Name: ______________________

Grade: Ten / ___

Academic Year 2023-2024
Grade 10
Pre-Assessment Exam

________
Part 1: Reading Exam 10
Championship Lost

I slammed my locker and rested my forehead against the cool metal. Alone in our locker room—the home
team’s locker room—the silence in the room startled me. I was uncertain if I’d ever heard it so quiet in here;
there was always a buzz, of excitement, of adrenaline, of camaraderie. Now the silence from our loss roared in
my ears.

I dropped down onto the bench, resting my head in my hands. This was not how it was supposed to be. We
were the home team; we were supposed to be the champions tonight! We almost were …almost, until they
snuck in that last score right before the buzzer. If we had had one more minute, one more chance, we could have
taken it back. But the buzzer sounded, and we lost. We were the losing team, and our opponents were the
champions.

As I sat, I could hear the din from next door, the away team’s locker room, in celebration. I heard an off-
key rendition of “We Are the Champions” and a discord of whooping and hollering. That should have been us. I
had imagined getting soaked by the Gatorade bucket when the game ended, or at the very least, soaking our
coach. I had imagined getting hoisted in the air by my teammates to rejoice in our victory and my superb
leadership of our team. But there I was, alone in the quiet, listening to someone else’s revelry.

Footsteps sounded down the hallway, and one of my teammates appeared.

“Hey, your grandma’s outside. She wants to make sure you’re ok.”

My grandma—how was I supposed to face my grandma? She was the one person I had been planning to
thank in my MVP acceptance speech at our banquet. She has driven me to every tryout practice and tournament.
She helped me remember plays, and we’d spent hours discussing the fundamentals as well as the finer points of
the game. She was my biggest cheerleader, my chief fan, and she had been certain we were going to be the
champions tonight. I was dreading her disappointment. Slinging my duffel bag over my shoulder, I took a deep
breath, and followed my teammate back down the hallway. Outside, there was my grandma, standing tall, chin
high. As she saw me, a grin spread across her face.

“Hi, sweetheart,” she said. “Great game. Great game.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “We lost. It was a terrible game.”

“Did you think it was a great game up until those last few seconds?”

“Yeah, while we were winning, I thought it was the best game we’d ever played,” I replied.

“I thought it was, too,” she agreed. “It must be hard to face losing when you played that well, but it’s all the
more reason to be proud of the work you did.”

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 Name: ______________________
Grade 10 Grade: Ten / ___
Pre-Assessment Academic Year 2023-2024

As I prepared for bed that night, I thought about what my grandma had said. She might be right; we should be
proud of the game we played. I couldn’t even think of any player to blame for our loss; we’d all played like we
were on fire. But I guess one of the teams has to lose at the end, and it was ours this time. I was still
disappointed, but I wasn’t ashamed.

Earlier in the evening, I had been thinking that I didn’t really want to go to school the next day. I didn’t really
want to see people’s faces as I walked down the hallways or hear their thoughts on how we should have won.
But the more I thought about the game we played, the way we played it, and my grandma’s big smile waiting
for me outside the locker room, I wasn’t nervous anymore. I knew that I’d set the example for pride in our team
and our effort. I’d walk down the hallway with my back straight and my chin held high, just like my
grandma’s.

Read the passage and answer the questions.

1. In Paragraph 6, why does the speaker dread the grandmother’s arrival?

A. She will be angry about the team’s loss.

B. She had been confident the team would win.
C. The speaker will have to make up the team’s loss to her.
D. The speaker feels personally responsible for the team’s loss.

2. Which sentence from the text best supports your answer in question 1?
A. “She was the one person I had been planning to thank in my MVP acceptance speech at our
banquet.” (paragraph 6)
B. “She has driven me to every tryout, practice, and tournament.” (paragraph 6)
C. “She helped me remember plays, and we’d spent hours discussing the fundamentals as well as
the finer points of the game.” (paragraph 6)
D. “She was my biggest cheerleader, my chief fan, and she had been certain we were going to be
the champions tonight.” (paragraph 6)

3. Which statement best describes the theme of this story?

A. Players often don’t get along until the big game.

B. Having a good team is more important than winning.

C. Making money is an important factor in team building.

D. Every losing player must take personal responsibility for the loss.

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 Name: ______________________
Grade 10 Grade: Ten / ___
Pre-Assessment Academic Year 2023-2024

4. What change, if any, is necessary with the underlined portion of the following
sentence?
“She has driven me to every tryout practice and tournament.”

A. “She has driven me to every tryout, practice and tournament.”

B. “She has driven me to every tryout, practice, and tournament.”

C. “She drove me to every tryout, practice, and tournament.”

D. Correct as it is

5. “I heard an off-key rendition of “We Are the Champions” and a discord of whooping and
hollering.”

What does the word “hollering” mean in this sentence?

A. Shouting

B. Dancing

C. Running

D. Disturbing

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 Name: ______________________
Grade: Ten / ___
Academic Year 2023-2024
Grade 10
Pre-Assessment

Part 2: Writing Exam

________
10

Choose One Topic from the following list and write as much as you can. Your writing will be
scored using the same Marking Rubric we used in class. Please follow these instructions:

1. Read the choices carefully.

2. Give yourself enough time to plan, draft, write, and revise your writing.
3. Write in complete sentences and organize your writing to suit your topic and purpose.
4. Be sure you follow the rules of the language: spell correctly, use proper punctuation,
capitalize where appropriate, and ensure the form and tense of each verb is correct.
5. Write legibly.

TOPICS

Write a Narrative Text on 1 and Only 1 of the Following Topics.

Topic 1: Write a story about a memorable experience with a favorite family member.
Topic 2: Write a story of a time when you won something. Tell what you won and how
you won it.
Topic 3: Write a narrative text on this prompt: A little old lady gave you and a friend
some magical glitter and told you to sprinkle it on your hair and something special would
happen. What happened when you tried it? Write a story about this mysterious magical
glitter.
Note: use either the first or the third person point of view.
Writing Linguistic Vocabulary Language Total
Complexity Usage Control
Level 3
Mark 4 2 2 2 10

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 Grade: 10
Grade 10 Subject: English
Pre-Assessment First Trimester 2022-2023

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 Grade: 10
Grade 10 Subject: English
Pre-Assessment First Trimester 2022-2023

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