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Grade 6 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   How Bats Find Food in the Dark

   Finding Food With Sound
   [1] Many bats catch flying insects at night, when it is too dark for most animals to see well. [2] To find them, a bat makes very high sounds that people cannot hear. [3] The sounds travel outward until they hit an object, and then they bounce back as **echoes**. [4] The bat listens to the echoes and learns where the object is, how big it is and whether it is moving.

   Reading the Echoes
   [5] A bat hears each echo within a fraction of a second, so it can judge distance almost instantly. [6] This skill, called **echolocation**, lets the bat steer around branches and wires while it chases a moth. [7] As the bat closes in, its calls come faster, and each echo returns sooner, which tells the bat the insect is near.

   Picture: a bat
   Caption: [8] A little brown bat opens its mouth wide in flight to send out its calls.

   Did You Know?
   [9] Bats are not blind, and most kinds can see quite well in dim light. [10] Some large fruit bats rely mostly on their eyes and noses to find ripe fruit.

2. 1.

   What does the bat caption add that the paragraphs do not say, Bo?

   • That bats make sounds that are too high for people to hear
   • How a little brown bat sends out its calls while it flies
   • That bats send their calls out through the mouth, not the nose
   • That bats are not blind and most can see in dim light
3. 2.

   How does the Did You Know box connect to the rest of the article, Esme?

   • It shows that echolocation is a much weaker sense than eyesight
   • It defines the word echolocation for readers who skipped sentence 6
   • It corrects the idea that bats are blind and adds new facts
   • It repeats how bats use echoes to find insects flying in the dark

4. Use this

   Why Volcanoes Erupt

   Magma Rising
   [1] Deep underground, rock melts into a hot liquid called **magma**. [2] Magma is lighter than the rock around it, so it slowly rises toward the surface. [3] Gases dissolved in the magma also push upward, much like bubbles in a shaken bottle of soda. [4] When the pressure becomes too great, the magma escapes through a crack, and the volcano **erupts**.

   Three Kinds of Volcanoes
   [5] Scientists sort volcanoes by shape, because the shape comes from the way the lava flows. [6] The table compares three common kinds.

   Kind | Shape | Typical eruption
   [7] Shield | Wide, gentle slopes | Slow, runny lava flows
   [8] Cinder cone | Small, steep hill | Short bursts of rock fragments
   [9] Composite | Tall, steep cone | Explosive eruptions with ash

   [10] Many famous volcanoes, such as Mount Fuji in Japan, are composite cones.

   Picture: a volcano
   Caption: [11] Steam rises from the crater of a composite volcano after a small eruption.

5. 3.

   Jun wants to compare how the three kinds erupt. What does the table let a reader do?

   • Compare the shape and eruption style of the three kinds
   • Learn why magma rises toward the surface of the Earth
   • Find out which kind of volcano has erupted most often in history
   • See that a cinder cone erupts in explosive bursts of ash
6. 4.

   Which statement does the volcano caption support, Kira?

   • Composite volcanoes have tall, steep cones and sit near the sea
   • A composite volcano can have a small eruption that releases steam
   • The volcano will soon have a larger, more violent eruption
   • Magma escapes through a crack when the pressure becomes too great

7. Use this

   How Glaciers Shape Valleys

   Rivers of Ice
   [1] A **glacier** is a huge mass of ice that moves slowly downhill. [2] It forms where more snow falls each year than melts, so the snow piles up and turns into ice. [3] The weight of the ice makes it flow, but the movement is slow, often only a few inches each day.

   Carving the Land
   [4] As the ice moves, it drags rocks along its bottom and sides. [5] These rocks scrape the valley floor and walls, so the valley becomes wider and deeper. [6] A valley carved by a river is shaped like a V, but a valley carved by a glacier is shaped like a U. [7] When a glacier melts, it leaves behind piles of rock and soil called **moraines**.

   Picture: a valley
   Caption: [8] Yosemite Valley in California has the wide, U-shaped floor of a valley carved by ice.

   Glossary
   [9] glacier: a large body of ice that moves slowly over land. [10] moraine: rocks and soil left behind when a glacier melts.

8. 5.

   What does the glossary add for a reader who forgot a bold word, Milo?

   • A picture that shows the U shape of a glacial valley
   • A step-by-step account of how a valley is carved
   • A short meaning for each bold word, all in one place
   • Proof that glaciers shape the land more than rivers do
9. 6.

   Noah wants to learn what a glacier leaves behind when it melts. Which part of the page leads there?

   • The title "How Glaciers Shape Valleys"
   • The heading "Rivers of Ice"
   • The caption about Yosemite Valley
   • The heading "Carving the Land"
10. 7.

    How does the caption help Pia understand the paragraph about U-shaped valleys?

    • It tells how many inches a glacier moves each day in the valley
    • It names a real valley with the U shape that the paragraph describes
    • It explains that rivers carve valleys that are shaped like the letter V
    • It shows that wide valleys are carved by ice and not by rivers

11. Use this

    Why Leaves Change Color

    The Green Machine
    [1] Leaves are green because they contain a pigment called **chlorophyll**. [2] Chlorophyll captures sunlight, and the leaf uses that energy to make food from air and water. [3] Because green is so strong in summer, it hides the other colors in the leaf.

    Fall Colors Appear
    [4] In fall, shorter days and cooler nights signal trees to stop making chlorophyll. [5] As the green fades, yellow and orange pigments that were there all along can finally be seen. [6] Some trees also make new red pigments in the fall.

    Pigment | Color | When it shows
    [7] Chlorophyll | Green | Spring and summer
    [8] Carotenoids | Yellow and orange | Fall, when the green fades
    [9] Anthocyanins | Red and purple | Fall, when the leaf makes them

    Picture: a leaf
    Caption: [10] A maple leaf turns red while the veins near the stem stay green.

12. 8.

    Which statement can Ren learn only from the table?

    • Most trees make new red pigments during the fall season
    • Chlorophyll makes leaves green because it captures the sunlight
    • Red and purple colors come from pigments called anthocyanins
    • Carotenoids make leaves green during the spring and summer
13. 9.

    Why is chlorophyll printed in bold the first time it appears, Tala?

    • It marks a key term that the same sentence explains
    • It shows that chlorophyll is the most important word in the article
    • It warns readers that the word will appear in the table
    • It tells readers the word is also defined in a glossary
14. 10.

    Which sentence belongs under the heading Fall Colors Appear, Zee?

    • As the green fades, yellow and orange pigments can finally be seen.
    • Trees that make red pigments are healthier than other trees in the fall.
    • Chlorophyll captures sunlight, and the leaf uses that energy to make food.
    • Because green is so strong in summer, it hides the other colors in the leaf.