How the shape of the whole text carries its meaning
Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
The Bell over the Door (story)
[1] The bell over the door of Okonkwo Cycle rang at eight on Ren’s first morning, and a mail carrier walked in holding a front wheel bent into the shape of a potato chip. [2] Ren had been hired to sweep the floor and sort the bins of bolts, so the wheel went straight to Mrs. Okonkwo, who had owned the shop for twenty-two years. [3] All through June, Ren watched the owner true wheels on the repair stand, plucking each spoke like a guitar string and tightening it a quarter turn at a time. [4] The secret, Mrs. Okonkwo explained, was patience, because a wheel pulled too hard in one place will simply bend somewhere else.
[5] In July the shop became so busy that Ren was finally allowed to fix flat tires, and later to adjust the brakes on bicycles that squealed like startled geese. [6] The real test arrived on a rainy Tuesday in August, when Mrs. Okonkwo was away at an appointment and a commuter appeared with a wheel that wobbled dangerously. [7] Ren set the wheel on the stand, plucked the spokes one by one, and listened carefully for the dull notes that identified the loose ones. [8] It took almost an hour of quarter turns, and twice the wobble traveled around the rim instead of shrinking, exactly as the owner had warned. [9] When the rim finally spun straight between the brake pads, the commuter paid, thanked Ren, and pedaled away through the puddles without a backward glance. [10] Mrs. Okonkwo inspected the wheel the next morning, said nothing for a long moment, and then moved Ren’s name from the sweeping list to the repair board.
[11] By the end of the summer the shop had hired a second student, Bo, to sweep the floor and sort the bins of bolts. [12] On Bo’s first morning, the bell over the door rang at eight, and a delivery cyclist walked in holding a front wheel bent like a potato chip. [13] Ren took the wheel, set it on the stand, and showed Bo how to pluck the first spoke and listen. [14] This time the wheel did not have to be handed to anyone else.
Esme is filling in the beginning margin. Why does the story start with the bell, the hour and the bent wheel in sentence 1?
- It creates suspense about whether the mail carrier will be angry with the shop later on.
- It tells us that a mail carrier rode into a pothole and needed a new wheel that morning.
- The story really begins in sentence 6, when the test comes on a rainy Tuesday in August.
- It sets up an image the ending repeats, so the reader can measure how far Ren has come.
Pia is labeling the end margin. What kind of ending does this story have?
- A sad ending: Ren has to watch somebody new take over the job of sweeping the floor.
- A circular, happy ending: the opening scene returns, but now Ren is the one who fixes the wheel.
- An open ending: we do not learn whether Ren can actually fix the wheel that comes in on Bo’s first day.
- An ending about Bo, who is hired to sweep the floor and sort the bins of bolts.
Signing Off (story)
[1] The community radio station in the old firehouse on Maple Street broadcast only in summer, and Luz and Jun had hosted its Thursday evening show since June. [2] On the last Thursday of August, the station manager, Mr. Delacroix, warned the two hosts that the board would vote in September on whether the station could afford another season. [3] The transmitter was older than the hosts, the roof leaked onto the record shelves, and the grant that paid the electric bill had run out in July. [4] Luz and Jun decided not to mention any of this on the air, because the show had always been about the town rather than about the station.
[5] For two hours they played requests, read the weather, and interviewed a retired bus driver who had memorized every pothole on Route 6. [6] Near the end, a caller who would not give a name asked them to play the song that had closed the station’s very first broadcast in 1987. [7] Neither host knew the song, and the station’s handwritten logbook from that year had disappeared when the roof first began to leak. [8] Jun stalled by reading the community calendar, while Luz searched the shelves and discovered, behind a box of old cassettes, a record with a faded paper label that said FIRST NIGHT. [9] They played it without knowing whether it was the right song, and the telephone line stayed silent for the entire three minutes. [10] At nine o’clock, Jun read the station identification, and Luz switched off the microphone that would stay off until next summer, if there was a next summer.
[11] Walking home, the two hosts argued cheerfully about whether the caller had been pleased, disappointed or simply asleep. [12] Neither could say what the board would decide, or whether the record with the faded label had been the song the caller remembered. [13] Luz kept the record in a backpack anyway, just in case someone needed it in September. [14] Behind them, the red light on the firehouse antenna kept blinking over the dark street.
Ren is filling in the beginning margin. Why does the story put the board’s vote in sentence 2, before the show begins?
- It explains why Luz and Jun decide to talk about the station’s money troubles on the air.
- It tells us that the station is in an old firehouse and broadcasts in summer.
- It plants a question over the whole broadcast: will this be the station’s last night?
- The story really begins with the mysterious caller in sentence 6, near the end of the show.
Tala is marking the turn. Where does this story turn?
- Sentence 10: Luz switches off the microphone at nine o’clock, until next summer.
- Sentence 6: the unnamed caller’s request adds a mystery to the ordinary last show.
- Sentence 5: the hosts interview a retired bus driver who has memorized the potholes on Route 6.
- Sentence 8: the hosts find a record labeled FIRST NIGHT behind a box of old cassettes.
The Bell over the Door (story)
[1] The bell over the door of Okonkwo Cycle rang at eight on Ren’s first morning, and a mail carrier walked in holding a front wheel bent into the shape of a potato chip. [2] Ren had been hired to sweep the floor and sort the bins of bolts, so the wheel went straight to Mrs. Okonkwo, who had owned the shop for twenty-two years. [3] All through June, Ren watched the owner true wheels on the repair stand, plucking each spoke like a guitar string and tightening it a quarter turn at a time. [4] The secret, Mrs. Okonkwo explained, was patience, because a wheel pulled too hard in one place will simply bend somewhere else.
[5] In July the shop became so busy that Ren was finally allowed to fix flat tires, and later to adjust the brakes on bicycles that squealed like startled geese. [6] The real test arrived on a rainy Tuesday in August, when Mrs. Okonkwo was away at an appointment and a commuter appeared with a wheel that wobbled dangerously. [7] Ren set the wheel on the stand, plucked the spokes one by one, and listened carefully for the dull notes that identified the loose ones. [8] It took almost an hour of quarter turns, and twice the wobble traveled around the rim instead of shrinking, exactly as the owner had warned. [9] When the rim finally spun straight between the brake pads, the commuter paid, thanked Ren, and pedaled away through the puddles without a backward glance. [10] Mrs. Okonkwo inspected the wheel the next morning, said nothing for a long moment, and then moved Ren’s name from the sweeping list to the repair board.
[11] By the end of the summer the shop had hired a second student, Bo, to sweep the floor and sort the bins of bolts. [12] On Bo’s first morning, the bell over the door rang at eight, and a delivery cyclist walked in holding a front wheel bent like a potato chip. [13] Ren took the wheel, set it on the stand, and showed Bo how to pluck the first spoke and listen. [14] This time the wheel did not have to be handed to anyone else.
Ari looks at sentence 2, which says Ren was hired to sweep and sort bolts. Why place this near the start?
- It belongs to the end, because Bo is hired to do these same jobs in sentence 11.
- It explains which jobs a bicycle shop needs its workers to do each day.
- It shows where Ren begins, so the move to the repair board in sentence 10 means something.
- It shows that Ren dislikes sweeping and is already planning to quit the job.
Esme reads sentence 8: “twice the wobble traveled around the rim instead of shrinking.” What does this moment add to the turn?
- Nothing much: it is just a detail about how bicycle wheels behave when they are adjusted.
- It is the story’s turn, the moment when Ren decides to give up and call the owner.
- The repair nearly fails, so the success in sentence 9 is earned by the patience Ren was taught.
- It reveals that Mrs. Okonkwo’s advice in sentence 4 had been wrong from the start.
Signing Off (story)
[1] The community radio station in the old firehouse on Maple Street broadcast only in summer, and Luz and Jun had hosted its Thursday evening show since June. [2] On the last Thursday of August, the station manager, Mr. Delacroix, warned the two hosts that the board would vote in September on whether the station could afford another season. [3] The transmitter was older than the hosts, the roof leaked onto the record shelves, and the grant that paid the electric bill had run out in July. [4] Luz and Jun decided not to mention any of this on the air, because the show had always been about the town rather than about the station.
[5] For two hours they played requests, read the weather, and interviewed a retired bus driver who had memorized every pothole on Route 6. [6] Near the end, a caller who would not give a name asked them to play the song that had closed the station’s very first broadcast in 1987. [7] Neither host knew the song, and the station’s handwritten logbook from that year had disappeared when the roof first began to leak. [8] Jun stalled by reading the community calendar, while Luz searched the shelves and discovered, behind a box of old cassettes, a record with a faded paper label that said FIRST NIGHT. [9] They played it without knowing whether it was the right song, and the telephone line stayed silent for the entire three minutes. [10] At nine o’clock, Jun read the station identification, and Luz switched off the microphone that would stay off until next summer, if there was a next summer.
[11] Walking home, the two hosts argued cheerfully about whether the caller had been pleased, disappointed or simply asleep. [12] Neither could say what the board would decide, or whether the record with the faded label had been the song the caller remembered. [13] Luz kept the record in a backpack anyway, just in case someone needed it in September. [14] Behind them, the red light on the firehouse antenna kept blinking over the dark street.
Bo looks at sentence 3, which lists the transmitter, the roof and the grant. What does this opening list do?
- It is the story’s real beginning, because nothing important happens before sentence 3 begins to list the troubles.
- It describes the equipment and the building that a small radio station needs to run.
- It piles up the station’s troubles, so the reader shares the worry hanging over the show.
- It shows that the hosts have been careless and have let the station fall apart.
Kira reads sentence 9: the phone line stays silent while the record plays. How does this silence affect the turn?
- The silence leaves the mystery unsolved, so the turn adds a question instead of answering one.
- Nothing changes: the hosts simply move on to the station identification at nine.
- It shows the caller was satisfied, since a happy listener would have no reason to call again that night.
- The silence is the real beginning of the story, because the evening’s show starts there.
The Bell over the Door (story)
[1] The bell over the door of Okonkwo Cycle rang at eight on Ren’s first morning, and a mail carrier walked in holding a front wheel bent into the shape of a potato chip. [2] Ren had been hired to sweep the floor and sort the bins of bolts, so the wheel went straight to Mrs. Okonkwo, who had owned the shop for twenty-two years. [3] All through June, Ren watched the owner true wheels on the repair stand, plucking each spoke like a guitar string and tightening it a quarter turn at a time. [4] The secret, Mrs. Okonkwo explained, was patience, because a wheel pulled too hard in one place will simply bend somewhere else.
[5] In July the shop became so busy that Ren was finally allowed to fix flat tires, and later to adjust the brakes on bicycles that squealed like startled geese. [6] The real test arrived on a rainy Tuesday in August, when Mrs. Okonkwo was away at an appointment and a commuter appeared with a wheel that wobbled dangerously. [7] Ren set the wheel on the stand, plucked the spokes one by one, and listened carefully for the dull notes that identified the loose ones. [8] It took almost an hour of quarter turns, and twice the wobble traveled around the rim instead of shrinking, exactly as the owner had warned. [9] When the rim finally spun straight between the brake pads, the commuter paid, thanked Ren, and pedaled away through the puddles without a backward glance. [10] Mrs. Okonkwo inspected the wheel the next morning, said nothing for a long moment, and then moved Ren’s name from the sweeping list to the repair board.
[11] By the end of the summer the shop had hired a second student, Bo, to sweep the floor and sort the bins of bolts. [12] On Bo’s first morning, the bell over the door rang at eight, and a delivery cyclist walked in holding a front wheel bent like a potato chip. [13] Ren took the wheel, set it on the stand, and showed Bo how to pluck the first spoke and listen. [14] This time the wheel did not have to be handed to anyone else.
Jun reads the last line: “This time the wheel did not have to be handed to anyone else.” What does it do for the ending?
- It leaves the ending open, since we do not learn who will finally fix the bent wheel.
- It points back to sentence 2, closing the circle and showing the change in one short line.
- It tells us that the delivery cyclist’s wheel was repaired quickly that same morning.
- It settles that Bo will one day become the most skilled mechanic the shop has had.
Signing Off (story)
[1] The community radio station in the old firehouse on Maple Street broadcast only in summer, and Luz and Jun had hosted its Thursday evening show since June. [2] On the last Thursday of August, the station manager, Mr. Delacroix, warned the two hosts that the board would vote in September on whether the station could afford another season. [3] The transmitter was older than the hosts, the roof leaked onto the record shelves, and the grant that paid the electric bill had run out in July. [4] Luz and Jun decided not to mention any of this on the air, because the show had always been about the town rather than about the station.
[5] For two hours they played requests, read the weather, and interviewed a retired bus driver who had memorized every pothole on Route 6. [6] Near the end, a caller who would not give a name asked them to play the song that had closed the station’s very first broadcast in 1987. [7] Neither host knew the song, and the station’s handwritten logbook from that year had disappeared when the roof first began to leak. [8] Jun stalled by reading the community calendar, while Luz searched the shelves and discovered, behind a box of old cassettes, a record with a faded paper label that said FIRST NIGHT. [9] They played it without knowing whether it was the right song, and the telephone line stayed silent for the entire three minutes. [10] At nine o’clock, Jun read the station identification, and Luz switched off the microphone that would stay off until next summer, if there was a next summer.
[11] Walking home, the two hosts argued cheerfully about whether the caller had been pleased, disappointed or simply asleep. [12] Neither could say what the board would decide, or whether the record with the faded label had been the song the caller remembered. [13] Luz kept the record in a backpack anyway, just in case someone needed it in September. [14] Behind them, the red light on the firehouse antenna kept blinking over the dark street.
Milo reads sentence 13: Luz keeps the record “just in case someone needed it in September.” What does this add to the ending?
- It makes the ending sad, because the hosts already know that the station is closing for good.
- It settles the mystery: the record with the faded label was the right song.
- A note of hope inside the open ending: the hosts are ready if the station returns.
- It tells us that Luz carries a backpack and enjoys collecting old records.