4th Grade Language Arts Checkpoint #1
1st Nine Weeks
Name: ______
Date: ______
1. What changes should be made to correct the capitalization error in the sentence below?
This week Sean decided to write a report on the book, Black beauty.
A. use a small s in Sean
B. use a capital B in beauty
C. use a small b in Black
D. use a capital R in report
2. Which sentence is a simple sentence?
A. The sounds were coming from the pine tree near the fence.
B. He stood still, and listened to chirping and the flutter of wings.
C. As he came out the back door, Leroy saw a flash of red.
D. When he looked up, Leroy counted a flock of twenty red birds.
3. Which would be the BEST choice for correcting the incomplete sentence below?
Jonas grasped the tree limb and attempted to catch a bird. Fluttering to a higher limb.
A. Jonas grasped the tree limb, and attempted to catch a bird, fluttering to a higher limb.
B. Fluttering to a higher limb, Jonas grasped the tree limb.
C. Jonas grasped the tree limb and attempted to catch a bird; fluttering to a higher limb.
D. Jonas grasped the tree limb and attempted to catch a bird, fluttering to a higher limb.
4. Which word in the sentence below describes the dress?
Mary bought a velvet dress that flowed to the ground.
A. bought
B. velvet
C. Mary
D. Flowed
5. Which word BEST fills in the blank in the sentence below?
We ______our lines for the class play.
A. practices
B. practiced
C. is practicing
D. has practiced
6. How can the sentences below BEST be combined?
Janie wanted to play in the first quarter. She also wanted to score points for her team.
A. Janie wanted to play in the first quarter, she also wanted to score points for her team.
B. Janie wanted to play in the first quarter and score points for her team.
C. Janie wanted to play in the first quarter, and Janie also wants to score points for her team.
D. Janie playing in the first quarter and scoring points for her team.
Use the paragraph below to answer question 7.
1My dog Ralph really likes to play ball. 2I can throw the ball again and again, and he always brings it back. 3He chases sticks, too he likes big, fat ones the best. 4Sometimes he will even chase rocks!
7. Which sentence from the paragraph above is a run-on sentence?
A. sentence 1
B. sentence 2
C. sentence 3
D. sentence 4
8. Jason has decided to write a report on the mountain grasshopper. Which question would BEST help Jason start the research process?
A. Where do most insects spend the winter?
B. What is the diet of the mountain grasshopper?
C. What laws protect insects?
D. How can you control the population of insects in your yard?
Use the paragraph below to answer question 9.
1My best friend is my dog. 2Her name is Ali. 3My dog’s bark is too loud. 4Every day we run in the field. 5Every night Ali sleeps at the bottom of my bed. 6I am so happy to have a dog.
9. Which sentence should be removed from the paragraph above?
A. sentence 1
B. sentence 2
C. sentence 3
D. sentence 4
10. Which group of words in the paragraph below is NOT needed?
Sally had some friends from school come to her house. After they ate lunch, they planned on doing some fun activities. They decided they would go swimming after lunch. Sally was looking forward to spending the day with friends.
A. friends from school
B. doing some fun activities
C. after lunch
D. spending the day
11. Kent wrote the introductory paragraph below for his report. In the paragraph he stated the operations he will describe in his report. He will have six paragraphs in all. What will his second paragraph begin with?
There are four basic operations in mathematics. One operation is addition. Another is subtraction. The third is multiplication. The last operation is division.
A. Dividing with fractions is one operation.
B. Multiplication is one operation in mathematics.
C. Finding like denominators is one operation.
D. Addition is one operation in mathematics.
12. Robert’s teacher felt that he used the word really too often on the first draft of his essay. The teacher wanted him to find another word to replace it. Which source would Robert find the MOST helpful?
A. a thesaurus
B. a dictionary
C. a magazine
D. an encyclopedia
13. Which source would Nora use to look up the meaning of the word strive?
A. a thesaurus
B. a dictionary
C. an encyclopedia
D. a magazine
14. What change in capitalization should be made to the sentence below?
The author t.s. Eliot wrote a poem about a man name Alfred Prufrock who walked the streets of London.
A. change author to Author
B. change t.s. to T.S.
C. change poem to Poem
D. change Alfred to Alfred
15. Where should the run-on sentence below be separated into two sentences?
The world’s population is increasing every day, which means that 200 babies are born a minute, at this rate, the world’s population will be over 6 billion by the year 2000.
A. between babies and are
B. between minute and at
C. between rate and the
D. between billion and by
16. What is wrong with the sentence below?
I got up this morning and my sister made breakfast.
A. The sentence does not express a complete thought.
B. The sentence needs a comma before and.
C. The word sister should have a capital S.
D. The word breakfast should have a capital B.
17. Which is NOT needed in the sentence below?
Anna just bought a dress that is blue and very long.
A. just
B. very
C. that is
D. a dress
18. Which word BEST fills in the blank in the sentence below?
Father wondered if all the boys had eaten ____ dinner.
A. them
B. their
C. theirs
D. ours
19. Which sentence is written correctly?
A. Josh did real good on his math exam.
B. Josh did very well on his math exam.
C. Josh did very good on his math exam.
D. Josh did really good on his math exam.
20. What is the subject of the sentence below?
We walked to the drugstore to buy a newspaper.
A. school
B. We
C. drugstore
D. newspaper.
21. What is the purpose of the sentence below?
Rover, my dog, is my best friend.
A. to make a statement
B. to tell someone to do something
C. to ask a question
D. to show surprise or a strong feeling
22. What change should be made to one of the sentences below?
The fishes in the lake were beautiful. Some of them were green, and some were blue.
A. change them to they
B. change lake to lakes
C. change were to was
D. change fishes to fish
23. Margo is writing about England. She wants to know where it is located, what bodies of water are near it, and what countries surround it. Where should she look to find this information?
A. a thesaurus
B. an atlas
C. an almanac
D. the newspaper
24. In the sentence below, what does the underlined word refer to?
I misplaced my wallet and realized I had left it in the grocery store.
A. wallet
B. I
C. grocery
D. store
25. How should the sentence below BEST be corrected?
The family saw the Pacific ocean when they visited the state of California.
A. put a capital O in ocean
B. put a capital S in state
C. put a small letter p in Pacific
D. put a small letter c in California
26. What change should be made to the sentence below?
I saw two movie and ate popcorn last night.
A. change saw to see
B. change movie to movies
C. change popcorn to popcorns
D. change last to late
27. How should the fragment below be rewritten to make it a complete sentence?
Writing stories for years.
A. Having been writing stories for years.
B. To be writing stories for years.
C. Will be writing stories for years.
D. Mary has been writing stories for years.
28. What should be included in a book’s bibliography?
A. titles of books from which the author got any useful information
B. only titles of books the author took exact information from
C. titles of all the books the author looked at
D. titles of all the books the library had about ships
29. Bob is writing a report on a famous artist. He needs to find out about the life of the artist, what influenced him, and what materials he liked using when he painted. What resources would BEST help him find the information?
A. an atlas
B. a dictionary
C. an encyclopedia
D. a thesaurus
30. Which one is a complete sentence?
A. Smiled every morning when Jeannie gets up.
B. Every morning when Jeannie smiling gets up.
C. Every morning when Jeannie gets up, she smiles.
D. Every morning when Jeannie gets up smiles.
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4th Grade Language Arts Checkpoint #1
1st Nine Weeks
Answer Key
1. B
2. A
3. D
4. B
5. B
6. B
7. C
8. B
9. C
10. C
11. D
12. A
13. B
14. B
15. B
16. B
17. A
18. B
19. B
20. B
21. A
22. D
23. B
24. A
25. A
26. B
27. D
28. A
29. C
30. C
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