How an article is organized and what each part does
Grade 7 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
The Monarch Relay (article)
THE JOURNEY SOUTH
[1] Every autumn, millions of monarch butterflies in eastern North America fly south to the mountain forests of central Mexico. [2] Some of them travel thousands of miles, even though a monarch weighs less than a paper clip. [3] They gather in huge clusters on fir trees, where the cool, steady air keeps them resting until spring.
FOUR GENERATIONS
[4] The butterflies that fly south are not the ones that left Mexico the spring before. [5] In spring, the survivors fly north and lay eggs, and their young finish the trip over several generations. [6] Summer monarchs live only a few weeks, but the generation born in late summer lives for many months. [7] That long-lived generation is the one that makes the journey to Mexico.
PROTECTING THE ROUTE
[8] Monarch caterpillars eat only milkweed, so the plant must grow along the route. [9] Many communities plant milkweed in gardens and along roadsides. [10] In Mexico, protecting the fir forests keeps the winter homes of the butterflies safe.
Kira reads the article. How does the section 'Four Generations' help build the article's central idea?
- It describes where the monarchs rest in winter and why the cool air suits them.
- It shows that each generation of monarchs plans the trip for the one that follows.
- It tells readers that summer monarchs live a few weeks, not months.
- It shows the trip is shared across generations, since the butterflies flying south are new ones.
Luz imagines cutting the last section, 'Protecting the Route.' What could a reader no longer learn from the article?
- Where the monarchs gather in Mexico and why they are able to rest there.
- Whether the number of monarchs has risen or fallen since the year before.
- How long summer monarchs live compared with the late-summer generation of monarchs.
- What caterpillars need to eat and what people do to keep the migration going.
Coral
A Reef Built by Partners (article): ANIMALS THAT BUILD STONE
[1] A coral reef looks like a garden of rock, but each piece of it is built by tiny animals called coral polyps. [2] The polyps take minerals from seawater and use them to make hard stone cups to live in, and over many years the cups pile up into reefs.
A PARTNERSHIP
[3] Inside the soft body of a polyp live algae, which are tiny plants too small to see. [4] The algae use sunlight to make food, and they share much of it with the polyp. [5] In return, the polyp gives the algae a safe home and the materials they need. [6] The algae also give coral its bright colors.
WHEN WARM WATER COMES
[7] If the sea stays too warm for too long, the polyps push the algae out. [8] The coral then turns pale, a change called bleaching. [9] A bleached coral is not gone, but without its partners it is hungry, and it may recover only if the water cools soon. [10] Reefs matter because thousands of kinds of fish and other sea animals live and feed among them.
Noah reads the article. How does the section 'A Partnership' help build the article's central idea?
- It tells readers that the algae living inside a polyp give coral its bright colors.
- It explains how polyps take minerals from seawater and build stone cups that pile up into reefs.
- It shows that coral would grow faster if it kept more algae inside its body.
- It shows what coral and algae give each other, so losing the algae later is a serious loss.
Pia imagines cutting the first section, 'Animals That Build Stone.' What could a reader no longer learn?
- Why the polyps push the algae out when the sea stays too warm for too long.
- That the algae use sunlight to make food and then share it with the polyp.
- How many reefs around the world have turned pale in the last ten years.
- What coral polyps are and how their stone cups grow into a reef.
Ren looks at the sentences inside 'When Warm Water Comes.' Which pattern organizes them?
- Problem and solution: bleached coral is a problem, and the section lists ways to fix it.
- Time order: the first, next, and last steps a polyp takes as it builds a reef.
- Cause and effect: warm water makes the polyps lose their algae, and the coral turns pale and hungry.
- Definition and example: the change called bleaching is named and explained in a single sentence.
Two Old Clocks (article)
TELLING TIME WITH SHADOWS
[1] A sundial tells time by shadow. [2] A flat plate has a pointed piece sticking up from it, and as the Sun moves across the sky, the shadow of that piece slides along marks for the hours. [3] Sundials need no fuel and have no moving parts, so some have lasted for centuries and still stand in old gardens and town squares.
TELLING TIME WITH WATER
[4] A water clock works by flow. [5] Water drips from one container into another at a steady rate, and marks on the second container show how much time has passed. [6] People used water clocks thousands of years ago in lands such as Egypt and Greece.
WHICH ONE WORKED WHEN
[7] A sundial is useless on a cloudy day and at night, because it needs sunlight to cast a shadow. [8] A water clock keeps working in the dark and indoors, but someone has to refill it. [9] Each clock solved a problem that the other left open.
Tala reads the article. How does the section 'Telling Time with Water' help build the article's central idea?
- It shows that a sundial cannot cast a shadow on a cloudy day or at night.
- It shows that water clocks kept better time than sundials in most places.
- It tells readers that people used water clocks in lands such as Egypt and Greece.
- It introduces a clock that works without sunlight, which readers can then set against the sundial.
Zee imagines cutting the first section, 'Telling Time with Shadows.' What could a reader no longer learn?
- That a water clock has to be refilled by someone as it runs.
- How to build a sundial that works in any weather.
- That a sundial is useless on a cloudy day and at night.
- How a sundial's shadow moves along marks to show the hours.
Ari looks at the sentences inside 'Which One Worked When.' Which pattern organizes them?
- Time order: which clock people used first and which clock they used later on.
- Cause and effect: clouds and night keep a sundial from casting a shadow.
- Compare and contrast: each clock's strengths and weaknesses are set side by side.
- Problem and solution: each weakness is named, and the section lists a repair for it.
The Press That Changed Reading (article)
BOOKS MADE BY HAND
[1] Before the printing press, most books in Europe were copied by hand. [2] A scribe might spend months on a single book, so mostly churches, universities, and wealthy people could afford one.
A NEW WAY TO PRINT
[3] Around 1450, a German metalworker named Johannes Gutenberg built a printing press that used movable metal letters. [4] Workers arranged the metal letters into a page inside a frame, inked them, and pressed paper against them. [5] The same letters could then be taken apart and used again for the next page. [6] Many copies of a page could be made far faster than a scribe could copy one, so a single workshop could soon turn out dozens of copies of the same book.
IDEAS SPREAD
[7] Books became cheaper, and more people learned to read. [8] News, stories, and scientific findings traveled farther and faster than before. [9] Within about fifty years, printing shops had opened in hundreds of towns across Europe.
Bo reads the article. How does the section 'Books Made by Hand' help build the article's central idea?
- It shows how scarce books were, so the change brought by the press stands out.
- It describes how workers arranged letters, inked them and pressed paper against them.
- It shows that scribes lost their jobs soon after the printing press appeared.
- It tells readers that a scribe might spend months on a single book.
Esme imagines cutting the last section, 'Ideas Spread.' What could a reader no longer learn?
- Which printed book sold the most copies in the first fifty years of printing.
- What happened to readers and to the spread of news once books were cheaper.
- Who could afford a handmade book before the printing press was built.
- How workers arranged letters into a page, inked them and pressed paper onto them.
