Jamil Jaber Intermediate School Grade 8

English Language Test Time: 2 hrs.

Scholastic Year: 2017—2018 Name: …………………………

Part One: Reading (score: 24/40)

Read the following selection in which the writer instructs families to feed their kids healthy food. When you
are through with reading, answer the questions that follow:

Happy Kids Healthy Kids - Feed Kids Healthy Food

1. There are major benefits to feeding children healthy food. Healthy food builds children who
think more clearly, are less prone to illness, and are stronger. Children
who eat healthfully may live longer, healthier lives, and can prevent
obesity. Teaching children to eat well may seem overwhelming, but is
actually very simple if you follow these 6 simple ways.
2. Eat together. Family meals are a reassuring routine for the whole
family. This is the time kids actually get to observe their parent's eating
habits. Although that puts the pressure on you to eat a well-balanced and
well-proportioned meal, and eat with good manners, it pays off with a
lifetime of early-developed good habits in your children.
3. Serve a variety of food. Don't serve always the same menu. Periodically change and purchase
a food you or your family has never tried before. The benefits of variety are many; intake of a variety
of vitamins and minerals, more aesthetic appeal, and development of more accepting taste-buds.
When serving a meal, try to aim for different colors and textures. If your children get into the habit of
seeing fruits and vegetables at every dinner meal, they'll expect them at other meals as well.
4. Keep healthy foods convenient. When kids are hungry they grab for the closest and easiest
food. Have fruits and vegetables pre-washed and ready on the counter when they come home from
school. If you want, they can dip fruit or vegetables in a low-fat cream cheese dip or in peanut butter.
If unhealthy foods aren't within reach and ready to eat, they won't eat them.
Limit portions. Teach your children moderation, and practice it yourself. Children sometimes don't
know when to stop eating. Show them what an appropriate portion size is for them, and teach them
self control when they want more. Moderating vegetable and fruit consumption usually isn't the
problem; popcorn, potato chips, and cookies are harder to stop eating.
5. Avoid processed foods. "Processed" refers to foods that aren't derived
naturally; such as potato chips, candy, and cookies or cupcakes. Choose foods
that are closer to nature, such as fruits, nuts, vegetables, cheese and yogurt.
Refined products such as white sugar and white flour are easily overeaten,
stored as fat, and cause rapid changes in blood sugar. Whole grains, nuts, and
honey have more staying power and are digested more slowly so that they
provide the energy a child needs to make it through the day. Studies have shown that children who
limit their refined foods think more
clearly, and sleep better, among many other benefits.
6. Don't link emotion with food. Many times parents reward children with food. Although this is
okay sometimes, if done too often it can cause children to link food with behavior, and tying an
emotion to food may create problems later on. If you reward your child with food, make it a healthful
choice, such as making them their favorite healthful dinner, or going out for low-fat frozen yogurt.
7. Parents, who neglect to teach children proper eating habits, who feed their children highly
processed foods, and who reward children with food, leave their kids susceptible to obesity.
http://www.shapefit.com – by Alice Burron
A. Answer the following questions in complete sentences:
1. According to the author, why should children be fed healthy food? (1pt.)
2. What are the advantages of serving a variety of food groups? (1pt.)
3. Why should people avoid eating processed foods? (1pt.)
4. According to paragraph 6, what is the major problem that may result from rewarding children
with food many times? What alternative did the writer suggest to solve it? (2 pts.)

B. Choose the correct response: Write a, b, or c on your answer sheet: (3 pts.)

1. Another title for the text is:
a. Junk food for kids b. Good eating habits c. Kids and fun time
2. If children see fruits and vegetables at dinner meals
a. They will not accept them at other meals
b. They will consider them as treats
c. They will have them at other meals
3. The main purpose of the text is:
a. To inform the parents with the benefits of natural foods on children
b. To persuade parents to feed their kids with processed foods
c. To describe the joyful moments parents have with their kids

C. Fill in the following chart with appropriate causes and effects from the text: (4 pts.)

Cause Effect
Parents eat well-balanced and well- 1- ……………………………………………………………………………
proportioned meals. ……………………………………………………………………………
2- …………………………………………………………… They provide the energy a child needs to make
……………………………………………………………. through the day.
Children who limit their refined foods 3- ……………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………..
4- …………………………………………………………… Parents leave their kids susceptible to obesity.
…………………………………………………………..
D. What do the following underlined pronouns in the text refer to: (4 pts.)
1. Who: [paragraph 1]
2. That: [paragraph 2]
3. Them: [paragraph 4]
4. They: [paragraph 5]
E. Locate words from the text that have the following meanings: (4 pts.)
1. Sickness, disease: (paragraph 1)
2. Being overweight: (paragraph 1)
3. Amounts of food: (paragraph 4)
4. A dairy product: (paragraph 5)
F. Correct the following verbs in brackets by putting them in the right form: (1 pt.)
1. When the boy’s mom (offer) …………… him an apple for a snack, he (take) ……………. It
unwillingly.
2. The child (imitate) ………………. His father while he (cut) ………………… his meal into small
portions.
G. Underline the verbs in the following sentences, and tell whether they are transitive
or intransitive: (1 pt.)
1. There are major benefits of healthy food on children.
2. Children sometimes don’t know when to stop eating.
 H. Rewrite the following sentences, starting as indicated, without changing their
meanings: (2 pts.)
1. Despite of preferring junk foods, children are forced to have natural meals.
Although ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
2. Parents have balanced meals because they will develop good habits in their children.
Because of ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Part Two: writing (score: 16/40)

Prompt A:
- “To keep a healthy body means to have different types of food which provides us
with different nutritional benefits”
- In an essay of about 150-200 words, explain the above statement in your introduction, then
discuss the importance of having a variety of food groups which help in maintaining a healthy
and fruitful life. Provide your essay with adequate details from your experience, reading and
observation.
- Fill in the following graphic organizer, and give a suitable title for your topic.

Different food groups Nutritional benefits

1. ……………………………………………. a. ………………………………………………….

2. ……………………………………………. b. …………………………………………………..

3. …………………………………………….. c. …………………………………………………
…

Prompt B:
- “ Visiting doctors enhance health and cure us from many diseases”
- Explaining the above statement, narrate an incident in which you made a visit to
your doctor’s clinic. Tell why you decided to go, what the doctor did and suggested to
you. Write your incident in an essay of 100-150 words, providing it a suitable title
and filling in the following graphic organizer.
Title: ……………………………

Setting: time and place ……………………………………………………………………………

Why you went to the ……………………………………………………………………………

doctor.
What the doctor did to ……………………………………………………………………………
you? .
Suggestions offered ……………………………………………………………………………
.

[score: 5 pts. For content and organization; 5 pts. For structure; 2 pts. For neat hand
writing; 3 pts. For graphic organizer; and 1 pt. for title]
Good Luck