What is the lesson mainly about? (The Smallest Sea Turtle)
Basic Understanding of Spoken English · TELPAS Grades 8–9 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.
The Smallest Sea Turtle
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Ms. Howard: Today we're going to talk about the Kemp's ridley. It's the smallest sea turtle in the world, and it's also the most endangered. A full-grown adult usually weighs less than a hundred pounds.
Ms. Howard: Most Kemp's ridleys nest on one stretch of beach in northeastern Mexico, but some nest on the Texas coast, especially on Padre Island. Unlike most sea turtles, they often come out of the water to lay their eggs in the daytime, sometimes hundreds of them at once.
Ms. Howard: In the 1940s, someone filmed tens of thousands of females nesting on that beach in Mexico in a single day. By the 1980s, there were fewer than a thousand nests in an entire year. What happened? People had been collecting the eggs, and many adult turtles drowned after getting caught in shrimp nets.
Ms. Howard: So Mexico and the United States started working together. Nesting beaches were guarded, and shrimp nets were fitted with a kind of trapdoor that lets a turtle swim back out. On Padre Island, biologists began patrolling the beach to find nests and protect the eggs until they hatch.
Ms. Howard: The number of nests has gone up since then, though it still rises and falls from year to year. And if you ever see a sea turtle on a Texas beach, don't touch it. Call the number on the park signs so a biologist can come and protect the nest.
The question
Choose the best answer.
What is the lesson mainly about?
- How to find sea turtle nests on a beach trip
- Why shrimp boats fish along the Texas coast
- An endangered sea turtle and how people have protected itCorrect answer
- The differences among the world's sea turtles
Why “An endangered sea turtle and how people have protected it” is correct
This question checks the main idea of an informational talk. Ms. Howard introduces the Kemp's ridley as the most endangered sea turtle, explains why its numbers fell, and spends the rest of the lesson on how Mexico, the United States and biologists protected it. Choice c covers the whole lesson rather than one detail.
Why the other answers are wrong
- How to find sea turtle nests on a beach trip — She tells students not to touch a nesting turtle; finding nests is not the topic.
- Why shrimp boats fish along the Texas coast — Shrimp nets are mentioned only as one cause of the turtles' decline.
- The differences among the world's sea turtles — She says it is the smallest sea turtle but does not compare it with other kinds.
Practice more of this
More listening practice for Grades 8–9, or see the TELPAS practice test for 8th and 9th 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.