  • able to live again — This does not use the meaning of -less.

Practice more of this

More reading 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.