Read Grade-Level Literature · 8th Grade Reading

8th Grade Reading Quiz

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READING LITERATURE

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PASSAGE

In the attic, the air tasted like paper and old summers. Noah moved slowly, not because he feared spiders (he'd already made peace with them) but because the floorboards had a way of complaining. Each step produced a thin groan, as if the house were keeping score. His grandmother's trunk sat beneath the slanted roof, its brass latch dulled to the color of pennies left in rain. Noah had been told not to open it until "the right time," a phrase that always sounded wise and also suspiciously convenient. He knelt, listening. Downstairs, his father's voice rose and fell on the phone, practiced calm stretched over something sharper. Noah could not catch words, only the rhythm of restraint. The latch gave with a reluctant click. Inside lay a stack of letters tied with a ribbon that had once been green. The top envelope was addressed to his father in handwriting Noah recognized from birthday cards, his grandmother's, except here the loops were tighter, the lines more urgent. Noah did not read. He told himself that. He only looked at the date: fifteen years ago. The year before his mother left. A dusty beam of light cut across the letters, making the ribbon's faded green briefly vivid, like a leaf refusing autumn. Noah's hand hovered, then withdrew. He shut the trunk again, gently, as if closing a mouth that might say too much. Later, at dinner, his father asked about the attic. "Nothing up there," Noah said. His father nodded, too quickly, and kept chewing, though the food seemed diminished in his mouth.

What can be inferred about Noah's motivation for not reading the letters?

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