Anderson’s Speak – Second Marking Period Practice Test

In this part of the story, the author uses the sequence of emergencies at home to show how Melinda’s mother is pulled away by a real crisis, which affects Melinda’s sense of support and safety. The event described as Emergency #3 is the moment that directly prompts the mother to leave the house, because it’s presented as an immediate crisis requiring her presence outside the home. The other events don’t trigger her departure in the same way, or they occur without forcing her to step out, so they don’t explain the specific action of her leaving. A family argument, while tense, doesn’t carry the same decisive cause-and-effect as Emergency #3 does in that scene. So Emergency #3 is the best answer because it is the explicit incident that leads to the mother’s departure and shapes the moment in Melinda’s family life.