Reprinted by permission

A second prose literacy task directs the reader to look at an article about impatiens. One task receiving a difficulty value of 230 asks the reader: "What happens when the impatiens plant is exposed to temperatures of 14 degrees C or below?" There is a sentence in the text under the section "General Care" that states, "When the plant is exposed to temperatures of 12-14°C, it loses its leaves and won't bloom anymore." Like the "Medco" task, this task received a score of 1 for type of match because the reader only needed to make a synonymous match. Unlike the previous task, however, this task received higher scores for type of information and for plausibility of distractor. Type of information was scored 4 because the reader was asked to identify an outcome that occurs when the plant is exposed to certain temperatures. Plausibility of distractor was scored 2 because other numbers are presented in the text and because the previous sentence contains information about the requirements of the plant at other temperatures.

A similar task involving the same text asks the reader to identify "what the smooth leaf and stem suggest about the plant." This task received a difficulty value of 254. Again, the task directed the reader to locate information contained in the text so it was scored 1 for type of match. The last sentence in the second paragraph under the heading Appearance states: "The smooth leaf surfaces and the stems indicate a great need of water." Type of information was scored a 3 because it directs the reader to identify a condition. Plausibility of distractor was scored a 3 because the same paragraph contained a sentence that serves to distract a number of readers. This sentence states, "… stems are branched and very juicy, which means, because of the tropical origin, that the plant is sensitive to cold."