College and career words

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Task

   For Friday's literature seminar, explicate the final stanza of the assigned poem, working through it line by line so that a classmate who found it puzzling could follow every image.

2. 1.

   Jun reads a task on a college literature syllabus. What does the task ask for?

   • a detailed, line-by-line explanation of the poet's life and early career
   • a list of the images in the final stanza, without saying what they mean
   • a detailed, line-by-line explanation of what the final stanza means
   • a judgment of how well the final stanza works as an ending

3. Sentence

   After ten years of payments on the debt for their building, the owners of the Larkspur Bakery had built up enough equity in it to borrow against its value.

4. 2.

   Pia reads a sentence in a small-business course. What does equity mean here?

   • the ten years of payments the owners made
   • the money the owners still owe on the building
   • the building's value minus the debt still owed on it
   • fair and equal treatment of people

5. Sentence

   The bookstore sells each new hardcover for $30 after paying the publisher $18, so its margin on a hardcover is $12 before wages and other costs are paid.

6. 3.

   Zee reads a sentence in a retail-management textbook. What does margin mean here?

   • the gap between an item's selling price and its cost
   • the money left after wages and other costs are paid each month
   • the $18 the store pays the publisher for each book
   • the blank space along the edge of a printed page

7. Line

   The job offer from the Alder County library is contingent on a background check, so the start date will be set only after the check comes back clear.

8. 4.

   Kira reads a line in a job offer letter. What does contingent mean here?

   • about the start date of the library job
   • depending on something that must happen first
   • certain no matter what else happens
   • happening by chance, with no plan behind it

9. Advice

   Before you cite the 1910 travel guide in your history paper, interrogate its claims: ask who wrote it, for what reader, and what the author had reason to leave out.

10. 5.

    Ren reads advice in a college history course guide. What does interrogate mean in this advice?

    • find out who wrote the 1910 travel guide
    • copy the guide's most useful claims into the paper
    • question the other students' papers closely and systematically
    • question the guide's claims closely and systematically

11. Sentence

    The delivery company pays a monthly premium to its insurer, and in return the insurer covers the cost if one of its vans is damaged in a storm.

12. 6.

    Esme reads a sentence in a business-insurance training guide. What does premium mean here?

    • a product of higher quality that costs more than usual
    • the regular payment that keeps an insurance policy in force
    • the cost of repairing a van after a storm
    • the amount the company pays before the insurer covers the rest

13. Sentence

    Because the delivery schedule changed after the contract was signed, the bakery and the café attached a one-page addendum that sets the new delivery days.

14. 7.

    Noah reads a sentence in a business-law handout. What is an addendum?

    • the new days on which the bakery delivers
    • a section removed from a signed document
    • a section added to a document after it is written
    • a list of topics to discuss at a meeting

15. Assignment

    In the museum-studies practicum, appraise each donated quilt, and record a dollar figure beside your notes on its age, stitching and condition.

16. 8.

    Ari reads an assignment for a museum-studies practicum. What does appraise ask for?

    • a plan for displaying each quilt in the museum
    • an expert estimate of what each quilt is worth
    • an expert estimate of what the museum building is worth
    • notes on each quilt's age, stitching and condition

17. Sentence

    When the restaurant group missed six straight payments on the money it owed a bank, the bank declared the debt in default and began steps to recover the money.

18. 9.

    Luz reads a sentence in a business-law course. What does default mean here?

    • the setting a computer uses unless told otherwise
    • failure to pay a debt that is owed
    • a lower interest rate a bank offers a borrower
    • the six payments the restaurant group missed

19. Posting

    The listing for a summer lab assistant gives the remuneration as $16 an hour, plus a transit pass for the weeks of the program.

20. 10.

    Tala reads a summer job posting. What does remuneration mean here?

    • money the assistant pays to join the program
    • the pay given in return for work
    • the transit pass for the weeks of the program
    • a numbered list of the job's duties