11th grade Close words with a different edge worksheet

Close words with a different edge

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Referee Report on Manuscript 2217 (formal report)

   [1] To the Editor: I have read the submission twice and report as follows, with the caution that I know this literature chiefly for the period it covers and cannot judge the manuscript against recent work on the region. [2] The author asks how a river town's ferry company survived the arrival of the railroad in 1858, and answers that it did so by quietly converting to a freight business that the railroad had no interest in carrying. [3] The archival work behind this answer is ___(1): the author has traced the company's ledgers through three archives, reconciled two sets of figures that disagree, and noted the point at which a clerk's hand changes.

   [4] The argument built on that work is more uneven. [5] The author writes that the ferry's owners "foresaw" the railroad's decline in the carrying trade, but that verb is ___(2), since the ledgers show only that the owners changed course in 1860. [6] The comparison with the neighboring town of Dunmore, which lost its ferry within a decade, is a good idea, but it arrives late and is handled in two paragraphs. [7] The treatment of Dunmore is therefore ___(3), and I would encourage the author either to expand it into a proper chapter or to cut it.

   [8] The final chapter offers a general theory of how small businesses meet new technology. [9] The theory is stated with ___(4) confidence, and I doubt that a single case, however well documented, can bear it. [10] I would also ask the author to cite the two newspaper accounts of the 1860 change that appear in the notes but not in the bibliography.

   [11] A smaller point concerns the maps. [12] The author's three maps of the river towns show the 1858 shoreline, but the legends do not say which survey they follow, and the second map appears to mix two. [13] I would ask for a short note on sources for each map, since readers who work with ferry records will want to check them.

   [14] I recommend revision and resubmission. [15] With the changes above, the manuscript would make a useful contribution, and I would be glad to read it again.

2. 1.

   Pia helps the referee finish a formal report. Which word fits blank 1 and keeps the measured praise in a formal register?

   • top-notch
   • unimpeachable
   • perfunctory
   • scrupulous
3. 2.

   Ren helps the referee finish a formal report. Which word fits blank 2 and keeps the referee’s judgment of the verb “foresaw”?

   • unsubstantiated
   • irreproachable
   • disingenuous
   • kind of a stretch
4. 3.

   Tala helps the referee finish a formal report. Which word fits blank 3 and keeps the referee’s judgment of the Dunmore comparison?

   • thoroughly developed
   • carelessly handled
   • a bit half-baked
   • underdeveloped
5. 4.

   Zee helps the referee finish a formal report. Which word fits blank 4 and keeps the referee’s doubt in a formal register?

   • carefully measured
   • unwarranted
   • over-the-top
   • dangerously reckless

6. A Letter From the President (neighborhood newsletter)

   [1] Dear neighbors, it is my pleasure to report that this has been the most harmonious year in the history of Linden Court, and I say so having served as your president for eleven of them. [2] Our new parking policy, which I drafted over a weekend, has been a model of clarity; it runs to forty-one pages, and the committee that was asked to read it has asked me for a summary. [3] I am pleased to say that complaints about the policy have fallen sharply since March, when I asked that they be submitted in writing, in triplicate, to a mailbox at the far end of the cul-de-sac.

   [4] The garden committee, a small but spirited group, has now enjoyed a full season without the interference of the flower beds' former tenants, who were thanked for their service and asked, with great warmth, to remove their tools. [5] Several residents have expressed a wish to join the association's board. [6] I have welcomed this enthusiasm warmly and have placed their names on a list, which I keep.

   [7] Some neighbors, I am told, have taken to meeting on the Hartleys' porch on Thursday evenings, apparently to discuss association matters. [8] I regard this as a healthy sign of interest, and I would attend myself were I not so often needed at home to draft further policies. [9] The treasurer's report is, as always, a model of discretion; it contains no figures, which spares our members the strain of reading them.

   [10] I will confess one small disappointment: attendance at the annual meeting, held this year in the library basement at seven on a Tuesday morning, was lower than I had hoped. [11] Those who did come, four in number, voted unanimously to reelect me, and I take this as the clearest possible expression of the will of the Court.

   [12] I wish also to thank the volunteers who made this year's holiday lighting possible. [13] There were two of them, and one has since moved away, which reminds us how much a small number of dedicated people can accomplish. [14] I look forward to another year of harmony.

7. 5.

   Ari reads the president’s phrase “a model of clarity” in sentence 2. What does it show, and about whom?

   • The president is being sarcastic about his own policy, inviting readers to laugh with him at how unreadable it is, a joke he shares with them.
   • The policy really is clear, and the committee asked for a summary so that it could share the policy with neighbors who had not read it.
   • The writer mocks the committee, whose members could not manage a clear policy and needed someone else to summarize it for them.
   • He means it as praise, but a forty-one-page policy that its own committee asked to have summarized is not clear; the joke is on him.
8. 6.

   Bo reads the president’s sentence 3, where complaints “have fallen sharply.” What does the drop show, and who is the target of the irony?

   • The writer mocks residents for not caring enough to mail a complaint in triplicate to a mailbox at the far end of the street.
   • Fewer complaints reflect the triplicate rule and far mailbox, not contentment; he sees success, and the writer mocks his reading.
   • The president knows the mailbox rule discourages complaints and cleverly admits it here, hoping to amuse readers who share his view.
   • Fewer complaints show that residents grew content with the new policy once it had been given a few months to settle in.
9. 7.

   Esme reads the president’s sentence 4, where tenants were “thanked for their service” and asked “with great warmth” to leave. How does the sentence work?

   • The president knows he is pushing the tenants out and uses the warm phrases as a sly cover for readers who will not notice.
   • The writer mocks the former tenants, who lingered on the flower beds for months after being thanked for their service.
   • Courtesy covers an eviction: he thinks his warmth softens the act, but the polite words only make the removal plain.
   • The tenants were honored for their service and left with great warmth on both sides, which is why the committee enjoyed a full season.

10. The Meter Experiment (news analysis)

    [1] In 2023 the city of Alder Falls raised downtown parking fees from one dollar to two dollars an hour and extended enforcement from six o'clock to nine o'clock in the evening. [2] A year later the city's finance office reported that meter revenue had risen from 3.1 million to 4.4 million dollars, an increase of about 42 percent, though collection costs had also risen by roughly 0.6 million dollars. [3] The same report counted weekday evening visitors to the downtown business district: 5,200 a week before the change and 4,300 a week after, a decline of about 17 percent. [4] Over the same twelve months, a nearby district without meters lost about 6 percent of its evening visitors. [5] The report does not examine why, though it notes that a grocery opened in that district during the year.

    [6] Opponents of the change have called it a "tax on the very people who keep downtown alive," and one council member has said it "drove customers away." [7] Supporters reply that it is a "modest user fee" which "paid for itself many times over" and "cleaned up the curb." [8] The report offers little to support the last claim: occupancy fell in the evening, but the finance office did not measure turnover or the number of cars circling for spaces.

    [9] Restaurant owners surveyed by the chamber of commerce were divided, with nine of twenty-six saying their evening sales had fallen and eleven reporting no change. [10] Six did not answer. [11] What can fairly be said is therefore narrower than either side's slogans, and the report leaves the question of cause open. [12] Neither side has yet asked the finance office to compare evening visits over the three years before the change, which would show whether the downtown decline was already under way. [13] Until that comparison exists, every claim about the fees, whether made by opponents or by supporters, rests on a pair of numbers and a hope.

11. 8.

    Kira edits council notes. Which rewrite of “drove customers away” keeps what the report supports and drops the slant?

    • The change was followed by a drop of about 17 percent in weekday evening visitors, against about 6 percent nearby.
    • The change was followed by some shift in weekday evening visitors, which may have had a great many different causes.
    • The change chased off about 17 percent of weekday evening visitors, against about 6 percent in a nearby district without meters.
    • The change was followed by a drop of about 17 percent in weekday evening visitors, while a nearby district without meters held steady.
12. 9.

    Luz edits council notes. Which rewrite of “paid for itself many times over” keeps what the report supports and drops the slant?

    • The change was a windfall for the city, raising meter revenue by about 1.3 million dollars in a single year.
    • The change raised meter revenue to 4.4 million dollars, which is about 3.1 million more than the city collected before.
    • The change raised meter revenue by about 1.3 million dollars; about 0.6 million went to higher collection costs.
    • The change raised meter revenue, though the costs of collecting the money also rose during the year.
13. 10.

    Noah edits council notes. Which rewrite of “cleaned up the curb” keeps what the report supports and drops the slant?

    • The change had some effect on parking downtown, though the report does not say what that effect was.
    • Evening occupancy fell, and the number of cars circling the blocks looking for spaces fell with it.
    • Evening occupancy fell, but the office did not measure turnover or the number of cars circling for spaces.
    • The change freed the curb for the drivers who really wanted to park, since evening occupancy fell.