Words with special meanings in articles
Grade 7 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
Coral Reefs (article)
[1] A coral reef looks like a garden of rocks, but animals build it. [2] Each coral polyp, a tiny soft animal with a ring of tentacles, makes a hard cup of limestone around its body. [3] When a polyp's life ends, its cup stays behind, and new polyps build on top of the old cups for thousands of years. [4] Reefs cover less than one percent of the ocean floor, yet they shelter about a quarter of all sea species. [5] That is why scientists call them the rainforests of the sea.
[6] Polyps get much of their food and color from tiny algae that live inside their bodies. [7] When the water becomes too warm, the stressed polyps push the algae out, and the coral turns pale. [8] This is called bleaching. [9] A bleached coral is still alive, but it is starving, and it may not survive if cooler water does not return soon. [10] Reef managers watch ocean temperatures closely so they can warn nearby towns before a bleaching event begins.
Ari reads sentence 2 of the article. What does polyp mean as the article uses it?
- a tiny alga that gives coral its color
- a tiny soft animal with tentacles
- a hard cup of limestone
- a ridge of rock under the water
Bo reads sentences 7 and 8. What does bleaching mean as the article uses it?
- ocean water becoming too warm
- the hard limestone cups that polyps leave behind
- making cloth white with a chemical
- coral losing its algae and turning pale
Esme reads sentence 5. What does the phrase the rainforests of the sea suggest about reefs?
- Reefs are crowded with many kinds of living things.
- Reefs get heavy rain in tropical places.
- Reefs cover less than one percent of the ocean floor.
- Reefs have very few kinds of life.
Where Warm and Cold Air Meet (article)
[1] Weather rarely changes at random. [2] Much of it comes from fronts, the boundaries where two large masses of air meet. [3] Air masses differ in temperature and moisture, so they do not mix easily. [4] At a cold front, heavy cold air bulldozes under lighter warm air and shoves it upward. [5] The rising warm air cools, forms tall clouds, and often brings a short burst of rain. [6] Behind the front, the sky clears and the temperature drops. [7] A warm front behaves more gently, because warm air slides up over cooler air and brings light rain that can last for hours.
[8] Forecasters also watch air pressure with a barometer. [9] This instrument measures how heavily the air above it presses down. [10] When the pressure falls steadily, a storm is usually on its way. [11] When it rises, the weather is likely to turn calm and dry. [12] A barometer cannot name the exact hour of the rain, but it gives a useful early hint.
Jun reads sentence 2. What does front mean as the article uses it?
- a huge body of air with one temperature and moisture
- the drop in temperature after a storm passes
- the forward part of something, like the front of a line
- the boundary where two air masses meet
Kira reads sentences 8 and 9. What does barometer mean as the article uses it?
- a forecaster who studies the sky
- an instrument that measures air pressure
- a warning that a storm is on its way
- a boundary where cold and warm air meet
Luz reads sentence 4. What does the word bulldozes suggest about how the cold air moves?
- It works like a heavy machine that digs up the ground.
- It slips under the warm air very gently.
- It pushes forward with great force.
- It forms tall clouds and brings rain.
Inside a Honeybee Hive (article)
[1] A honeybee hive can hold tens of thousands of bees, yet every bee seems to understand its responsibilities. [2] The queen lays the eggs, and she may lay more than a thousand of them in a single day. [3] Foragers, the workers that fly out to find food, visit many flowers to gather nectar and pollen. [4] Back at the hive, a forager passes the nectar to younger workers, who store it in tiny wax cells. [5] The workers fan the nectar with their wings, and slowly it thickens into honey.
[6] The hive hums like a busy factory, with every worker doing a task that keeps production going. [7] In winter, the bees cluster. [8] They pack together in a tight ball around the queen, and the bees on the outside shiver their flight muscles to make heat. [9] The honey they stored in summer is their fuel until flowers bloom again. [10] By early spring, the ball loosens, and the foragers return to the first blossoms.
Milo reads sentence 3. What does forager mean as the article uses it?
- a worker bee that fans nectar with its wings
- a flower that makes nectar and pollen
- the bee that lays the eggs for the hive
- a worker bee that flies out to find food
Pia reads sentence 6. What does the phrase hums like a busy factory suggest about the hive?
- Many bees work steadily at different tasks.
- The queen may lay more than a thousand eggs a day.
- The bees run machines inside the hive.
- The hive is quiet and still.
Magma and Lava (article)
[1] Deep under a volcano, rock melts into a thick, glowing liquid called magma. [2] Magma is lighter than the solid rock around it, so it slowly rises through cracks. [3] As it rises, some of it collects in a magma chamber. [4] This large pocket under the surface holds the melted rock while pressure builds, much like the pressure in a shaken soda bottle. [5] Eventually the magma finds a vent, an opening in the ground where material can escape.
[6] Once magma reaches the surface, it is called lava. [7] Lava flows from a vent as slow rivers of rock, or it may be thrown into the air in bursts. [8] Cooled lava hardens into new rock, and over many eruptions it builds a mountain. [9] The islands of Hawaii were built this way, one layer of lava at a time. [10] Volcanologists study vents and chambers to learn when an eruption may come.
Ren reads sentence 5. What does vent mean as the article uses it?
- an opening where material escapes
- a pocket where melted rock collects
- to let out strong feelings
- melted rock that has reached the surface
Zee reads sentence 4. What does the comparison to a shaken soda bottle suggest about the pressure in the chamber?
- Magma is lighter than the rock around it.
- The force slowly fades until nothing happens.
- The force keeps growing until material bursts out.
- The magma fizzes and bubbles like a soft drink.
