Also in 2026 Practice Test D English, question 32.
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
Read this sentence from paragraph 6.
I kept stepping toward the one sound I’d heard, a growing part of me hoping I’d find nothing at all.
How do the narrator’s actions develop a central idea of the excerpt?
- AThe narrator’s concern about the origin of the noise shows dedication to helping preserve sea life in the mudflats.
- BThe narrator’s curiosity about the sea life in the mudflats outweighs any fear about the situation.
- CThe narrator’s knowledge about a variety of sea life encourages a search for more specimens to study.
- DThe narrator’s eagerness about new specimens of sea life outweighs the reality that the area is an unlikely place to find them.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the narrator’s actions, as described in the sentence from paragraph 6, develop a central idea of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. The sentence highlights the narrator’s concern about sea life and the creatures living within the flats. However, these ideas do not develop what is being described in the excerpt.
B. CORRECT. The narrator “kept stepping toward the one sound,” indicating a sense of curiosity. However, the words “a growing part of me hoping I’d find nothing” suggest a rising fear or concern. Ultimately, the narrator’s curiosity outweighs his growing fear and is a central idea in the excerpt, as shown by the fact that the narrator does not run away when finally encountering the creature.
C. Incorrect. While the narrator’s descriptions of the nudibranch and other sea life demonstrate a knowledge of these creatures, as well as a desire to discover more in the mudflats, the knowledge the narrator exhibits is not what is being illustrated in the excerpt.
D. Incorrect. The excerpt does describe the narrator’s enjoyment at seeing a nudibranch in paragraph 2, and in paragraph 4, the narrator clearly states that there is an abundance of life in the seemingly barren mudflats, including “hearty clams, worms and tiny creatures that flourish in mud.” However, the sentence demonstrates the narrator’s curiosity in spite of fear, not an eagerness about or fascination with the mudflats.
Question analysis
This central-idea question quotes a sentence in which the narrator keeps walking toward a mysterious sound while part of him hopes to find nothing, and asks how his actions develop a central idea of the excerpt. Students must read the mixed feelings packed into one sentence and connect them to the larger story of his walk on the flats.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Connecting a character's actions to a central idea is grade 7 work. The quoted sentence states both the action and the feeling, so the task is typical, though the four choices are long and each names a different motive.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 6, 902 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 111 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
The quoted sentence holds both halves of the answer, an action and a wish that pulls against it, but neither is named. The wrong choices each supply a motive the sentence does not show, a rescue, a hunt for specimens, an eagerness for new finds, and two of them borrow real details from elsewhere in the excerpt. Students who split the sentence into what he does and what he hopes avoid all three.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The sentence names neither feeling: curiosity must be read from “kept stepping toward the one sound” and fear from “a growing part of me hoping I'd find nothing at all”. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
To count as a central idea, the pull between curiosity and fear has to recur, from “I couldn't resist” in paragraph 4 to “If they even twitched I would have run” in paragraph 8. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Split the quoted sentence into what the narrator does and what part of him feels, then ask which motive behind those actions runs through the rest of the excerpt.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Links the sound to the minke freed two summers before and assumes a mission to help sea life, but the sentence shows him pressing on while hoping to find nothing.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Draws on his specimen job and his knowledge of nudibranchs to turn this moment into a hunt for specimens, when he is following one strange sound with mixed feelings.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Copies the right answer's pattern of one force outweighing another, but pits eagerness for specimens against an “unlikely place” that paragraph 4 says only looks barren from a distance.
Working it out, step by step
Know what the question asks
This asks how the narrator’s actions build a central idea, a main point that runs through the whole excerpt. Start by splitting the sentence into what he does and what he feels.
Split the sentence in two
What he does: “I kept stepping toward the one sound I’d heard.” He keeps moving forward. What he feels: “a growing part of me hoping I’d find nothing at all.” Part of him is afraid of what he might find, and that fear is growing.
Weigh the two feelings
He is scared, but he keeps going anyway. So his curiosity, his wish to know, is stronger than his fear. This pull runs through the excerpt. In paragraph 4 he “couldn’t resist” going out. In paragraph 8 he stays and stares at the creature, though he admits, “If they even twitched I would have run.”
Check each choice
- B fits: his curiosity “outweighs any fear,” since his steps forward win out over his wish to find nothing.
- A is wrong because nothing shows he wants to protect sea life, and he even hopes to find nothing.
- C is wrong because he is following one strange sound, not hunting for specimens to study.
- D is wrong because paragraph 4 says the flats only look empty from far away.
Watch out: D copies B’s pattern of one thing outweighing another. But its details don’t match the excerpt.
Choose the answer
The narrator’s steps show curiosity winning out over a growing fear. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A comes closest, because two summers earlier a stranded whale had needed help. But in this sentence the narrator hopes to find nothing at all. Someone set on a rescue would not hope that. B explains both halves: he is afraid, yet his curiosity keeps him walking.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from The Highest Tide” as printed (pages 64–65)
