Words with special meanings in articles
Grade 7 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
How a River Shapes Its Valley (article)
[1] A river is more than moving water; it is a slow sculptor of land. [2] It starts as a small stream high in the hills and ends at its mouth, the place where it empties into a larger body of water. [3] On flat ground the water slows and swings from side to side, and each wide loop is called a meander. [4] Over many years, the outside of each bend is chewed away while sand and silt settle on the inside.
[5] The bends grow larger and wander across the valley like a line drawn by someone who cannot decide where to go. [6] Sometimes a flood breaks through the narrow neck of a loop, and the river takes the shortcut. [7] The abandoned loop becomes a curved lake, which people call an oxbow lake. [8] Farmers value the rich soil that floods leave behind, but they also build levees, or raised banks, to hold the water back. [9] A river, then, is always changing, and its path today is only one of many it has drawn.
Ari reads sentence 2. Which meaning of mouth does the river article use?
- the wide opening at the entrance of a cave
- the opening in a face used for eating and speaking
- the place where a river empties into larger water
- a wide loop that swings from side to side
Bo reads sentences 3 to 5. What does the comparison to a line drawn by someone who cannot decide suggest about the bends?
- A flood sometimes cuts a shortcut through a loop.
- They stay in one fixed place for centuries.
- They keep curving and shifting instead of running straight.
- Someone has drawn the river's path on the valley floor.
Esme reads sentence 4. The author says the outside of each bend is chewed away. What does chewed away add that removed would not?
- a slow wearing away, as if by many small bites
- a careful repair that rebuilds the bank
- a sudden break, as if by one huge blow
- sand and silt settling on the inside of the bend
What Happens Inside a Battery (article)
[1] A flashlight battery looks simple, but a surprising amount of chemistry is working hard inside it. [2] It holds chemicals that release energy when a wire completes the path between its two ends. [3] Each end has a terminal, a metal contact where a wire connects. [4] When a wire links the terminals through a bulb, the reaction pushes tiny particles that carry electric charge through the wire. [5] A charge is a property that makes particles push or pull on each other, and a flow of charge is an electric current that makes the bulb glow.
[6] A battery acts like a storage tank for electrical push. [7] While the tank is full, the push is strong; as the chemicals are used up, the push weakens and the bulb grows dim. [8] Finally the reaction sputters out, and the battery stops working. [9] Some batteries can be recharged, because an outside power source drives the reaction backward and restores the chemicals. [10] Those batteries can be used again and again, which saves money and reduces the amount of material thrown away.
Jun reads sentence 5. Which meaning of charge does the battery article use?
- the price asked for a service
- an official claim that someone broke a law
- a metal contact where a wire connects
- a property that makes particles push or pull on each other
Luz reads sentence 8. The author says the reaction sputters out. What does sputters out add that stops would not?
- an outside power source can restore the chemicals
- it becomes stronger and steadier
- it ends suddenly in one loud burst
- it fades unevenly, in weak starts and stops
The Press That Changed Reading (article)
[1] Before the middle of the fifteenth century, nearly every book in Europe was copied by hand. [2] A scribe might labor for months over a single copy, so books were rare and costly. [3] Around 1450, a German craftsman named Johannes Gutenberg built a printing press that used movable type. [4] Type means small metal blocks, each with one raised letter, that can be arranged into words and used again.
[5] A printer set the blocks in a frame, coated them with ink, and squeezed a sheet of paper against them with a heavy screw. [6] Once a page was printed, the blocks could be taken apart and arranged into the next one. [7] Soon a flood of books poured out of workshops across Europe. [8] Prices fell, schools could afford more texts, and ideas traveled farther than before. [9] Some officials worried about what ordinary people might now read, because ideas could spread faster than any ruler could control. [10] Within fifty years, printers in hundreds of towns were producing millions of books.
Milo reads sentence 4. Which meaning of type does the printing article use?
- a kind or sort of thing
- a frame that holds the blocks in place
- small metal blocks with raised letters
- to write words by pressing keys
Noah reads sentences 7 and 8. What does the phrase a flood of books poured out suggest?
- Prices fell and schools could afford more texts.
- Books were carried away by rising water.
- Just a few books were made each year.
- Large numbers of books appeared very quickly.
Glaciers on the Move (article)
[1] A glacier is a huge mass of ice that moves slowly across land. [2] It begins where more snow falls in winter than melts in summer. [3] Over many years the snow piles up, and the weight on the lower layers squeezes the flakes into solid ice. [4] Then gravity takes over, and the ice creeps downhill, a river of ice that in most places moves less than a meter a day.
[5] As the glacier moves, deep cracks called crevasses open where the ice bends over rough ground. [6] Where a glacier reaches the sea, huge chunks of ice crash into the water, a process called calving. [7] In recent decades, many glaciers have been in retreat. [8] That means the front edge of the ice melts back faster than new ice arrives from above. [9] The glacier does not roll backward; it simply ends farther uphill each year than it did before.
Ren reads sentences 7 to 9. Which meaning of retreat does the glacier article use?
- a quiet place to rest and relax
- huge chunks of ice crash into the sea
- to move away from trouble
- the front edge of the ice melts back uphill
Tala reads sentence 4. What does the phrase a river of ice suggest about a glacier?
- Snow piles up where more falls than melts.
- The ice stays still in one place.
- A stream of liquid water runs through the ice.
- Ice flows slowly downhill like water in a channel.
Zee reads sentence 6. The author says huge chunks of ice crash into the water. What does crash add that fall would not?
- a gentle landing on the water
- a loud, heavy, sudden impact
- this process is called calving
- a slow, quiet slide