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Grade 8 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Two Pages About One Fare (news article with two printed exhibits)

   [1] Riverton's transit board is considering another fare increase, and two groups have printed material about it. [2] The Riverton Riders Union, a volunteer group of daily bus passengers, mailed the first flyer. [3] The city's budget office prepared the second exhibit, a one-page table distributed at a public hearing. [4] Both used the same numbers, which came from the transit agency's annual reports. [5] The adult fare was 1.50 dollars in 2018 and is 2.10 dollars now. [6] During the same years, the agency's operating cost per ride rose from 5.00 dollars to 8.10 dollars. [7] The Union argues that riders without cars cannot absorb another increase. [8] The budget office says that without more revenue the agency must cut routes, because state aid has stayed flat. [9] The board has not said which document it finds more useful. [10] It will vote next month on whether to raise the fare. [11] Public comment on the question is open until then, and written comments can be sent to the board's office or left at any branch library. [12] Both groups plan to speak at the next hearing, and the board will take questions from the audience before it makes any decision about the fare.

   EXHIBIT 1 (Riverton Riders Union flyer)
   FARES ARE UP 40% SINCE 2018. Adult fare: 2018: $1.50 | now: $2.10. Don't raise fares again.

   EXHIBIT 2 (City budget office table)
   Cost per ride and fare: 2018: cost $5.00, fare $1.50 (30% of cost) | now: cost $8.10, fare $2.10 (26% of cost). Cost per ride is up 62%. Source: agency annual reports.

2. 1.

   Bo asks what each exhibit leaves out. Which statement describes that correctly?

   • Neither leaves anything out, since both use the same source and the same years.
   • The flyer leaves out the 2018 fare, and the table leaves out the agency's cost per ride.
   • Both leave out the current fare of 2.10 dollars, which is the number riders pay today.
   • The flyer never prints cost per ride; the table never gives the percent rise in fare.
3. 2.

   Esme reads a columnist's claim: "Riders now pay a larger share of each ride's cost than in 2018." What do the exhibits show?

   • Yes: the table shows that the cost per ride rose 62 percent, a bigger burden on riders.
   • Yes: the flyer shows that fares rose 40 percent, so riders pay more of the cost.
   • Neither exhibit has the numbers to say, because the two groups disagree about the facts.
   • No: the table shows fares covered 30 percent of costs in 2018 and 26 percent now.
4. 3.

   Jun wants a statement that follows from both exhibits together, with no outside facts. Which one does?

   • The fare increase has hurt low-income riders more than it has hurt any other group of riders.
   • Without a fare increase the agency must cut routes, since state aid has stayed flat.
   • The board will vote to raise the fare again next month, because costs keep rising.
   • Fares rose 40 percent while cost per ride rose 62 percent, so costs grew faster than fares.
5. 4.

   Kira helps the Riders Union revise its flyer. The group still opposes the increase. Which revision is fairest while keeping that purpose?

   • Change the headline to say the fare has doubled since 2018, since the fare rose sharply.
   • Keep the 40 percent headline, add the rise in cost per ride, and say why riders still oppose it.
   • Replace the headline with a note that the board must balance its budget before any vote.
   • Delete the 2018 fare so readers see just the current fare and cannot compare it with the past.
6. 5.

   Luz helps the budget office revise its table so it is fair to riders and keeps its purpose. Which revision does that?

   • Delete the fare column so the table compares just costs across years and stays short.
   • Remove the 62 percent figure so the table lists just dollar amounts and looks simpler.
   • Keep the cost figures and add the fare rise of 40 percent beside the 62 percent rise in cost.
   • Add a headline saying riders can afford a higher fare, to balance the message of the Union flyer.

7. One Creek, Two Headlines (news article with two printed exhibits)

   [1] Clearwater Creek flows through farmland before it reaches a reservoir that supplies the drinking water of Millbrook. [2] Last month the state lab published nitrate readings, in parts per million, from three sampling sites along the creek. [3] Citizens for Clean Streams, a group of residents, printed a poster using two of the sites. [4] The Millbrook Farm Bureau, an association of local growers, printed a flyer using the third. [5] Both groups took their numbers from the lab's published table. [6] The lab reported that Site A lies just below a farm drainage ditch, Site B is beside a large dairy, and Site C is just above the reservoir. [7] The state sets a limit of 10 parts per million for nitrate in drinking water. [8] The lab noted that nitrate levels vary with rainfall and that 2023 was a wetter year than 2019. [9] Both groups distributed their material at the county fair. [10] About four thousand people attended. [11] Volunteers from each group staffed a table near the entrance. [12] Both tables ran out of printed copies by the afternoon, and each group reported that visitors asked many questions.

   EXHIBIT 1 (Citizens for Clean Streams poster)
   NITRATES ARE RISING IN CLEARWATER CREEK. Site B, beside the dairy: 7.4 ppm (2019), 7.9 ppm (2023). Site C, above the reservoir: 6.0 ppm (2019), 6.4 ppm (2023). Millbrook drinks this water.

   EXHIBIT 2 (Millbrook Farm Bureau flyer)
   NITRATES IN CLEARWATER CREEK ARE FALLING. Site A: 9.1 ppm (2019), 6.2 ppm (2023), down 32%. State limit for drinking water: 10 ppm.

8. 6.

   Milo compares the two exhibits. Both are accurate, so why do their headlines point in opposite directions?

   • One group must have changed the numbers in the lab table to fit the message on its own printed page.
   • The poster rises are larger than the flyer fall, so the poster must be the more accurate.
   • They use different years from the lab table, so each compares a different pair of dates.
   • Each group used different sampling sites, so each shows the trend at the sites that suit it.
9. 7.

   Noah reads the exhibits together. Which statement follows from both of them?

   • Changes in farming practice lowered nitrate at Site A between 2019 and 2023.
   • Nitrate at each site stayed above the state limit throughout the period.
   • Nitrate rose at each of the three sites from 2019 to 2023, as the poster headline says.
   • Nitrate fell at Site A and rose at Sites B and C between 2019 and 2023.
10. 8.

    Ren asks how to restate the flyer's claim that nitrates are falling so that the evidence supports it. Which statement does?

    • Across the whole creek, nitrate fell by about 32 percent between 2019 and 2023.
    • At Site A, nitrate fell from 9.1 to 6.2 parts per million in each year since 2019.
    • At Site A, one of three sites, nitrate fell from 9.1 to 6.2 parts per million.
    • At Site A, nitrate fell because the wetter year of 2023 washed it out of the creek.
11. 9.

    Tala helps the citizens' group revise its poster so it stays a warning and is fair. Which revision does that?

    • Print only the 2023 readings for Sites B and C, so the poster stays short and clear.
    • Keep the warning, name all three sites, and add that Site A fell while B and C rose slightly.
    • Delete the line saying Millbrook drinks this water, so that the poster seems less alarming.
    • Change the headline to say the creek is clean, since one site shows a large decline.
12. 10.

    Zee helps the Farm Bureau revise its flyer so it stays positive and is fair. Which revision does that?

    • Add that the fall at Site A shows local farms have solved the problem for the whole creek.
    • Remove the state limit so the page focuses on the fall at Site A and reads more simply.
    • Keep the Site A news and add that Sites B and C rose slightly while staying under the limit.
    • Replace the headline with one saying nitrate is falling everywhere in the creek this year.