The purpose of this released exercise set is to provide easy access to released exercises from the reading/literature assessment conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 1979-80. Exercises were used to assess the attainments of samples of 9 year olds, 13 year olds and 17 year olds. Upon this basis, generalizations about the probable performance of all students in these age-groups were made. The set is divided into four brief sections and two extensive appendixes. Part (1) explains assessment and scoring procedures, and describes the documentation accompanying each exercise. The rationales behind the development of questions for the 1979-80 assessment are provided in Part (2) and exercises appear in Appendix A. Part (3) discusses the developmental rationale for the 1970-71 assessment exercises. These were recently released and now appear in Appendix B. Cross-reference tables, for the purpose of locating subsets of exercises, are given in Part (4). Both multiple choice exercises and the following five types of open-ended exercises requiring different skills and levels of ability are given: general response exercises; emotional response exercises; evaluative exercises; analytical exercises; and exercises requiring the use of inference. (Author/AEF) Primary type of information provided by report: Assortment Instrument (Released Exercises); Results (Exercise Level).