Middle Grades Sample Questions

Some things to note:

• Pronunciations provided for even moderately difficult words

• Each subset of five questions has one Math, one Science, one Social Studies, one Language Arts and one Humanities question--no "runs" of multiple questions from any one area

• The question "payoff" is found at the end of the question to reward in-depth knowledge

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1.         Ceres [SEER-eeze], with a diameter of 1000 kilometers, is the very largest of these objects.  What is the name of these objects with orbits, which lie between Mars and Jupiter?

                         ASTEROID(S)

 2.         What Mycenaean [my-suh-NEE-an] god did all Greeks worship as their chief deity?

                         ZEUS

 3.         This question requires a first and last name answer.  This composer wrote many popular songs for publication as sheet music, and for inclusion in Broadway shows. Who established jazz as the first original American music style with his "Rhapsody in Blue”? 

                         GEORGE GERSHWIN

 4.        In what book by Patricia Giff does the protagonist fear for her father as he goes to fight in World War Two?

                         LILY’S CROSSING 

 5.        What trigonometric relationship is defined as the ratio of the length of the opposite side of a right triangle divided by the length of the adjacent side?

                         TANGENT

 6.        What is the title of the Newbery Honor book by Marion Dane Bauer [BOW-er], which depicts the devastation Joel undergoes when his best friend drowns while they were swimming in a treacherous river they promised never to go near?

                         ON MY HONOR

 7.        Simplify the following algebraic fraction:  quantity x to the sixth power times y to the third power, close quantity, divided by quantity x times y squared, close quantity.

                         X TO THE FIFTH (POWER) DIVIDED BY Y   (X⁵/Y)

 8.        What is the phrase was used in the 1840's to describe the belief that the United States should control all land from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans?

                         MANIFEST DESTINY

 9.        As a writer, you may be called upon to write about some aspect of your own life.  What two-word phrase is used to apply to this general type of writing?

                         PERSONAL NARRATIVE

 10.      Insects go through several stages of metamorphosis.  Identify the stage of metamorphosis in which the larva hibernates, developing a shell for protection.

                         PUPA

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