How does the speaker most likely feel about the market?
Analyze and Evaluate Information and Ideas · TELPAS Grades 4–5 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 poem. Then answer the questions.
Saturday Market
Under white tents in the parking lot, the Saturday market wakes up early. Trucks yawn open their back doors, and crates of peaches tumble out like sunrise.
A man sings out, “Fresh tortillas, still warm!” A girl stacks honey jars into a golden tower. The smell of roasted corn drifts by and tugs me by the nose.
Mamá squeezes every avocado, asks the farmer how his rain has been, then laughs at his answer as if they were old friends.
By noon the tents fold up like tired wings, and our bags are heavy with green and red and gold. I carry the watermelon home in both arms, proud as a farmer myself.
The question
Choose the best answer.
How does the speaker most likely feel about the market?
- happy and excitedCorrect answer
- bored and tired
- scared and lost
- angry and impatient
Why “happy and excited” is correct
The poem never names a feeling, so the student has to infer it from the details: lively sounds and smells, Mamá laughing with the farmer, and the speaker carrying the watermelon home "proud as a farmer." The word "tired" in the last stanza is a trap, because it describes the tents, not the speaker.
Why the other answers are wrong
- bored and tired — The tents are "like tired wings," but that describes the tents at the end of the day, not the speaker's feelings.
- scared and lost — The speaker is with Mamá and never seems lost.
- angry and impatient — Nothing in the poem shows anger.
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.