How an article builds one person, event or idea
Grade 6 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
Mapping the Way for Wheels (article)
[1] Most maps show where a street goes but not whether a wheelchair can use it. [2] Mina Castellanos, a mapmaker in the city of Bellmont, noticed this gap after her cousin Teo spent twenty minutes searching for an entrance without steps. [3] She decided to build a map that answered the question other maps left out.
[4] Mina and a team of student volunteers walked and rolled through downtown, measuring curb cuts, ramp slopes, and door widths. [5] They did not label entrances as simply accessible or not, because a ramp can be too steep for one person and fine for another. [6] Instead, the map gives each entrance a number for its ramp steepness and its door width, so riders can decide.
[7] When the first map went online, a delivery driver wrote that it saved her forty minutes a day. [8] A clinic then asked Mina to survey its parking lot, where she found two entrances blocked by planters. [9] The clinic moved the planters within a week.
[10] Mina admits that the map is a little out of date, since construction changes sidewalks faster than volunteers can measure. [11] To keep it current, she added a button that lets any user report a changed curb. [12] More than two hundred reports arrived in the first month.
Sentence 5 explains why Mina did not label entrances simply accessible or not accessible. Ari asks how sentence 6 builds on that. Which choice is right?
- It shows the result when a clinic moved two planters away from its doors within a week.
- It describes what the map does instead: it gives measurements so each rider can judge an entrance.
- It says the map ranks the entrances in Bellmont from the strongest one to the weakest one.
- It repeats that a ramp can be too steep for one rider and still be fine for another rider.
Bo wants to show that the map helped both individuals and organizations. Which pair of sentences shows it best?
- Sentence 4, volunteers measuring curbs and ramps, and sentence 6, the map giving each entrance a number.
- Sentence 8, a clinic asking for a survey, and sentence 9, the clinic moving its planters.
- Sentence 11, a button for reporting curbs, and sentence 12, two hundred reports in a month.
- Sentence 7, a driver saving forty minutes a day, and sentence 8, a clinic asking Mina to survey its lot.
Sentence 8 says a clinic asked Mina to survey its parking lot. Jun asks how sentence 9 builds on that. Which choice is right?
- It repeats that two entrances were blocked by planters in the clinic's parking lot at the time.
- It explains how the delivery driver found the clinic by using the online map each day.
- It shows that the clinic wanted Mina to replace the blocked planters with new ramps.
- It shows a result: the clinic fixed the blocked entrances Mina's survey found within a week.
Moving the Pelican Point Lighthouse (article)
[1] In the town of Pelican Point, the old lighthouse stood only forty feet from the edge of a crumbling cliff. [2] The sea had been eating the shoreline for decades, and engineers warned that the next big storm might send the tower into the water. [3] The town faced a hard choice between tearing the lighthouse down and trying to move it.
[4] Many residents wanted to save the tower, which had guided ships for more than a century. [5] Others worried that the move would cost more than the town could afford and might crack the old brick. [6] A committee finally voted to try, after a contractor showed that the tower could be lifted onto steel beams and rolled on rails.
[7] The move began in April and covered almost a mile in twenty-three days. [8] Crews inched the tower along its rails, a few feet at a time, while engineers checked the walls for cracks each morning. [9] Thousands of visitors came to watch, and local shops stayed open late to serve them.
[10] The lighthouse now stands well back from the cliff on a concrete base. [11] A few residents still believe the money should have gone to the schools. [12] Even so, a survey a year later found that most people felt the move was worth the cost.
Sentence 5 gives a worry some residents had. Kira asks how sentence 6 builds on it. Which choice is right?
- It shows a plan that answered the worry, so the committee agreed to try the move.
- It repeats that the old brick of the tower might crack during the move along the rails.
- It shows the committee voting against the move because it cost too much.
- It explains how long the tower had guided ships before the cliff crumbled.
Milo compares paragraph 1 with paragraph 4. How does the article's view of the move change?
- It starts with a risky choice facing the town and ends mostly positive, with some doubt left.
- It starts with the town agreeing on a plan and ends with no one doubting it.
- It starts with a small repair job and ends with the lighthouse being torn down.
- It starts with certainty that the move would work and ends with the town regretting the cost.
Noah wants to show that opinion in town was still mixed after the move was finished. Which pair of sentences shows it best?
- Sentence 8, crews moving the tower slowly, and sentence 9, shops staying open late for the visitors.
- Sentence 4, residents wanting to save the tower, and sentence 5, others worrying about the cost of a move in town.
- Sentence 10, the tower on a concrete base, and sentence 12, a survey finding most people pleased a year later.
- Sentence 11, a few residents still wanting the money for schools, and sentence 12, a survey finding most people pleased.
Why Farmers Change Their Crops (article)
[1] Why would a farmer leave a field of healthy corn and plant something different next year? [2] The answer is an old practice called crop rotation, which means growing different crops in the same field in a planned order. [3] Farmers use it because no single crop treats the soil the same way as another.
[4] Corn takes a great deal of nitrogen from the soil, and a field planted with corn year after year slowly runs low. [5] Beans and peas work in the opposite direction, because bacteria living on their roots add nitrogen back. [6] A farmer who follows corn with beans therefore gives the soil a chance to recover.
[7] Rotation also helps with pests. [8] An insect that feeds on corn roots may starve if the field holds beans the next spring, since the young insects hatch where their food is no longer growing. [9] Studies on test plots often find that rotated fields need fewer chemicals than fields of a single crop.
[10] Rotation is not simple, however, because a farmer needs equipment and buyers for each crop. [11] A farm that grows only corn may earn more in a single year than one that rotates. [12] Many farmers accept that tradeoff because healthy soil protects their income over time.
Sentence 4 explains what corn does to soil. Pia asks how sentence 5 builds on it. Which choice is right?
- It says beans and peas should be planted instead of corn in the fields of a farm.
- It names crops that work the other way, setting up the benefit of rotating them.
- It explains why insects that feed on corn roots may starve in a bean field.
- It repeats that corn takes a great deal of nitrogen from the soil, year after year.
Ren wants to show that crop rotation helps in two separate ways. Which pair of sentences shows it best?
- Sentence 6, soil recovering after beans, and sentence 8, corn insects starving in a bean field.
- Sentence 8, insects starving, and sentence 9, rotated fields needing fewer chemicals.
- Sentence 4, corn using up nitrogen, and sentence 5, bacteria adding nitrogen back.
- Sentence 10, a farmer needing equipment, and sentence 11, a corn farm earning more in a year.
Tala compares paragraph 3 with paragraph 4. How does paragraph 4 change the idea of crop rotation?
- It adds a new crop, so the idea becomes a way to grow beans instead of corn in a field.
- It adds more test plots, so the idea becomes proven for farms.
- It adds a warning, so the idea becomes something farmers should now avoid in their fields.
- It adds a cost, so the idea becomes a tradeoff instead of a plain benefit.
Zee asks how the question in sentence 1 shapes the rest of the article. Which choice is right?
- Paragraphs 2 and 3 describe two rival farmers, and paragraph 4 names the winner of the contest.
- Paragraphs 2 and 3 give reasons that answer it, and paragraph 4 weighs the cost.
- Paragraph 2 answers it with a story, and paragraph 4 gives a recipe for planting.
- Paragraph 2 answers it fully, and paragraphs 3 and 4 repeat the same answer.