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[10] Mina admits that the map is a little out of date, since construction changes sidewalks faster than volunteers can measure.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.
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 7, a driver saving forty minutes a day, and sentence 8, a clinic asking Mina to survey its lot.
- Sentence 11, a button for reporting curbs, and sentence 12, two hundred reports in a month.
- Sentence 8, a clinic asking for a survey, and sentence 9, the clinic moving its planters.
Esme notices that paragraph 4 changes how readers see the map. How does it change?
- The map first looks helpful, and then it is shown to have been copied from an older one.
- The map first looks unreliable, and then it is shown to be correct in each detail by volunteers.
- The map first looks like a gift to one person, and then it is shown to be useless.
- The map first looks like a finished answer, and then it is shown as something that needs steady help.
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 shows a result: the clinic fixed the blocked entrances Mina's survey found within a week.
- It repeats that two entrances were blocked by planters in the clinic's parking lot at the time.
- It shows that the clinic wanted Mina to replace the blocked planters with new ramps.
- It explains how the delivery driver found the clinic by using the online map each day.
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 repeats that the old brick of the tower might crack during the move along the rails.
- It explains how long the tower had guided ships before the cliff crumbled.
- It shows a plan that answered the worry, so the committee agreed to try the move.
- It shows the committee voting against the move because it cost too much.
Luz wants to show that the move was done carefully, not in a rush. Which pair of sentences shows it best?
- Sentence 4, residents wanting to save the tower, and sentence 9, thousands of visitors coming to watch.
- Sentence 2, engineers warning of a storm, and sentence 3, a hard choice for the town.
- Sentence 7, almost a mile in twenty-three days, and sentence 8, engineers checking walls daily.
- Sentence 10, the tower on a concrete base, and sentence 12, a survey finding most people pleased a year later.
Milo compares paragraph 1 with paragraph 4. How does the article's view of the move change?
- It starts with the town agreeing on a plan and ends with no one doubting it.
- It starts with a risky choice facing the town and ends mostly positive, with some doubt left.
- It starts with certainty that the move would work and ends with the town regretting the cost.
- It starts with a small repair job and ends with the lighthouse being torn down.
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 repeats that corn takes a great deal of nitrogen from the soil, year after year.
- It explains why insects that feed on corn roots may starve in a bean field.
Ren wants to show that crop rotation helps in two separate ways. Which pair of sentences shows it best?
- Sentence 8, insects starving, and sentence 9, rotated fields needing fewer chemicals.
- Sentence 10, a farmer needing equipment, and sentence 11, a corn farm earning more in a year.
- Sentence 4, corn using up nitrogen, and sentence 5, bacteria adding nitrogen back.
- Sentence 6, soil recovering after beans, and sentence 8, corn insects starving in a bean field.
Tala compares paragraph 3 with paragraph 4. How does paragraph 4 change the idea of crop rotation?
- It adds a warning, so the idea becomes something farmers should now avoid in their fields.
- It adds more test plots, so the idea becomes proven for farms.
- It adds a new crop, so the idea becomes a way to grow beans instead of corn in a field.
- 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 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.
- Paragraphs 2 and 3 describe two rival farmers, and paragraph 4 names the winner of the contest.
- Paragraph 2 answers it fully, and paragraphs 3 and 4 repeat the same answer.