North Carolina End-of-Grade Tests English Language Arts Grade 3

June and her grandfather drive to the ferry dock at Cedar Island. Their tickets are for the boat that leaves at 8:00 and crosses to Ocracoke. They stop to watch a line of pelicans, and the 8:00 boat leaves without them.

A worker points to a board. The next boat leaves at 10:30. June holds the tickets up. These still work for the later boat, the worker says. They do not need new tickets.

While they wait, June counts seven pelicans on the pilings. Her grandfather buys two apples from a cooler. The apples cost one dollar each. He gives the seller two dollars.

At 10:30 they walk onto the boat. June stands by the rail as the dock grows small. She is glad the tickets still work.

On a windy day near Buxton, Leo and his aunt look up at a tall lighthouse. Black and white stripes spiral around the tower. A sign says the stripes help sailors tell this lighthouse from others along the coast.

Leo wants to climb the stairs. His aunt reads the rest of the sign. The top is closed today because of the wind. Visitors may walk around the bottom, but they may not go up.

Leo is disappointed. Then he finds a small painted brick in a shop by the fence. The brick shows the same stripes. It costs fifty cents. Leo pays with the two quarters in his pocket, and two quarters are fifty cents.

Outside, he holds the brick beside the real tower. The pattern matches. He still wishes he could climb, but he understands the wind rule.

At the state fair in Raleigh, Priya has one hour before the bus leaves. A long line waits for fried pies. Her friend Deon heads for that line. Priya hears a cheer from the goat tent.

Priya raises goats at home in Johnston County. She wants to see the show, not the pies. She tells Deon she will meet him at the bus. She does not join the pie line.

Inside the tent, a small goat named Clover walks across a low board. The judge gives Clover a blue ribbon. Priya claps until her hands sting.

She reaches the bus as the driver starts the engine. Deon is already in a seat, holding a pie. Priya has no pie, but she has a story about Clover. She sits down smiling.

The canoe trip starts on the French Broad River near Asheville. A guide named Mr. Patel gives two rules. Every person must wear a life jacket. Every person must stay seated while the canoe is moving.

Rosa snaps her jacket. Her brother Eli stands up to point at a heron. The canoe tips to one side, and water splashes over the edge. Mr. Patel says to sit down. Standing made the canoe tip.

Eli sits. The canoe levels. The heron flies off. Rosa keeps her paddle across her knees until Mr. Patel says it is safe to paddle again.

At the landing, Eli says he will stay seated next time. Rosa unclips her jacket only after both feet are on the bank.

The Owens family grows sweet potatoes on a farm near Kinston. The part people eat is the root, which grows under the soil. The leaves stay above the ground.

In the fall, workers slide a digger under the rows. The roots come up orange and dusty. The family does not sell them the same day. They store the roots in a warm room so the skins can set. The family calls this step curing.

Curing is not cooking. No one turns on a stove. The warm room lets the skins toughen so the roots last longer in storage.

After curing, some roots go to a grocery store in town. Others stay in crates for winter meals. The leaves are left on the field. They are not the part the family sells.

Hana and her father start a short trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway. A map at the trailhead shows a lookout one mile ahead. Hana puts the map in her pocket. They each carry a water bottle.

The path is clear at first. They pass a wooden bench and keep going. Then fog slides across the path. Hana cannot see the next blaze. In this park, a blaze is the painted mark on a tree.

Her father says that if they cannot see the blazes, they turn back. They do not try to guess the way. They walk back to the bench, then to the trailhead.

Hana is sorry to miss the lookout. She is also glad they followed the rule. The map is still in her pocket for another day.

Mrs. Green's class visits a nature hall in Raleigh. Ben wants to see a whale skeleton. A sign by the door says the whale bones hang in the back hall, past the bird room.

Ben walks through the bird room first. He almost stops at a case of owl wings. He remembers the sign and keeps walking. In the back hall, long ribs curve over his head.

A guide says the skeleton is from a whale that washed ashore on the North Carolina coast years ago. The bones were cleaned and hung so visitors can see the shape of the animal.

Ben draws the ribs in his notebook. He does not draw the owl. He came for the whale, and he found it where the sign said it would be.

Rain hits the windows of a library in Durham. Tess needs to check out a book about bridges, but her library card is not in her pocket. She checks her backpack twice. The card is not there.

The librarian, Mr. Cole, says she can use the computer with her student number. Tess types the number from her school ID. The screen shows her name. Mr. Cole checks out the bridge book.

Tess sits by the window to read. She learns that some bridges rise so boats can pass underneath. She writes that fact on a slip of paper so she will remember it for class.

When the rain slows, she zips the book into her backpack. She still does not have the card. She plans to look for it at home.

At a school in Charlotte, the gym door has a sign for indoor recess. Two games may use the floor. One game uses the red court. The other uses the blue court. The sign says not to mix the games.

Noah wants to join the blue-court game. His friend Imani says he should play on the red court because their class always plays there. Noah reads the sign aloud.

The blue court has only three players. The red court has ten. Noah says the sign lets him choose the blue court. It does not say their class must use red. Imani reads the sign again and nods.

Noah joins the blue court. Imani stays on the red court. Both games go on, and no one mixes them. The sign stays on the door.

The morning after a storm, Malik and his mother walk on Carolina Beach. The waves left a line of shells, seaweed, and smooth wood. A posted rule says people may take empty shells. They must leave any animal that is alive.

Malik lifts a sand dollar. Tiny feet move on its underside. He sets it back in the wet sand. It is alive, so the rule says he must leave it.

Next he finds a white shell with no animal inside. He taps it, and nothing moves. His mother says that one is empty, so he may keep it. Malik puts the empty shell in his bucket.

He leaves the seaweed and the wood on the sand. He only wanted a shell. The live sand dollar stays on the beach.

Lila and Cousin Reed stand on a picnic bench at a park in Winston-Salem so both hands start at the same height. The air is still. No wind blows. Lila holds a heavy apple. Reed holds a lighter apple of the same size.

They let go at the same moment. Both apples reach the grass together. The heavy apple does not land first. Reed says that heavier objects do not fall faster.

Lila had guessed that the heavy apple would reach the grass sooner. She opens her notebook and writes that the heavy apple did not fall faster. She does not write that its weight made it land first.

They hop down and pick up both apples. The heavy apple still weighs more in Lila's hand. The extra weight did not make the fall quicker.

Snow sticks to the window of a classroom in Boone. Caleb says winter is cold because Earth is far from the Sun. Ms. Alvarez tips a globe until it leans. She tells the class that this lean is called tilt.

She writes two sentences on the board. Seasons come from the tilt. Seasons do not come from distance.

She turns the northern half so it leans away from the Sun. Sunlight then hits Boone at a slant and is less direct. That is why winter there is cold. She keeps the globe in its place. She does not slide it far from the lamp to make winter.

Caleb erases his sentence about distance. He copies the board and writes that winter in Boone comes from the tilt. He does not write that Earth is far from the Sun.

Over a porch in Wilmington, Nadia sees a slim bright edge of the Moon. The rest of the Moon is dim against the clear sky. Her brother says Earth's shadow is covering the Moon.

Their father says that is not what this crescent is. The Sun lights one half of the Moon. From the porch they see only a curve of that lit half. The crescent is sunlight on part of the Moon.

He adds another fact. Earth's shadow can fall on the Moon during a lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse is rare. Tonight is not a lunar eclipse. The dim part they see is not Earth's shadow.

Nadia looks at the edge again. She tells her brother that the bright curve is sunlight, not a shadow from Earth.

Students from Apex visit Jordan Lake and keep a chart called Birds That Landed. They make a mark only when a bird's feet touch the dock.

On Tuesday they mark 8 ducks and 1 goose. Adding the Tuesday marks gives 9 birds that landed. On Friday they mark 2 ducks and 6 geese. Adding the Friday marks gives 8 birds that landed.

A kingfisher dives near the dock on Friday, but its feet never touch the wood. The kingfisher gets no mark. The Friday total stays 8.

The Tuesday duck count is greater than the Friday duck count. The Friday goose count is greater than the Tuesday goose count. The chart does not list fish, and it does not count birds that only fly past.

Dear Andre, I am writing from New Bern. Today our class walked through an old house by the river. The guide asked us to keep our hands off the furniture.

I liked a wide staircase the best. The steps creaked, and I counted sixteen of them. My friend Pilar liked the garden more than the stairs. She drew the gate, and I drew the staircase.

We ate lunch on the bus. I saved my apple for you, but then I ate it. I am sorry. I will bring you a postcard of the house instead.

Please write back and tell me about your week in Greenville. Your cousin, Marisol.

The third-grade play is on the stage at a school in Fayetteville. Sam plays a farmer. His line is, The beans are ready. He has said it at every practice.

On show night, the lights shine in his eyes. He forgets the line. His mouth opens, and no words come. People in the seats get quiet.

His classmate Bea stands at the side, out of the light. She whispers, The beans are ready. Sam hears her. He says the line in a clear voice. The next actor answers, and the play goes on.

After the show, Sam tells Bea that her whisper saved his line. Bea smiles. She did not walk onto the stage. She helped from the side.

At a morning market in Asheville, Jules has a five-dollar bill. A beekeeper's jar of honey costs four dollars. A farmer's peach costs one dollar. A pie on the next table costs six dollars.

Jules wants the pie, but six dollars is more than five dollars. He does not buy the pie. He buys the honey and the peach.

Four dollars plus one dollar is five dollars. Jules gives the beekeeper four dollars and the farmer one dollar. His hands are empty of money. He has no dollars left.

He walks toward the bus with the jar and the peach. The pie stays on the table. Jules says he bought what his five dollars could cover.