TACHS Practice Test 5

The Bridge That Bent

¹Gemma glued the last craft stick onto her bridge at eleven o'clock the night before the contest, and by morning every joint had dried hard. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever built: twin arches, a smooth deck, and railings so neat they looked as if they had come from a factory. She carried it into the school gym in both hands, the way you might carry a birthday cake.

²The rules of the contest were simple. Each bridge would rest across a gap between two tables, and Mr. Delgado would hang a bucket from its middle. Then he would add sand, scoop by scoop, until the bridge broke. The bridge that held the most sand would win.

³Gemma watched the first few bridges crack and fold. Most were plain, boxy things, and she felt a small, guilty pleasure each time one collapsed. Then it was Hollis's turn. His bridge looked like a pile of triangles that somebody had stepped on, and a few kids snickered. But the bucket filled, and filled, and Hollis's bridge only creaked. When Mr. Delgado finally ran out of sand, it was still standing.

⁴Gemma's bridge was next. She held her breath as the first scoop went in. At the fourth scoop, the graceful arches began to spread apart, and with a soft crunch the deck sagged into a V. Someone said, "Ooh." Gemma stared at the floor and wished she could disappear.

⁵Afterward, she found Hollis packing his bridge into a shoebox. She almost walked past him. Instead she asked, "Why triangles?" Hollis shrugged, but his eyes lit up. "A square can be pushed out of shape," he said, pressing on the corners of the shoebox lid until it leaned. "A triangle can't, unless one of its sides breaks. So I just made everything triangles."

⁶That night Gemma took a fresh bundle of sticks from the garage shelf. She did not start with the arches this time. She started with a single triangle, pressed it hard between her fingers, and smiled when it refused to bend.