Ms. Howard says Texas was "land rich but cash poor." What does she mean?
Understand Spoken Words and Language Structures · TELPAS Grades 8–9 listening. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.
Reporting category 1: follow spoken directions and understand words and phrases as they are used in speech. On the real test some of these ask the student to click on a picture.
Listen to the lesson.
A Capitol Paid For With Land
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Ms. Howard: If you've ever visited Austin, you've probably seen the Texas State Capitol, with its tall dome and its pinkish red stone. It was finished in eighteen eighty-eight, and it is actually a little taller than the United States Capitol in Washington.
Ms. Howard: Here's the surprising part. Back then, Texas was land rich but cash poor. The state owned millions of acres of open land, but it didn't have much money to spend. So instead of paying the builders with money, Texas paid them with land, about three million acres in the Panhandle.
Ms. Howard: The builders could not sell that much land all at once, so they turned it into an enormous cattle ranch, one of the largest in the world at that time.
Ms. Howard: The stone came from a hill near Marble Falls. It is a kind of granite that Texans call sunset red. So the next time you see the capitol, remember that it was paid for with land, not with money.
The question
Choose the best answer.
Ms. Howard says Texas was "land rich but cash poor." What does she mean?
- It sold land to get rich.
- It had a lot of land but little money.Correct answer
- Its land was poor for farming.
- It owed land to other states.
Why “It had a lot of land but little money.” is correct
This tests an expression built from two opposite parts. Ms. Howard explains it in the next sentence: the state "owned millions of acres of open land, but it didn't have much money to spend." Students need to know that "cash" means money.
Why the other answers are wrong
- It sold land to get rich. — The state traded land for work; it did not get rich from selling it.
- Its land was poor for farming. — "Poor" here describes money, not the soil.
- It owed land to other states. — Nothing is said about owing other states.
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.