Work out a word in a hard or older text
Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
Sentence
Mayor Ruiz opened the budget hearing with an emollient speech, thanking residents for their patience, owning up to the confusing first notice and promising a second meeting, and by the end the angriest man in the front row had unfolded his arms and asked his question in a level voice.
Ari reads a sentence from a town newsletter. What does emollient mean here?
- soothing, meant to ease anger
- harsh, meant to stir up anger
- polite but empty, promising nothing
- given at a public budget hearing
Sentence
Though she held two degrees and had just won the college's top teaching prize, Ms. Okoye was diffident about her own work, and the magazine's writer learned of the prize only when the dean mentioned it.
Esme reads a sentence from a college magazine. What does diffident mean here?
- eager to talk about her own work and prizes
- sure of herself and well qualified
- winner of the college's top teaching prize
- shy and unwilling to push oneself forward
Sentence
Readers called the editorial's last paragraph trenchant: in six sentences it showed that the town's own traffic counts contradicted the plan the council had just approved, and the council reopened the vote the following week.
Jun reads a line from a student newspaper. What does trenchant mean here?
- slow, long and heavy with detail
- harsh and unfair toward the council
- about traffic counts and the vote on a new plan
- sharp and effective at cutting to the point
Sentence
The delay was bad enough, but the storm compounded it, closing the last open road and turning a three-hour drive into a two-day wait.
Entry: compound 1. (noun) a group of buildings inside a fence. 2. (noun) a substance made of two or more elements. 3. (verb) to mix parts into a whole. 4. (verb) to make worse by adding to it.Kira reads a sentence from a road-safety report and the entry under it. Which sense of compounded fits?
- a group of buildings inside a fence
- to mix parts into a whole
- to close the last open road
- to make worse by adding to it
Sentence
The weather on the lake was fickle: a calm morning could turn to whitecaps by noon, and the water might be flat again by evening, so the club stopped trusting any forecast.
Luz reads a sentence from a sailing club newsletter. What does fickle mean here?
- steady and easy to predict
- calm and gentle on the water that morning
- changing suddenly and without warning
- found on a lake where a club sails
Sentence
Visitors flinched whenever the presses started, but Paloma, inured after ten years on the night desk, kept proofreading without a pause.
Milo reads a sentence from a newsroom profile. What does inured mean here?
- made newly alarmed by something
- worn out and made weary by it
- working on the night desk of a paper
- made used to something unpleasant
Sentence
After weeks without rain, the north field would yield barely half of last year's wheat, and the farmer rebuilt the fall budget around that.
Entry: yield 1. (verb) to give way under pressure or force. 2. (verb) to produce as a crop or a result. 3. (noun) the amount of a crop that is grown. 4. (verb) to let another go first.Noah reads a sentence from a farm report and the entry under it. Which sense of yield fits?
- to plan the fall budget around it
- to produce as a crop or a result
- to give way under pressure or force
- the amount of a crop that is grown
Sentence
The contractor proved so dilatory that the porch promised for May was still a pile of lumber in August, and the owners finally planned their cookout around it.
Ren reads a sentence from a homeowners' newsletter. What does dilatory mean here?
- quick to start and quick to finish
- slow to act and prone to delay
- widened or opened out, as an eye does
- hired to build a porch for the owners
Sentence
After two hours of argument over parking rules, the council agreed to table the question until its March meeting.
Entry: table 1. (noun) a flat-topped piece of furniture. 2. (noun) facts arranged in rows and columns. 3. (verb, U.S.) to set aside to take up at a later time. 4. (verb) to write something down in a list.Tala reads a sentence from a council summary and the entry under it. Which sense of table fits?
- to set aside to take up at a later time
- to write something down in a list
- facts arranged in rows and columns
- to argue for two hours about parking rules
Sentence
Though the apartment looked as if a storm had passed through it, its owner was punctilious about one thing, the spice rack, where every jar stood in alphabetical order with its label facing out.
Zee reads a sentence from a roommate profile. What does punctilious mean here?
- very keen on arriving exactly on time
- easy to please and unbothered by details
- extremely careful about small details
- messy and careless about the home