Summarize a complex text fairly
Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
The Dark Jars (story)
[1] Every Saturday, Ari and Bo ran Aunt Mireille's honey stand at the Linden Street farmers' market, arranging the jars in neat rows beneath a striped awning. [2] Ari believed that a stand should look like a shop window, so every jar on the table had to match the others in color, size and label. [3] When the August harvest came in much darker than the pale June honey, Ari hid those jars in a crate under the table, worried that customers would think they had gone bad.
[4] Bo, who had helped with the hives all spring, explained that honey's color depends on which flowers the bees visit, so the late-summer jars simply came from different blossoms. [5] Ari found this interesting but argued that busy shoppers wanted a familiar product, not a lesson about flowers. [6] The crate stayed hidden for two Saturdays, and the stand sold its usual number of jars, mostly to shoppers headed for the peach stand.
[7] On the third Saturday, a regular named Mr. Haddad noticed the crate, lifted out a dark jar and asked why it was hidden. [8] After hearing about the late-summer flowers, Mr. Haddad tasted a spoonful from the sample tray and bought two jars instead of putting the dark one back. [9] He returned the next week with a neighbor, and the two compared the pale honey with the dark as if judging a contest. [10] Ari, watching three more customers join in, realized that the difference between the jars had given people something to talk about with one another and with the stand.
[11] By September, Ari had moved the dark jars back onto the table, with a small card beside each batch naming the month it came from. [12] Customers began to ask for honey by the month, and several arrived at the same hour each week, partly for the honey and partly for the talk. [13] Aunt Mireille noticed that the stand now had regulars who knew one another's names, something it had never had when every jar looked the same. [14] The crate under the table now held only empty boxes, and the rows of jars above it ran from pale gold to deep brown. Draft summary: (1) Ari ran a honey stand and believed every jar had to match, so the darker August honey was hidden in a crate. (2) In September the dark jars went back on the table with cards naming each batch's month.
Kira wrote the draft summary below the story. Which idea from the story does the draft leave out?
- That Ari first hid the darker honey in a crate because the jars on the table had to match one another.
- That talk about the different jars turned customers into regulars who knew one another.
- That Ari was foolish to think shoppers would dislike honey of a different color.
- That the stand stood beneath a striped awning at the Linden Street farmers' market.
The Fastest Desk (story)
[1] In June, Esme took a summer job at the front desk of the Harbor View Hotel, where the manager, Mr. Sato, timed each clerk's check-ins and posted the averages on a card behind the counter. [2] Esme memorized the check-in script in two days, and by the end of the first week had the fastest average, a little under three minutes a guest. [3] Jun, back for a second summer, took nearly twice as long, often leaving the script to ask guests where they were headed and what they planned to do.
[4] Esme privately considered those questions a waste of time, since the script already covered the room number, the key card and the checkout hour. [5] During the second week, however, Esme noticed that many guests checked in at the fast end of the counter came back within an hour. [6] One asked where to park a rented van, another wanted to know whether breakfast started before an early ferry, and a third needed a crib nobody had requested. [7] Out of curiosity, Esme kept a tally on a notepad for three days, marking each return trip and the minutes it took to solve.
[8] When the tally was added up, Esme's guests had come back almost three times as often as Jun's, and the return trips had used more time than the script had saved. [9] Esme showed the notepad to Mr. Sato, who studied it and then asked whether the card was measuring the right thing. [10] The next week, Esme began asking each guest one question before reaching for a key card, usually about the trip or the next morning's plans. [11] The answers often led straight to the problems that had once sent guests back to the desk: a parking pass, an early breakfast tray, a crib carried up before arrival. [12] Esme's average check-in rose to almost four minutes, while the return trips dropped to a handful each day. [13] Mr. Sato replaced the card with one that tracked how many guests needed to come back, and Jun's name stood at the top. [14] Esme copied Jun's habit of asking about the morning, and stopped glancing at the clock while guests answered.
Ari marks two idea lines on the strip: the speed of each check-in, and attention to each guest. Which one-sentence summary keeps both lines?
- Esme's guests came back to the desk with questions because Esme started asking about their plans, so check-ins grew slower.
- Esme memorized the check-in script and had the fastest average on the card, though the average later rose to almost four minutes.
- Esme had the fastest check-ins until a tally showed that skipping guests' plans sent them back to the desk, so Esme began asking one question first.
- Esme learned to ask each hotel guest about the trip before handing over a key card, just as Jun had done since the start of summer.
Bo wants to report sentence 8 objectively. Which wording keeps the story's own limits and adds no judgment?
- The tally showed that every one of Esme's guests came back to the desk, while not a single one of Jun's guests did.
- The tally showed that the card behind the counter measured the wrong thing, since Esme's guests returned almost three times as often.
- The tally showed that Esme's guests returned almost three times as often as Jun's, and that the trips took more time than the script saved.
- The tally exposed Esme's sloppy check-ins, whose guests trudged back to the desk almost three times as often as Jun's.
The Fastest Desk (story)
[1] In June, Esme took a summer job at the front desk of the Harbor View Hotel, where the manager, Mr. Sato, timed each clerk's check-ins and posted the averages on a card behind the counter. [2] Esme memorized the check-in script in two days, and by the end of the first week had the fastest average, a little under three minutes a guest. [3] Jun, back for a second summer, took nearly twice as long, often leaving the script to ask guests where they were headed and what they planned to do.
[4] Esme privately considered those questions a waste of time, since the script already covered the room number, the key card and the checkout hour. [5] During the second week, however, Esme noticed that many guests checked in at the fast end of the counter came back within an hour. [6] One asked where to park a rented van, another wanted to know whether breakfast started before an early ferry, and a third needed a crib nobody had requested. [7] Out of curiosity, Esme kept a tally on a notepad for three days, marking each return trip and the minutes it took to solve.
[8] When the tally was added up, Esme's guests had come back almost three times as often as Jun's, and the return trips had used more time than the script had saved. [9] Esme showed the notepad to Mr. Sato, who studied it and then asked whether the card was measuring the right thing. [10] The next week, Esme began asking each guest one question before reaching for a key card, usually about the trip or the next morning's plans. [11] The answers often led straight to the problems that had once sent guests back to the desk: a parking pass, an early breakfast tray, a crib carried up before arrival. [12] Esme's average check-in rose to almost four minutes, while the return trips dropped to a handful each day. [13] Mr. Sato replaced the card with one that tracked how many guests needed to come back, and Jun's name stood at the top. [14] Esme copied Jun's habit of asking about the morning, and stopped glancing at the clock while guests answered. Draft summary: (1) Esme took a summer job at a hotel desk and soon had the fastest check-in average on the manager's card. (2) Esme then began asking each guest one question, and Mr. Sato changed the card to track how many guests came back.
Luz wrote the draft summary below the story. Which idea from the story does the draft leave out?
- That a tally showed the fast check-ins sent guests back and used more time than they saved.
- That one guest needed to know where to park a rented van.
- That Esme first measured the job by the speed shown on the card.
- That Esme learned a good clerk should stop caring how long a check-in takes and stop looking at the clock.
The Ditch That Trained Engineers (article)
[1] When New York began digging the Erie Canal in 1817, the state had almost no trained engineers, and many critics mocked the project as "Clinton's Ditch," after Governor DeWitt Clinton, who had championed it. [2] The plan called for a channel of about 363 miles, running from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffalo on Lake Erie, through forests, swamps and rising ground. [3] The men placed in charge of the work, including Benjamin Wright and James Geddes, were land surveyors who had never built a canal before.
[4] Because no school in the country taught canal building, the builders learned on the job, testing their methods along easier stretches before attempting the harder ones. [5] One young assistant, Canvass White, traveled to Britain to study its canals and returned with ideas that the crews soon put to use. [6] White later developed a cement that hardened under water, which made it possible to build stone locks that would hold. [7] Many of the younger men who learned surveying and building on the canal went on to plan other canals and early railroads, and for this reason the Erie Canal is sometimes called the first American school of engineering.
[8] The canal opened in 1825, and its effect on trade was faster and larger than even its supporters had predicted. [9] Before the canal, hauling grain from western New York to the coast by wagon could cost a large share of what the grain would sell for. [10] Canal boats, pulled by mules or horses walking along a towpath, carried the same load for a small fraction of that cost. [11] Farm goods flowed east toward New York City, while manufactured goods and settlers flowed west toward the Great Lakes. [12] New York City grew into the busiest port in the United States, a position that the canal helped it hold for many decades. [13] Other states, seeing these results, began digging canals of their own, often hiring engineers who had trained on the Erie. [14] The project that critics had called a ditch thus produced two things at once: a route for trade and a generation of builders who knew how to make more such routes.
Milo marks two idea lines on the strip: builders learning engineering on the job, and the canal changing trade. Which one-sentence summary keeps both lines?
- After it opened in 1825, the Erie Canal cut the cost of moving goods and helped New York City become the busiest port in the country.
- The Erie Canal, a triumph that silenced its foolish critics, was built by self-taught surveyors and transformed American trade.
- Built by surveyors who learned canal engineering on the job, the Erie Canal transformed trade, and its success spread canal building using the engineers it trained.
- Because the canal made New York City the busiest port, the state hired surveyors who learned engineering on the job to build it.
Noah wants to report sentence 7 objectively. Which wording keeps the article's own limits and adds no judgment?
- Many of the canal's younger workers later planned other canals and railroads, the most impressive result of a truly remarkable project.
- Many of the canal's younger workers later planned other canals and railroads, which is why the canal is sometimes called America's first engineering school.
- All of the canal's younger workers later planned other canals and railroads, which is why the canal is always called America's first engineering school by historians.
- Many of the canal's untrained amateurs later stumbled into careers planning other canals and railroads.
The Ditch That Trained Engineers (article)
[1] When New York began digging the Erie Canal in 1817, the state had almost no trained engineers, and many critics mocked the project as "Clinton's Ditch," after Governor DeWitt Clinton, who had championed it. [2] The plan called for a channel of about 363 miles, running from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffalo on Lake Erie, through forests, swamps and rising ground. [3] The men placed in charge of the work, including Benjamin Wright and James Geddes, were land surveyors who had never built a canal before.
[4] Because no school in the country taught canal building, the builders learned on the job, testing their methods along easier stretches before attempting the harder ones. [5] One young assistant, Canvass White, traveled to Britain to study its canals and returned with ideas that the crews soon put to use. [6] White later developed a cement that hardened under water, which made it possible to build stone locks that would hold. [7] Many of the younger men who learned surveying and building on the canal went on to plan other canals and early railroads, and for this reason the Erie Canal is sometimes called the first American school of engineering.
[8] The canal opened in 1825, and its effect on trade was faster and larger than even its supporters had predicted. [9] Before the canal, hauling grain from western New York to the coast by wagon could cost a large share of what the grain would sell for. [10] Canal boats, pulled by mules or horses walking along a towpath, carried the same load for a small fraction of that cost. [11] Farm goods flowed east toward New York City, while manufactured goods and settlers flowed west toward the Great Lakes. [12] New York City grew into the busiest port in the United States, a position that the canal helped it hold for many decades. [13] Other states, seeing these results, began digging canals of their own, often hiring engineers who had trained on the Erie. [14] The project that critics had called a ditch thus produced two things at once: a route for trade and a generation of builders who knew how to make more such routes. Draft summary: (1) New York began the Erie Canal in 1817 with land surveyors in charge who had never built a canal. (2) The builders learned on the job, and Canvass White developed a cement that hardened under water.
Pia wrote the draft summary below the article. Which idea from the article does the draft leave out?
- That the critics who mocked the project as a ditch were proved embarrassingly wrong.
- That the state built the canal mainly to train engineers for the railroads that would come after it.
- That once open, the canal cut shipping costs and helped make New York City the busiest port.
- That the canal's route ran through forests, swamps and rising ground.
A Calendar Written in Wood (article)
[1] In the early 1900s, an astronomer named Andrew Ellicott Douglass, who worked at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, began studying tree rings for a reason that had little to do with trees. [2] Douglass wanted to know whether changes in the sun, such as the cycle of sunspots, affected the weather on Earth, and he needed a record of past climate far longer than any written one. [3] He reasoned that in a dry region a tree grows a wide ring in a wet year and a narrow ring in a dry year, so an old trunk might record centuries of rainfall.
[4] Comparing many trees, Douglass found that the same pattern of wide and narrow rings appeared across a large area, because the trees had lived through the same wet and dry years. [5] This allowed him to match the pattern in a living tree with the pattern in an older log, a method now called cross-dating, and so to push the record further back. [6] The link he hoped to find between sunspots and rainfall was never firmly established, but the method he built to look for it proved far more useful than he expected.
[7] Archaeologists in the Southwest soon saw that the same method could date the wooden beams in the old pueblo buildings found across the region. [8] Douglass gathered beams from many sites and built two separate records, one from living trees and one from ancient beams, but for years the two would not connect. [9] In 1929, a beam recovered at Show Low, Arizona, held the rings that bridged the gap, and the two records finally joined. [10] Soon dozens of buildings whose ages had been guesses could be dated to the year their beams were cut. [11] In 1937, Douglass founded the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, which still studies rings today. [12] Scientists now use tree rings to trace past droughts and to check other dating methods. [13] A question about the sky had produced a calendar written in wood. [14] In this way, the method Douglass invented for one purpose became valuable chiefly for another, and the second use has outlasted the first.
Ren marks two idea lines on the strip: a question about the sun and climate, and dating old buildings. Which one-sentence summary keeps both lines?
- Andrew Douglass began reading tree rings to study the sun's effect on climate, and the method he built became a way to date old buildings in the Southwest.
- Andrew Douglass studied tree rings to learn whether sunspots affected rainfall, matching patterns across many trees to build a long record of climate.
- Andrew Douglass's brilliant tree-ring method failed at its first goal but triumphed by dating ancient buildings in the Southwest.
- Because archaeologists needed to date pueblo beams, Andrew Douglass began studying tree rings, which also gave a record of past climate.
Tala wants to report sentence 6 objectively. Which wording keeps the article's own limits and adds no judgment?
- Douglass wasted years on a sunspot link he never established, though his method proved more useful than he expected.
- Douglass never firmly established the sunspot link he hoped for, but his method proved more useful than he expected.
- Douglass's pet theory about sunspots collapsed, but his method proved far more useful than he expected.
- Douglass showed that sunspots shape rainfall, and his method also proved more useful than he expected.
A Calendar Written in Wood (article)
[1] In the early 1900s, an astronomer named Andrew Ellicott Douglass, who worked at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, began studying tree rings for a reason that had little to do with trees. [2] Douglass wanted to know whether changes in the sun, such as the cycle of sunspots, affected the weather on Earth, and he needed a record of past climate far longer than any written one. [3] He reasoned that in a dry region a tree grows a wide ring in a wet year and a narrow ring in a dry year, so an old trunk might record centuries of rainfall.
[4] Comparing many trees, Douglass found that the same pattern of wide and narrow rings appeared across a large area, because the trees had lived through the same wet and dry years. [5] This allowed him to match the pattern in a living tree with the pattern in an older log, a method now called cross-dating, and so to push the record further back. [6] The link he hoped to find between sunspots and rainfall was never firmly established, but the method he built to look for it proved far more useful than he expected.
[7] Archaeologists in the Southwest soon saw that the same method could date the wooden beams in the old pueblo buildings found across the region. [8] Douglass gathered beams from many sites and built two separate records, one from living trees and one from ancient beams, but for years the two would not connect. [9] In 1929, a beam recovered at Show Low, Arizona, held the rings that bridged the gap, and the two records finally joined. [10] Soon dozens of buildings whose ages had been guesses could be dated to the year their beams were cut. [11] In 1937, Douglass founded the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, which still studies rings today. [12] Scientists now use tree rings to trace past droughts and to check other dating methods. [13] A question about the sky had produced a calendar written in wood. [14] In this way, the method Douglass invented for one purpose became valuable chiefly for another, and the second use has outlasted the first. Draft summary: (1) Andrew Douglass began studying tree rings to learn whether the sun affected Earth's climate. (2) Archaeologists later used his method to date the wooden beams of old pueblo buildings.
Zee wrote the draft summary below the article. Which idea from the article does the draft leave out?
- That the sunspot question turned out to be a disappointing failure for Douglass.
- That archaeologists used the rings to date the beams of old pueblo buildings across the Southwest.
- That tree rings are now the most exact dating method scientists have.
- That cross-dating, built for the climate question, is what made the dating possible.