Based on the paragraph, what is a relay?
Understand Words and Language Structures · TELPAS Grades 6–7 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 passage. Then answer the questions.
The Pony Express
In 1860, a letter sent from Missouri to California could take three weeks or more to arrive by stagecoach. California had become a state in 1850, and many thousands of people had moved there. They wanted faster news from family and friends in the East.
In April 1860, a company started a new mail service called the Pony Express. Riders on fast horses carried mail nearly 2,000 miles, from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. The trip took about ten days.
The secret to its speed was a relay. About every 10 to 15 miles along the trail, there was a station where a rested horse was waiting. A rider would leap off his tired horse, grab the mail, and gallop away on the fresh one in just a couple of minutes. After riding about 75 to 100 miles, he handed the mail to the next rider, who carried it on.
Riders had to be small and light so the horses could run fast. They rode day and night, in summer heat and winter snow, across deserts and over mountains.
Yet the Pony Express lasted only about a year and a half. In October 1861, workers finished the first telegraph line that crossed the country. Now a message could travel from coast to coast in minutes instead of days. There was no longer a reason to pay for mail carried on horseback, and the Pony Express shut down that same month.
Even though it did not last long, the Pony Express is still remembered as one of the boldest chapters in the history of the American West.
The question
Choose the best answer.
In paragraph 3, the author says the secret to the Pony Express's speed was a relay. Based on the paragraph, what is a relay?
- Taking turns to carry something a long wayCorrect answer
- A race between two riders to the same town
- A building where riders sleep at night
- A bag that keeps the mail dry in bad weather
Why “Taking turns to carry something a long way” is correct
This tests building meaning from a paragraph that explains a word. The author never defines relay in one sentence. Instead, the paragraph shows fresh horses waiting at stations and each rider handing the mail to the next one. The student has to put those details together.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A race between two riders to the same town — The riders work together, passing the mail along; they do not race each other.
- A building where riders sleep at night — Stations are mentioned, but the paragraph says riders rode day and night.
- A bag that keeps the mail dry in bad weather — The paragraph does not describe the mail bag.
Practice more of this
More reading 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.