Also in 2026 Practice Test D English, question 31.
Passage Excerpt from The Highest Tide
Excerpt from The Highest Tide
by Jim Lynch
The narrator’s summer job is collecting marine specimens in Puget Sound, Washington. In this excerpt, he is looking for specimens in the mudflats before daybreak. Mudflats, or flats, are coastal landforms created when sediment and silt from tides are deposited as the tides recede.
I rounded the oyster beds, to the far side. . . . It was low tide by then, and I saw the water hesitating at its apex, neither leaving nor returning, patiently waiting for the gravitational gears to shift. Dozens of anxious clams started squirting in unison like they did whenever vibrating grains of sand warned them predators were approaching. I stopped and waited with them, to actually see the moment when the tide started returning with its invisible buffet of plankton for the clams, oysters, mussels and other filter feeders. It was right then, ankle deep in the Sound, feet numbing, eyes relaxed, that I saw the nudibranch.1
In all my time on the flats I’d never seen one before. I’d read about them, sure. I’d handled them at aquariums but never in the wild, and I’d never even seen a photo of one this stunning. It was just three inches long but with dozens of fluorescent, orange-tipped hornlike plumes jutting from the back of its see-through body that appeared to be lit from within.
Nudibranchs are often called the butterflies of the sea, but even that understates their dazzle. Almost everything else in the northern Pacific is dressed to blend with pale surroundings. Nudibranchs don’t bother, in part because they taste so lousy they don’t need camouflage to survive. But also, I decided right then, because their beauty is so startling it earns them a free pass, the same way everyday life brakes for peacocks, parade floats. . . .
The dark mudflats loomed like wet, flattened dunes stretching deep into Skookumchuck Bay in front of our house. From a distance, they looked too barren to support sea life. Up close, they still did, unless you knew where to find the hearty clams, worms and tiny creatures that flourish in mud. . . . I’m not sure why I decided to take a look. It was still an hour before sunrise, and I knew exactly what the bars2 looked like in the moonlight, but for some reason, I couldn’t resist.
I heard it long before I saw it. It was an exhale, a release of sorts, and I instantly wondered if a whale was stranded again. We had a young minke3 stuck out there two summers prior, and it made similar noises until the tide rose high enough for rescuers to help free it. . . . I looked for a hulking silhouette but couldn’t find one. I waited, but there were no more sounds. Still, I went toward what I thought I’d heard, avoiding stepping into the mud until I had to. I knew the flats well enough to know I could get stuck just about anywhere. The general rule was you didn’t venture out past the shells and gravel with an incoming tide. I sank up to my knees twice, and numbing water filled my boots.
. . . I kept stepping toward the one sound I’d heard, a growing part of me hoping I’d find nothing at all. When I stopped to rest and yank up my socks, my headlamp crossed it. My first thought? A giant octopus.
Puget Sound has some of the biggest octopi in the world. They often balloon to a hundred pounds. Even the great Jacques Cousteau4 himself came to study them. But when I saw the long tubular shape of its upper body and the tangle of tentacles below it, I knew it was more than an octopus. I came closer, within fifty feet, close enough to see its large cylindrical siphon5 quiver. I couldn’t tell if it was making any sounds at that point, because it was impossible to hear anything over the blood in my ears. . . .
The creature’s body came to a triangular point above narrow fins that lay flat on the mud like wings, but it was hard to be sure exactly where it all began or ended, or how long its tentacles truly were, because I was afraid to pry my eyes off its jumble of arms for more than half a second. I didn’t know whether I was within reach, and its arms were as big around as my ankle and lined with suckers the size of half-dollars. If they even twitched I would have run. So, I was looking at it and not looking at it while my heart spangled my vision. I saw fragments, pieces, and tried to fuse them in my mind but couldn’t be certain of the whole. I knew what it had to be, but I wouldn’t allow myself to even think the two words. Then I gradually realized the dark shiny disc in the middle of the rubbery mass was too perfectly round to be mud or a reflection.
It was too late to smother my scream. Its eye was the size of a hubcap.6
From THE HIGHEST TIDE by Jim Lynch. Copyright © 2005 by Jim Lynch. Used by permission of Bloomsbury USA. All rights reserved.
1nudibranch: type of sea slug
2bars: sandbars
3minke: species of small whale
4Jacques Cousteau: renowned French oceanographer
5siphon: tube-like organ that is used for drawing in or removing fluids
6hubcap: removable cap over the end of a wheel axle
Question
Which sentence from paragraph 5 supports the idea that the narrator is taking a risk?
- A“It was an exhale, a release of sorts, and I instantly wondered if a whale was stranded again.”
- B“I looked for a hulking silhouette but couldn’t find one.”
- C“I waited, but there were no more sounds.”
- D“I knew the flats well enough to know I could get stuck just about anywhere.”
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks which sentence from paragraph 5 supports the idea that the narrator is taking a risk.
A. Incorrect. In this sentence, the narrator is describing the exhale of a creature and his concern that the sound might be coming from a whale in danger. At no point does the narrator suggest that this is a dangerous situation.
B. Incorrect. This sentence describes a “hulking silhouette” because the narrator is searching for a whale that might be stranded. This expression refers to the size of the whale and not to any danger the narrator might face.
C. Incorrect. The narrator’s words “no more sounds” are used to illustrate his listening for what may be a whale. At this point, the narrator is still concerned about the possibility that a whale may be stranded, not the possibility of being in danger.
D. CORRECT. The idea that the narrator could become stuck in the mud of the flats means that the surroundings pose some danger or difficulty.
Question analysis
Students choose which sentence from one tense paragraph of The Highest Tide shows that the narrator is taking a risk as he follows a strange sound across the mudflats. In this evidence question, all four sentences come from the same scene, so students must tell real danger to the narrator apart from a mood of suspense.
- NYS standards
- 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Choosing the sentence that supports an idea is a grade 6 and 7 skill. Here all four choices come from one paragraph and only the idea of danger needs matching, a lighter task than typical grade 7 evidence work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 6, 902 words; question and choices: about grade 5, 65 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Only one of the four sentences mentions anything that could happen to the narrator himself, so this is among the easiest questions on the test. The other three build suspense, a strange exhale, a missing silhouette, a silence, and a student who confuses suspense with danger may pick one. Asking who is at risk in each sentence settles it at once.
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The right sentence states only what the narrator knows, that he could get stuck; it shows a risk because the sentences around it have him walking out onto the mud anyway. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Decide what taking a risk would mean for the narrator in this place, then test each sentence for a danger to him rather than a feeling of suspense.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Senses danger in a possibly stranded whale, but the danger would be the whale's, and the sentence shows the narrator only wondering, not exposing himself to anything.
B Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Hears menace in “hulking silhouette”, but the phrase describes the size of the whale he expected, and failing to find one puts him in no danger.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the silence after the sound as ominous, but waiting and listening is a pause in his search, not something that puts him at risk.
Working it out, step by step
Know what the question asks
This asks you to find evidence. Taking a risk means doing something that could hurt you. So look for a sentence that shows a danger to the narrator himself.
Think about the danger on the flats
Mudflats are soft and wet. A person can sink into the mud and get stuck as the water rises. Paragraph 5 even gives a rule: “The general rule was you didn’t venture out past the shells and gravel with an incoming tide.”
Find the sentence about danger
Choice D says, “I knew the flats well enough to know I could get stuck just about anywhere.” So the narrator knows he could get stuck. Yet he keeps walking out toward the sound. That means he is taking a risk.
Check each choice
- D fits: getting stuck is a danger to him, and he goes on anyway.
- A is wrong because a stranded whale would be in danger, not the narrator.
- B is wrong because “hulking silhouette,” a huge dark shape, describes the whale he expected, not a threat.
- C is wrong because waiting in silence builds suspense but puts him in no danger.
Watch out: A, B and C create a spooky mood. But a spooky mood is not the same as a risk.
Choose the answer
Only one sentence names something that could happen to the narrator himself. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A comes closest, because a stranded whale sounds serious. But the danger in that sentence belongs to the whale. Only D names something that could happen to the narrator: getting stuck in the mud.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from The Highest Tide” as printed (pages 64–65)
