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Grade 6 Reading Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   How Hurricanes Form and Are Rated

   A Storm Needs Warm Water
   [1] A hurricane begins over tropical ocean water that is at least about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. [2] Warm water heats the air above it, and the warm, damp air rises and leaves lower pressure near the surface. [3] Cooler air rushes in to replace it, and that air is heated and lifted too. [4] Because Earth is turning, the whole system begins to spin, forming a **tropical cyclone**.

   Rating the Wind
   [5] Once the winds reach 74 miles per hour, the storm is called a **hurricane**. [6] Meteorologists rate hurricanes with the Saffir-Simpson scale, which sorts them by sustained wind speed. [7] The scale does not measure flooding, which can also cause serious damage.

   Category | Wind speed (mph) | Typical damage
   [8] 1 | 74 to 95 | Some damage
   [9] 2 | 96 to 110 | Extensive damage
   [10] 3 | 111 to 129 | Devastating damage
   [11] 4 | 130 to 156 | Catastrophic damage
   [12] 5 | 157 or higher | Catastrophic damage

   Picture: a satellite image
   Caption: [13] In a satellite image of a hurricane, the calm center, called the eye, is surrounded by a wall of fast winds.

2. 1.

   Which statement can Ari support by using the table?

   • A storm with 120-mile-per-hour winds would be category 3
   • A category 4 storm has winds between 111 and 129 miles per hour
   • A category 5 storm brings more flooding than a category 1 storm
   • Hurricanes begin over ocean water that is about 80 degrees
3. 2.

   Esme wants a new heading for sentences 5 to 7 and the table. Which heading covers them all?

   • What a Category 5 Hurricane Can Do to a Town
   • How a Hurricane Begins Over Warm Water
   • How Hurricanes Are Sorted by Wind Speed
   • Everything to Know About Storms and Weather

4. Use this

   Measuring the Size of an Earthquake

   What a Seismograph Records
   [1] When the ground shakes, a machine called a **seismograph** records the movement as a wavy line. [2] Taller waves mean the ground moved more. [3] Scientists use the record to work out where the quake began and how strong it was.

   Magnitude and Its Effects
   [4] Scientists describe the size of an earthquake with a number called its **magnitude**. [5] Each step up the scale means the ground moves about ten times as much, and the quake releases about thirty-two times as much energy. [6] The table lists what people usually notice at different magnitudes.

   Magnitude | What people usually notice
   [7] Below 3 | Usually not felt, but recorded
   [8] 3 to 4.9 | Often felt, but rarely causes damage
   [9] 5 to 5.9 | Can damage poorly built buildings
   [10] 6 to 6.9 | Can cause great damage in populated areas
   [11] 7 and higher | Major damage; can be felt over huge areas

   Picture: a seismograph record
   Caption: [12] A seismograph record shows small waves first, followed by the strong shaking.

   Did You Know?
   [13] A magnitude 7 earthquake releases about 32 times as much energy as a magnitude 6 earthquake.

5. 3.

   How does the Did You Know box connect to sentence 5, Jun?

   • It shows that a magnitude 7 quake moves the ground 32 times as much
   • It lists what people usually notice at magnitude 7
   • It explains how a seismograph draws a wavy line
   • It applies the energy rule in sentence 5 to one pair of magnitudes
6. 4.

   Which statement does the table support, Kira?

   • Taller waves on a seismograph mean the ground moved more
   • A magnitude 5.5 quake will destroy a large city completely
   • A magnitude 4.5 quake can damage poorly built buildings
   • A magnitude 6.4 quake can badly damage populated areas
7. 5.

   Which statement uses both sentence 2 and the seismograph caption, Luz?

   • Small waves mean the quake will be weak, because taller waves mean the ground moved more
   • A seismograph record shows small waves first, followed by the strong shaking
   • Taller waves on the record mean the ground moved more at that moment
   • Taller waves mean more movement, so the tallest waves should come after the small ones

8. Use this

   The Erie Canal Changes a Young Nation

   A Ditch Across New York
   [1] In 1817, New York began digging a canal that would link the Hudson River with Lake Erie. [2] Many people called the plan foolish, and critics nicknamed it Clinton's Ditch after the governor who backed it. [3] Workers dug about 363 miles by hand and with simple tools, building **locks** so that boats could climb hills, and the canal opened in 1825.

   Cheaper Goods, Bigger Cities
   [4] Before the canal, wagons carried goods over rough roads, and shipping a ton of freight was very costly. [5] Barges pulled by mules along the canal carried far more freight at a fraction of the price. [6] Towns along the route, such as Rochester and Buffalo, grew into major cities. [7] New York City became the busiest port in the nation.

   Shipping a ton of freight from Buffalo to New York City (rounded estimates)
   Method | Cost | Time
   [8] Wagon, before 1825 | About $100 | About 20 days
   [9] Canal boat, after 1825 | About $10 | About 6 days

   Picture: a canal boat
   Caption: [10] A team of mules pulls a barge along the canal while the driver walks the towpath beside it.

   Words to Know
   [11] lock: a section of canal with gates, where boats are raised or lowered to a new water level.

9. 6.

   Which statement uses both the table and the section Cheaper Goods, Bigger Cities, Milo?

   • Shipping cost about a tenth as much by canal, which helped towns like Buffalo grow
   • Cheap shipping made New York City the busiest port in the entire world
   • A ton of freight from Buffalo cost about $100 by wagon and about $10 by canal
   • Towns along the route, such as Rochester and Buffalo, grew into major cities
10. 7.

    How does the caption connect to sentence 5, Pia?

    • It shows that canal boats were slower than wagons on the old roads
    • It repeats that mules pulled the barges, which sentence 5 already says
    • It gives the price of shipping a ton of freight by canal boat
    • It shows mules pulling a barge from a towpath, a detail sentence 5 omits

11. Use this

    The Water Roads of Ancient Rome

    Bringing Distant Springs to the City
    [1] Ancient Rome grew so large that its local wells and springs could not supply enough water. [2] Engineers solved the problem by building **aqueducts**, channels that carried water from distant springs into the city. [3] The first Roman aqueduct was finished in 312 BCE, and later builders added many more.

    Letting Gravity Do the Work
    [4] The Romans had no pumps, so each aqueduct had to slope downhill the whole way. [5] This gentle slope, called the **gradient**, was often only a few feet of drop for every mile. [6] Where a valley blocked the route, builders raised the channel on rows of stone arches.

    Picture: a stone bridge with arches
    Caption: [7] The Pont du Gard in France carries a water channel across a river valley on three levels of arches.

    Quick Facts
    [8] Most of the length of Rome's aqueducts ran underground, where the water stayed cooler and cleaner. [9] The Pont du Gard is a Roman aqueduct bridge that still stands.

12. 8.

    Which heading would best cover sentences 4 to 6, Ren?

    • How a Gentle Slope Moved Water Without Pumps
    • Everything About Roman Engineering and Building
    • Why Rome Needed So Much More Water for Its People
    • The Pont du Gard, a Famous Bridge in Southern France
13. 9.

    How does the Quick Facts box change what a reader pictures from sentence 6, Tala?

    • It repeats that arches carried channels across valleys when a route was blocked
    • It names the first Roman aqueduct and the year that builders finished it
    • It shows most of the length was underground, so the arches were the visible part
    • It shows that Roman builders avoided arches whenever they could build underground
14. 10.

    How does the caption extend sentence 6, Zee?

    • It names a surviving example and shows that arches could be stacked in levels
    • It says that builders raised the channel on arches where a valley blocked the route
    • It shows that aqueducts needed three levels of arches to carry water
    • It explains that the slope was a few feet of drop per mile