Untangle a long sentence from an older text
Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
A Remarkable River (public-domain book excerpt with background and word notes)
Background: [1] Before he became famous as a writer, Mark Twain worked as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. [2] In 1883 he published Life on the Mississippi, a book that mixes his memories with facts about the river. [3] The sentences below come from its first chapter and are copied exactly, with each cut marked. [4] Some of Twain's figures are not the ones geographers give today, so read them as his claims of 1883.
From Life on the Mississippi (1883): [5] It seems safe to say that it is also the crookedest river in the world, since in one part of its journey it uses up one thousand three hundred miles to cover the same ground that the crow would fly over in six hundred and seventy-five. [6] …No other river has so vast a drainage-basin: it draws its water supply from twenty-eight States and Territories; from Delaware, on the Atlantic seaboard, and from all the country between that and Idaho on the Pacific slope—a spread of forty-five degrees of longitude. [7] The Mississippi receives and carries to the Gulf water from fifty-four subordinate rivers that are navigable by steamboats, and from some hundreds that are navigable by flats and keels. [8] …It is a remarkable river in this: that instead of widening toward its mouth, it grows narrower; grows narrower and deeper. [9] From the junction of the Ohio to a point half way down to the sea, the width averages a mile in high water: thence to the sea the width steadily diminishes, until, at the 'Passes,' above the mouth, it is but little over half a mile.
Word notes: [10] A drainage-basin is all the land whose rain and streams flow into one river. [11] Navigable means deep and wide enough for boats. [12] Flats and keels were flat-bottomed boats and keelboats, moved by poles or oars instead of steam. [13] The junction of the Ohio is the place where the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi. [14] Thence means from that place onward, and the Passes are the channels at the river's mouth. [15] The cuts leave out a sentence on the river's flow and one on the size of its basin.
Ari is boxing the main subject and verb of sentence 7 in the frame. Which words go in the box?
- “The Mississippi receives and carries”: one subject with two verbs.
- “that are navigable by steamboats,” the clause after “rivers.”
- “to the Gulf,” right after the two verbs.
- “The Mississippi receives,” the subject with just the first of its two verbs.
Luz draws an arrow from the until-clause at the end of sentence 9. What does that clause tell about?
- How far “the width steadily diminishes”: it keeps narrowing until it is just over half a mile.
- Where “the width averages a mile,” in the first half of the sentence.
- What the Passes look like, as channels at the river's mouth.
- How wide “the sea” is, since the sea is the noun just before the clause, so the clause must belong to it.
Tala is drawing the arrow from “this” in sentence 8. What does “this” point to?
- Back, to “a remarkable river,” the noun just before “this.”
- To the Passes, the channels at the river's mouth that the word notes describe.
- Back, to the fifty-four rivers that sentence 7 names.
- Forward, to the that-clause after the colon: instead of widening toward its mouth, it grows narrower.
Jun is boxing the main subject and verb of sentence 5 in the frame. Which words go in the box?
- “It seems,” at the very start, with “safe to say” completing it.
- “It … is,” the first word joined to the verb of the that-clause.
- “it is also the crookedest river,” in the that-clause.
- “in one part of its journey,” inside the since-clause.
Pia draws an arrow from “and from some hundreds” in sentence 7. What does that phrase attach to?
- To “The Mississippi,” as a second name for the river itself.
- To “receives and carries … water,” as a second source beside “from fifty-four subordinate rivers.”
- To “to the Gulf,” telling how many rivers reach the Gulf directly.
- To “steamboats,” the noun just before it, as more steamboats on the river.
Bo is drawing the arrow from “it” in “it uses up one thousand three hundred miles” in sentence 5. What does “it” point to?
- To the miles, the thousand three hundred of them that are used up.
- To “the world,” the last noun before the since-clause.
- To the Mississippi, the river the sentence calls the crookedest.
- To the Ohio River, which the word notes name.
The Colors of Walden (public-domain book excerpt with background and word notes)
Background: [1] Henry David Thoreau lived in a cabin he built beside Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, from 1845 to 1847. [2] His book Walden, published in 1854, describes those years and the pond itself. [3] The sentences below come from the chapter called “The Ponds” and are copied exactly, with each cut marked.
From Walden (1854): [4] The scenery of Walden is on a humble scale, and, though very beautiful, does not approach to grandeur, nor can it much concern one who has not long frequented it or lived by its shore; yet this pond is so remarkable for its depth and purity as to merit a particular description. [5] It is a clear and deep green well, half a mile long and a mile and three quarters in circumference, and contains about sixty-one and a half acres; a perennial spring in the midst of pine and oak woods, without any visible inlet or outlet except by the clouds and evaporation. [6] …Lying between the earth and the heavens, it partakes of the color of both. [7] Viewed from a hill-top it reflects the color of the sky; but near at hand it is of a yellowish tint next the shore where you can see the sand, then a light green, which gradually deepens to a uniform dark green in the body of the pond. [8] …This is that portion, also, where in the spring, the ice being warmed by the heat of the sun reflected from the bottom, and also transmitted through the earth, melts first and forms a narrow canal about the still frozen middle.
Word notes: [9] Grandeur means great size and splendor. [10] To frequent a place is to visit it often. [11] To merit a particular description is to deserve to be described in detail. [12] Circumference is the distance around a shape. [13] A perennial spring flows all year, and an inlet or outlet is a stream that flows in or out. [14] Partakes of means shares in, and a canal here is a narrow strip of open water.
Zee draws an arrow from “which gradually deepens to a uniform dark green” in sentence 7. What does the which-clause describe?
- “the sand,” which you can see through the water next the shore.
- “a yellowish tint,” the first color named near the shore.
- “it reflects the color of the sky,” telling how the sky's color changes.
- “a light green,” the color after the sand, which deepens farther from shore.
Kira is drawing the arrow from the first “it” in “nor can it much concern one” in sentence 4. What does that “it” point to?
- To the visitors, those who have long frequented the pond.
- To “The scenery of Walden,” the sentence's subject.
- To “grandeur,” the noun just before the nor-clause.
- To Concord, the town that the background names.
Ren is boxing the main subject and verb of sentence 6 in the frame. Which words go in the box?
- “of the color of both,” the words that end the sentence after the verb.
- “the earth … partakes,” the first noun joined to the verb.
- “it partakes,” after the comma: the pond shares the color of both.
- “Lying between the earth and the heavens,” at the start.
Esme draws an arrow from “without any visible inlet or outlet” in sentence 5. What does that phrase describe?
- “half a mile long,” describing the pond's size.
- “a perennial spring,” the pond seen as a spring with no stream flowing in or out.
- “contains about sixty-one and a half acres,” telling how the acres were measured.
- “pine and oak woods,” the nouns just before it.