8th+Grade+Sample

Excerpt Taken from NeSA-R 8th Grade Practice Test:

**From Sandals to Sneakers-Shoes Step Forward** Shoes-we wear them nearly every day. We walk, run, jump, climb, and stand in them for hours on end. Yet we hardly think about them because they are such an ordinary part of our daily lives. Shoes were not always an important part of people's wardrobes. The ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Persians made and wore sandals, but actually went barefoot most of the time. These people lived in regions where the weather was temperate, and shoes were not needed to keep their feet warm. Archaeologists have found shoes in the ruins of these civilizations, but they seem to have been worn mainly by royalty, who could afford to employ tailors and shoemakers.

**Shoes in Early Civilizations** As shoes became more common in ancient Egypt, the first ones were simple sandals created mainly to protect the soles of the feet from rough surfaces. The easiest way to make shoes in these ancient times was to use materials that were readily available, including tree bark, leaves, and grasses. In ancient Egypt, sandals were made of rushes, which are grassy plants with hollow stalks. Rushes are the same plants used today to make chair bottoms, mats, and baskets. Among the ancient Greeks, sandals were woven of similar plant materials, but the Greeks also varied the process by tying small pieces of wood together with dried grass. In later years, they made sandals with leather from the hides of animals. The first Greek shoes were purely functional, but over time most were dyed and decorated to make fashion statements. Women began to wear soft, enclosed leather shoes, and these grew increasingly fancy in the later years of the Greek civilization.

The Romans wore sandals much like the Greeks did, but used more pieces of leather to make them. Some Roman sandals had straps that wrapped around the ankles. Shoemakers often dyed these sandals in bright colors that represented the different jobs held by the people wearing them. The patricians, or privileged classes, wore red sandals with moon-shaped ornaments on the back. Senators wore brown shoes with four black leather straps wound around the lower leg. Consuls, or legal officers, wore white shoes, and soldiers wore heavy leather sandals that were more like boots-but with bare toes!

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