What will the class do tomorrow?
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.
What will the class do tomorrow?
- Take a field trip to Palo Duro Canyon
- Pour water on a sand and soil hillCorrect answer
- Read a chapter about rock layers
- Draw the colors of the canyon walls
Why “Pour water on a sand and soil hill” is correct
This tests a detail at the end of the lesson. Mr. Garcia says the class will build a hill of sand and soil and pour water over it to see a small version of erosion. Students who remember the canyon visit may confuse "if you ever visit" with a real plan.
Why the other answers are wrong
- Take a field trip to Palo Duro Canyon — Mr. Garcia says "if you ever visit," which is not a plan for tomorrow.
- Read a chapter about rock layers — No reading assignment is mentioned.
- Draw the colors of the canyon walls — The colors are described, but drawing them is not the plan.
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.