Worksheet

The big idea and how each part backs it up

Grade 8 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

NameDate

Circle the best answer.

  1. Read this first

    Does Sugar Make Children Wild? (article)

    [1] Many parents are certain that sugary snacks make children wild, and the belief is so common that birthday parties are often planned around it. [2] Sugar itself has been part of human diets for centuries, though for most of that time it was a rare and costly treat. [3] When scientists first tested the idea, they expected to find clear proof.

    [4] In a well-known kind of experiment, researchers gave children a drink sweetened with sugar on one day and a drink sweetened with a sugar substitute on another day. [5] Neither the children, the parents, nor the observers knew which drink was which. [6] Across many such studies, the children's behavior and attention showed no consistent difference between the two days.

    [7] Another experiment pointed toward a different cause. [8] Mothers were told that their sons had just been given sugar, although every boy had really received a sugar substitute. [9] Those mothers rated their sons as more hyperactive, stayed closer to them, and criticized them more.

    [10] Expectation, then, seems to shape what adults notice. [11] A party offers noise, friends, games, and a break from routine, each of which can excite children without any sugar. [12] This does not mean sugar is harmless, since too much of it can damage teeth and health. [13] It means that the link between sugar and wild behavior is weaker than most people believe.

  2. Noah reads an article that begins with a popular belief. First say its central idea in one sentence of your own. Then choose the statement that matches it best.

    • Sugary snacks make children wild, which is why parents plan parties around them and watch the children closely.
    • In one experiment, mothers who were told their sons had been given sugar rated the boys as more hyperactive and stayed closer to them.
    • Sugar has no effect on children's health or behavior, so parents can let them eat as much as they like, at parties or at home, and teachers need not worry about snack time.
    • Careful tests do not back the belief that sugar makes children wild; expectation and the party setting explain more, though too much sugar still harms health.

  3. Ren is trimming the article for a class page. Which sentence could be cut without weakening the central idea?

    • A party offers noise, friends, games, and a break from routine, each of which can excite children without any sugar.
    • Across many such studies, the children's behavior and attention showed no consistent difference between the two days.
    • Those mothers rated their sons as more hyperactive, stayed closer to them, and criticized them more.
    • Sugar itself has been part of human diets for centuries, though for most of that time it was a rare and costly treat.

  4. The Bridge That Danced (article)

    [1] In November 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State twisted violently in the wind and then fell into the water below. [2] For decades, textbooks said that the wind had made the bridge vibrate at its natural frequency, an effect called resonance. [3] That explanation is simple and memorable, but engineers who later studied the film and the bridge found it incomplete. [4] When it opened a few months earlier, the bridge had been the third-longest suspension bridge in the world.

    [5] Resonance happens when a regular push matches an object's natural rhythm, like a child pumping a swing at just the right moment. [6] The wind that day was steady rather than rhythmic, so it did not supply regular pushes of that kind. [7] Studies of the bridge showed that its slender, solid deck acted something like a wing, so that twisting motions fed on themselves as the deck moved through the wind.

    [8] Engineers call this self-feeding twist flutter. [9] The bridge's deck was just eight feet deep, unusually thin for its length, so it twisted easily. [10] After the collapse, designers began testing models of bridges in wind tunnels before building them.

    [11] Some textbooks have since been corrected, but the resonance story is still repeated in many classrooms. [12] Its appeal is easy to understand, since a single clear cause is easier to remember than a tangle of interacting forces. [13] Careful engineers test an explanation against the evidence before they trust it, just as they test a bridge design in a wind tunnel.

  5. Pia reads an article that begins with a popular belief. First say its central idea in one sentence of your own. Then choose the statement that matches it best.

    • The Tacoma Narrows collapse is usually blamed on resonance, but the evidence points to flutter in a thin deck, so explanations and designs must be tested.
    • Engineers have shown that resonance does not harm any structure, so the idea should be removed from textbooks and classrooms alike.
    • The deck of the bridge was just eight feet deep, unusually thin for its length, so it twisted easily in the wind.
    • The wind made the bridge vibrate at its natural frequency, and resonance caused the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to fall into the water, as textbooks long said and many students still believe.

  6. Ari traces the central idea from paragraph to paragraph. Which choice describes how the article develops it?

    • It names flutter first, then reports the resonance story, and ends by showing why resonance does not fit the steady wind that day and why the old story still lasts in many classrooms.
    • It reports the resonance story, argues that it was a lie, and shows that the engineers who wrote it knew the truth from the start and hid it from students.
    • It reports the resonance story, shows why resonance does not fit, and names flutter and its cause, and then stops before the lesson about testing.
    • It reports a popular explanation and calls it incomplete, shows why resonance does not fit, names flutter, and then explains why the old story lasts and why testing matters.

  7. Tala is trimming the article for a class page. Which sentence could be cut without weakening the central idea?

    • The bridge's deck was just eight feet deep, unusually thin for its length, so it twisted easily.
    • The wind that day was steady rather than rhythmic, so it did not supply regular pushes of that kind.
    • When it opened a few months earlier, the bridge had been the third-longest suspension bridge in the world.
    • Its appeal is easy to understand, since a single clear cause is easier to remember than a tangle of interacting forces.

  8. The Helmet That Never Was (article)

    [1] Almost everyone can picture a Viking warrior in a helmet with two curving horns. [2] The image appears in cartoons, sports mascots, and costume shops, yet no helmet from the Viking Age has ever been found with horns. [3] Viking ships were long and narrow, which let sailors travel up shallow rivers as well as across open seas.

    [4] The best-preserved helmet from that time, found in a grave at Gjermundbu in Norway, is a plain iron cap with a rounded top and a guard around the eyes. [5] Experts add that horns would have been a hazard in a crowded fight, since an enemy could grab them and they could catch on branches or ropes.

    [6] Where did the idea come from? [7] Long before the Viking Age, Scandinavian people made ceremonial helmets with horns for rituals. [8] Writers in the 1800s mixed these ancient objects with Viking stories. [9] In 1876, a costume designer put horned helmets on warriors for the first performances of Richard Wagner's opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung, and the look spread through paintings and book illustrations.

    [10] The myth persists because the picture is vivid and easy to recognize. [11] Historians rely instead on grave finds, written records, and carved images. [12] Those sources show warriors who dressed for practical protection. [13] The horned Viking tells us more about the 1800s than about the Viking Age.

  9. Zee reads an article that begins with a popular belief. First say its central idea in one sentence of your own. Then choose the statement that matches it best.

    • Richard Wagner invented the horned helmet myth on purpose to make Vikings look foolish, and costume designers then copied his idea in many countries.
    • The helmet found at Gjermundbu is a plain iron cap with a rounded top and a guard around the eyes, and it dates from the Viking Age.
    • Viking warriors wore helmets with two curving horns, as cartoons, sports mascots, and costume shops show, and the picture has lasted for many generations of readers.
    • The horned Viking helmet is a later invention: the evidence shows plain helmets, and the popular picture says more about the 1800s than about the Viking Age.

  10. Noah traces the central idea from paragraph to paragraph. Which choice describes how the article develops it?

    • It describes a popular picture that the evidence does not match, shows a real helmet, traces the horns to later sources, and explains why the picture lasts.
    • It describes the popular picture, shows a real helmet, and concludes that Viking warriors did not wear helmets, horned or plain, and fought bareheaded.
    • It describes the popular picture, shows a real helmet, and traces where the horns came from, and then stops before it explains why the picture lasts so long.
    • It begins with the 1876 opera costumes, then describes the popular picture, and ends by showing a real helmet from a grave in Norway.

  11. Milo is trimming the article for a class page. Which sentence could be cut without weakening the central idea?

    • Writers in the 1800s mixed these ancient objects with Viking stories.
    • Viking ships were long and narrow, which let sailors travel up shallow rivers as well as across open seas.
    • Experts add that horns would have been a hazard in a crowded fight, since an enemy could grab them and they could catch on branches or ropes.
    • Historians rely instead on grave finds, written records, and carved images.

  12. Striking the Same Place (article)

    [1] The saying that lightning never strikes the same place twice sounds reassuring, and many people trust it. [2] The Empire State Building, however, is hit about twenty times in a typical year.

    [3] Lightning is a huge spark that jumps between a cloud and the ground, and it follows the easiest path through the air. [4] Tall, pointed objects shorten the distance, so a tower on high ground offers a quicker path than a flat field. [5] A strike on one spot does not use up the electric charge in the clouds, and the next storm can strike the same tower again.

    [6] Engineers rely on this behavior. [7] They place lightning rods on the tops of buildings, and the rods give the electric charge a path of metal that leads safely into the ground. [8] Benjamin Franklin proposed the lightning rod in the early 1750s, after studying electricity with kites and jars.

    [9] The saying has a small kernel of truth, because the exact bolt, with its own twisting path, never repeats. [10] But for any person standing outdoors, the danger is real in each storm. [11] Thunder is the sound lightning makes when it heats the air so fast that the air expands with a boom. [12] Safety experts advise people to move indoors at the first sound of thunder. [13] They also advise waiting thirty minutes after the last thunder before going back out.

  13. Bo traces the central idea from paragraph to paragraph. Which choice describes how the article develops it?

    • It reports a saying, argues that lightning strikes the tallest object each time, and shows that engineers can stop any strike with the right metal rod.
    • It reports a saying, explains why tall objects are struck again, and shows how engineers use that behavior, and then stops before it gives the truth in the saying and the safety advice.
    • It begins with the safety advice, then explains why tall objects are struck, and ends by reporting the saying and the Empire State Building example.
    • It reports a saying and a counterexample, explains why tall objects are struck again, shows how engineers use that, and then gives the truth in the saying and the safety rules.

  14. Pia is trimming the article for a class page. Which sentence could be cut without weakening the central idea?

    • They place lightning rods on the tops of buildings, and the rods give the electric charge a path of metal that leads safely into the ground.
    • Thunder is the sound lightning makes when it heats the air so fast that the air expands with a boom.
    • A strike on one spot does not use up the electric charge in the clouds, and the next storm can strike the same tower again.
    • But for any person standing outdoors, the danger is real in each storm.
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The big idea and how each part backs it up

Answer Key - Grade 8 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

  1. Read this first

    Does Sugar Make Children Wild? (article)

    [1] Many parents are certain that sugary snacks make children wild, and the belief is so common that birthday parties are often planned around it. [2] Sugar itself has been part of human diets for centuries, though for most of that time it was a rare and costly treat. [3] When scientists first tested the idea, they expected to find clear proof.

    [4] In a well-known kind of experiment, researchers gave children a drink sweetened with sugar on one day and a drink sweetened with a sugar substitute on another day. [5] Neither the children, the parents, nor the observers knew which drink was which. [6] Across many such studies, the children's behavior and attention showed no consistent difference between the two days.

    [7] Another experiment pointed toward a different cause. [8] Mothers were told that their sons had just been given sugar, although every boy had really received a sugar substitute. [9] Those mothers rated their sons as more hyperactive, stayed closer to them, and criticized them more.

    [10] Expectation, then, seems to shape what adults notice. [11] A party offers noise, friends, games, and a break from routine, each of which can excite children without any sugar. [12] This does not mean sugar is harmless, since too much of it can damage teeth and health. [13] It means that the link between sugar and wild behavior is weaker than most people believe.

  2. Noah reads an article that begins with a popular belief. First say its central idea in one sentence of your own. Then choose the statement that matches it best.

    • Sugary snacks make children wild, which is why parents plan parties around them and watch the children closely.
    • In one experiment, mothers who were told their sons had been given sugar rated the boys as more hyperactive and stayed closer to them.
    • Sugar has no effect on children's health or behavior, so parents can let them eat as much as they like, at parties or at home, and teachers need not worry about snack time.
    • Careful tests do not back the belief that sugar makes children wild; expectation and the party setting explain more, though too much sugar still harms health.

  3. Ren is trimming the article for a class page. Which sentence could be cut without weakening the central idea?

    • A party offers noise, friends, games, and a break from routine, each of which can excite children without any sugar.
    • Across many such studies, the children's behavior and attention showed no consistent difference between the two days.
    • Those mothers rated their sons as more hyperactive, stayed closer to them, and criticized them more.
    • Sugar itself has been part of human diets for centuries, though for most of that time it was a rare and costly treat.

  4. The Bridge That Danced (article)

    [1] In November 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State twisted violently in the wind and then fell into the water below. [2] For decades, textbooks said that the wind had made the bridge vibrate at its natural frequency, an effect called resonance. [3] That explanation is simple and memorable, but engineers who later studied the film and the bridge found it incomplete. [4] When it opened a few months earlier, the bridge had been the third-longest suspension bridge in the world.

    [5] Resonance happens when a regular push matches an object's natural rhythm, like a child pumping a swing at just the right moment. [6] The wind that day was steady rather than rhythmic, so it did not supply regular pushes of that kind. [7] Studies of the bridge showed that its slender, solid deck acted something like a wing, so that twisting motions fed on themselves as the deck moved through the wind.

    [8] Engineers call this self-feeding twist flutter. [9] The bridge's deck was just eight feet deep, unusually thin for its length, so it twisted easily. [10] After the collapse, designers began testing models of bridges in wind tunnels before building them.

    [11] Some textbooks have since been corrected, but the resonance story is still repeated in many classrooms. [12] Its appeal is easy to understand, since a single clear cause is easier to remember than a tangle of interacting forces. [13] Careful engineers test an explanation against the evidence before they trust it, just as they test a bridge design in a wind tunnel.

  5. Pia reads an article that begins with a popular belief. First say its central idea in one sentence of your own. Then choose the statement that matches it best.

    • The Tacoma Narrows collapse is usually blamed on resonance, but the evidence points to flutter in a thin deck, so explanations and designs must be tested.
    • Engineers have shown that resonance does not harm any structure, so the idea should be removed from textbooks and classrooms alike.
    • The deck of the bridge was just eight feet deep, unusually thin for its length, so it twisted easily in the wind.
    • The wind made the bridge vibrate at its natural frequency, and resonance caused the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to fall into the water, as textbooks long said and many students still believe.

  6. Ari traces the central idea from paragraph to paragraph. Which choice describes how the article develops it?

    • It names flutter first, then reports the resonance story, and ends by showing why resonance does not fit the steady wind that day and why the old story still lasts in many classrooms.
    • It reports the resonance story, argues that it was a lie, and shows that the engineers who wrote it knew the truth from the start and hid it from students.
    • It reports the resonance story, shows why resonance does not fit, and names flutter and its cause, and then stops before the lesson about testing.
    • It reports a popular explanation and calls it incomplete, shows why resonance does not fit, names flutter, and then explains why the old story lasts and why testing matters.

  7. Tala is trimming the article for a class page. Which sentence could be cut without weakening the central idea?

    • The bridge's deck was just eight feet deep, unusually thin for its length, so it twisted easily.
    • The wind that day was steady rather than rhythmic, so it did not supply regular pushes of that kind.
    • When it opened a few months earlier, the bridge had been the third-longest suspension bridge in the world.
    • Its appeal is easy to understand, since a single clear cause is easier to remember than a tangle of interacting forces.

  8. The Helmet That Never Was (article)

    [1] Almost everyone can picture a Viking warrior in a helmet with two curving horns. [2] The image appears in cartoons, sports mascots, and costume shops, yet no helmet from the Viking Age has ever been found with horns. [3] Viking ships were long and narrow, which let sailors travel up shallow rivers as well as across open seas.

    [4] The best-preserved helmet from that time, found in a grave at Gjermundbu in Norway, is a plain iron cap with a rounded top and a guard around the eyes. [5] Experts add that horns would have been a hazard in a crowded fight, since an enemy could grab them and they could catch on branches or ropes.

    [6] Where did the idea come from? [7] Long before the Viking Age, Scandinavian people made ceremonial helmets with horns for rituals. [8] Writers in the 1800s mixed these ancient objects with Viking stories. [9] In 1876, a costume designer put horned helmets on warriors for the first performances of Richard Wagner's opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung, and the look spread through paintings and book illustrations.

    [10] The myth persists because the picture is vivid and easy to recognize. [11] Historians rely instead on grave finds, written records, and carved images. [12] Those sources show warriors who dressed for practical protection. [13] The horned Viking tells us more about the 1800s than about the Viking Age.

  9. Zee reads an article that begins with a popular belief. First say its central idea in one sentence of your own. Then choose the statement that matches it best.

    • Richard Wagner invented the horned helmet myth on purpose to make Vikings look foolish, and costume designers then copied his idea in many countries.
    • The helmet found at Gjermundbu is a plain iron cap with a rounded top and a guard around the eyes, and it dates from the Viking Age.
    • Viking warriors wore helmets with two curving horns, as cartoons, sports mascots, and costume shops show, and the picture has lasted for many generations of readers.
    • The horned Viking helmet is a later invention: the evidence shows plain helmets, and the popular picture says more about the 1800s than about the Viking Age.

  10. Noah traces the central idea from paragraph to paragraph. Which choice describes how the article develops it?

    • It describes a popular picture that the evidence does not match, shows a real helmet, traces the horns to later sources, and explains why the picture lasts.
    • It describes the popular picture, shows a real helmet, and concludes that Viking warriors did not wear helmets, horned or plain, and fought bareheaded.
    • It describes the popular picture, shows a real helmet, and traces where the horns came from, and then stops before it explains why the picture lasts so long.
    • It begins with the 1876 opera costumes, then describes the popular picture, and ends by showing a real helmet from a grave in Norway.

  11. Milo is trimming the article for a class page. Which sentence could be cut without weakening the central idea?

    • Writers in the 1800s mixed these ancient objects with Viking stories.
    • Viking ships were long and narrow, which let sailors travel up shallow rivers as well as across open seas.
    • Experts add that horns would have been a hazard in a crowded fight, since an enemy could grab them and they could catch on branches or ropes.
    • Historians rely instead on grave finds, written records, and carved images.

  12. Striking the Same Place (article)

    [1] The saying that lightning never strikes the same place twice sounds reassuring, and many people trust it. [2] The Empire State Building, however, is hit about twenty times in a typical year.

    [3] Lightning is a huge spark that jumps between a cloud and the ground, and it follows the easiest path through the air. [4] Tall, pointed objects shorten the distance, so a tower on high ground offers a quicker path than a flat field. [5] A strike on one spot does not use up the electric charge in the clouds, and the next storm can strike the same tower again.

    [6] Engineers rely on this behavior. [7] They place lightning rods on the tops of buildings, and the rods give the electric charge a path of metal that leads safely into the ground. [8] Benjamin Franklin proposed the lightning rod in the early 1750s, after studying electricity with kites and jars.

    [9] The saying has a small kernel of truth, because the exact bolt, with its own twisting path, never repeats. [10] But for any person standing outdoors, the danger is real in each storm. [11] Thunder is the sound lightning makes when it heats the air so fast that the air expands with a boom. [12] Safety experts advise people to move indoors at the first sound of thunder. [13] They also advise waiting thirty minutes after the last thunder before going back out.

  13. Bo traces the central idea from paragraph to paragraph. Which choice describes how the article develops it?

    • It reports a saying, argues that lightning strikes the tallest object each time, and shows that engineers can stop any strike with the right metal rod.
    • It reports a saying, explains why tall objects are struck again, and shows how engineers use that behavior, and then stops before it gives the truth in the saying and the safety advice.
    • It begins with the safety advice, then explains why tall objects are struck, and ends by reporting the saying and the Empire State Building example.
    • It reports a saying and a counterexample, explains why tall objects are struck again, shows how engineers use that, and then gives the truth in the saying and the safety rules.

  14. Pia is trimming the article for a class page. Which sentence could be cut without weakening the central idea?

    • They place lightning rods on the tops of buildings, and the rods give the electric charge a path of metal that leads safely into the ground.
    • Thunder is the sound lightning makes when it heats the air so fast that the air expands with a boom.
    • A strike on one spot does not use up the electric charge in the clouds, and the next storm can strike the same tower again.
    • But for any person standing outdoors, the danger is real in each storm.