According to Mr. Garcia, what mainly formed Palo Duro Canyon?
Basic Understanding of Spoken English · TELPAS Grades 6–7 listening. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.
Reporting category 2: understand the main points and important details of spoken stories and informational passages, about everyday life and school subjects.
Listen to the lesson.
How a Canyon Forms
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Mr. Garcia: Today we're starting our unit on erosion, and I want to begin with a place right here in Texas: Palo Duro Canyon, in the Texas Panhandle. Palo Duro is one of the largest canyons in the United States. Some people call it the Grand Canyon of Texas.
Mr. Garcia: So how does a canyon this big form? The answer is water and a very long time. A river runs along the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon. Over a very long time, the moving water carried away tiny pieces of rock and soil, a little bit at a time. Wind and rain helped, too. That process of wearing away rock and soil and carrying it somewhere else is called erosion.
Mr. Garcia: If you ever visit, look at the canyon walls. You'll see stripes of different colors: red, orange, yellow, and white. Each stripe is a layer of rock that formed at a different time. The layers at the bottom are the oldest, and the layers near the top are younger. So you could say the walls are like a history book, and the river opened it up for us to read.
Mr. Garcia: Tomorrow we'll go outside, build a hill out of sand and soil, and pour water over it to watch a tiny version of this happen.
The question
Choose the best answer.
According to Mr. Garcia, what mainly formed Palo Duro Canyon?
- People digging out stone to use for buildings
- One huge flood that happened in a single year
- An earthquake that split the ground open
- Water slowly wearing away and carrying off rockCorrect answer
Why “Water slowly wearing away and carrying off rock” is correct
This tests the main point of a short academic lesson. Mr. Garcia says the answer is "water and a very long time" and describes a river carrying away rock and soil bit by bit. The correct answer puts that idea into new words.
Why the other answers are wrong
- People digging out stone to use for buildings — The lesson describes a natural process, not people digging.
- One huge flood that happened in a single year — Mr. Garcia stresses that it took "a very long time," a little bit at a time.
- An earthquake that split the ground open — Earthquakes are not mentioned in the lesson.
Practice more of this
More listening practice for Grades 6–7, or see the TELPAS practice test for 6th and 7th 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.