Question

read the excerpt from \mother tongue.\ those tests were constructed around items like fill-in-the-blank sentence completion, such as \even though tom was ____, mary thought he was ____.\ and the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combinations of thoughts, for example, \even though tom was foolish, mary thought he was ridiculous.\ well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what tom could have been and what mary might have thought of him. so i never did well on tests like that. what can be inferred from the excerpt? tan believes that achievement tests should include a wider variety of fill-in-the-blank questions. tan believes that achievement tests should be constructed by published authors of fiction. tan believes that achievement tests give inadequate measurements of language ability. tan believes that achievement tests give inflated measurements of language ability.

Explanation:

1. Analyze Option 1: The excerpt shows Tan struggled with tests having limited, bland answer combinations, not that she wanted more fill - in - the - blank questions. So this option is incorrect.
2. Analyze Option 2: There is no mention in the excerpt about tests being constructed by fiction authors. So this option is incorrect.
3. Analyze Option 3: The tests had very limited acceptable answers (bland combinations), while Tan's mother (and likely Tan's view) had more diverse ideas. This shows the tests didn't fully capture language ability, so this option is correct.
4. Analyze Option 4: The excerpt doesn't suggest the tests overstate language ability; rather, they underrepresent it. So this option is incorrect.

Answer:

C. Tan believes that achievement tests give inadequate measurements of language ability.