Pick the sentence that proves it best
Grade 8 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
The Loudest Place at Lunch (story)
[1] Ren and Luz wanted to know why the lunchroom felt so loud, so they borrowed a phone app that measures sound in decibels. [2] Most of the school blamed the first-grade tables, because the youngest students shrieked and laughed from the moment they sat down. [3] On Tuesday, Luz held the phone near those tables for ten minutes and recorded an average of 72 decibels. [4] On Wednesday, Ren held it beside the tray return, where older students stacked plates and dropped silverware into metal bins, and recorded an average of 81 decibels, nine higher than Luz's reading.
[5] Because each rise of ten decibels sounds about twice as loud to most listeners, Ren knew that a gap of nine would be easy to hear. [6] Mr. Daniels, the lunch aide, said he had long believed that the youngest children were the problem. [7] Luz agreed that the high voices were the noise people noticed first, since they carried across the whole room. [8] Ren replied that noticing a sound and measuring it were two different jobs.
[9] The friends repeated both readings on Thursday and Friday, and the numbers landed within two decibels of the first ones. [10] They suggested foam liners for the metal bins and a low wall around the tray return. [11] The principal agreed to try the liners first because they cost very little, and Ren and Luz planned to measure again in a month.
Ari reads the passage. All four sentences are true. Which one proves this answer most strongly: “The tray return was louder than the first-grade tables”?
- [6] Mr. Daniels, the lunch aide, said he had long believed that the youngest children were the problem.
- [4] On Wednesday, Ren held it beside the tray return, where older students stacked plates and dropped silverware into metal bins, and recorded an average of 81 decibels, nine higher than Luz's reading.
- [3] On Tuesday, Luz held the phone near those tables for ten minutes and recorded an average of 72 decibels.
- [9] The friends repeated both readings on Thursday and Friday, and the numbers landed within two decibels of the first ones.
Bo needs the best reason behind a claim. All four sentences are true. Which one gives the strongest reason to believe this: “Ren and Luz had good reason to trust their first readings”?
- [5] Because each rise of ten decibels sounds about twice as loud to most listeners, Ren knew that a gap of nine would be easy to hear.
- [8] Ren replied that noticing a sound and measuring it were two different jobs.
- [4] On Wednesday, Ren held it beside the tray return, where older students stacked plates and dropped silverware into metal bins, and recorded an average of 81 decibels, nine higher than Luz's reading.
- [9] The friends repeated both readings on Thursday and Friday, and the numbers landed within two decibels of the first ones.
How Honeybees Give Directions (article)
[1] When a honeybee finds flowers far from its hive, it can tell its nestmates exactly where to go. [2] Back inside the dark hive, the bee performs a waggle dance, running forward in a straight line while shaking its body from side to side. [3] Then it circles back to the start and repeats the run again and again.
[4] In the 1940s, the Austrian scientist Karl von Frisch noticed that the angle of the straight run, measured against the direction of the sun, points toward the flowers. [5] The length of the run carries a second message, because a longer run means the flowers are farther away. [6] Von Frisch tested his idea by placing dishes of sugar water at several spots and watching which dish new bees visited after they had watched a dancer. [7] Most of the newcomers flew to the dish that the dance described, and few went to dishes placed in other directions.
[8] Some scientists doubted these results and suggested that the newcomers had simply followed the scent clinging to the dancer's body. [9] In 2005, researchers fitted bees with tiny radar tags and tracked newcomers leaving the hive, and many flew along a path that matched the directions in the dance. [10] Most biologists now accept that the dance carries information about both direction and distance.
Jun reads the passage. All four sentences are true. Which one proves this answer most strongly: “The dance tells nestmates how far away the flowers are”?
- [4] In the 1940s, the Austrian scientist Karl von Frisch noticed that the angle of the straight run, measured against the direction of the sun, points toward the flowers.
- [5] The length of the run carries a second message, because a longer run means the flowers are farther away.
- [10] Most biologists now accept that the dance carries information about both direction and distance.
- [2] Back inside the dark hive, the bee performs a waggle dance, running forward in a straight line while shaking its body from side to side.
Kira needs the best reason behind a claim. All four sentences are true. Which one gives the strongest reason to believe this: “Scientists had good reason to think newcomers followed the dance and not just a scent”?
- [8] Some scientists doubted these results and suggested that the newcomers had simply followed the scent clinging to the dancer's body.
- [10] Most biologists now accept that the dance carries information about both direction and distance.
- [9] In 2005, researchers fitted bees with tiny radar tags and tracked newcomers leaving the hive, and many flew along a path that matched the directions in the dance.
- [7] Most of the newcomers flew to the dish that the dance described, and few went to dishes placed in other directions.
Luz wants the sentence that shows an idea in action. All four sentences are true. Which one is the strongest example of this: “Von Frisch's own sugar-water test showed bees acting on a dancer's message”?
- [6] Von Frisch tested his idea by placing dishes of sugar water at several spots and watching which dish new bees visited after they had watched a dancer.
- [9] In 2005, researchers fitted bees with tiny radar tags and tracked newcomers leaving the hive, and many flew along a path that matched the directions in the dance.
- [7] Most of the newcomers flew to the dish that the dance described, and few went to dishes placed in other directions.
- [4] In the 1940s, the Austrian scientist Karl von Frisch noticed that the angle of the straight run, measured against the direction of the sun, points toward the flowers.
The Bike Rack Count (story)
[1] Tala and Bo wanted the principal to add a second bike rack outside Fenwick Middle School. [2] The principal, Ms. Ruiz, said she would listen, but she needed facts, not wishes. [3] For five mornings, the two friends counted every bike that arrived before the first bell. [4] The rack held eighteen bikes, but the count never dropped below twenty-six, and on Thursday it reached thirty-one.
[5] Each morning, the extra bikes were chained to the fence or leaned against the brick wall beside the gym door. [6] On Wednesday, a leaning bike slid across the doorway and kept a class waiting outside for ten minutes. [7] Bo also surveyed fifty students about how they got to school, and seventeen said they would bike more often if the rack had room.
[8] Ms. Ruiz replied that a new rack cost about six hundred dollars, which was a lot for the school budget. [9] Tala pointed out that the parent group had offered to pay half of that cost. [10] Ms. Ruiz thanked the friends for the careful counting and promised an answer by Friday. [11] Bo copied the numbers onto one clean page and handed it over.
Milo reads the passage. All four sentences are true. Which one proves this answer most strongly: “On many mornings, more bikes arrived than the rack could hold”?
- [7] Bo also surveyed fifty students about how they got to school, and seventeen said they would bike more often if the rack had room.
- [4] The rack held eighteen bikes, but the count never dropped below twenty-six, and on Thursday it reached thirty-one.
- [5] Each morning, the extra bikes were chained to the fence or leaned against the brick wall beside the gym door.
- [3] For five mornings, the two friends counted every bike that arrived before the first bell.
Noah wants the sentence that shows an idea in action. All four sentences are true. Which one is the strongest example of this: “Tala and Bo had a way to answer the principal's worry about money”?
- [10] Ms. Ruiz thanked the friends for the careful counting and promised an answer by Friday.
- [9] Tala pointed out that the parent group had offered to pay half of that cost.
- [8] Ms. Ruiz replied that a new rack cost about six hundred dollars, which was a lot for the school budget.
- [7] Bo also surveyed fifty students about how they got to school, and seventeen said they would bike more often if the rack had room.
Why Lighthouses Flash (article)
[1] Before satellites and radar, sailors often had just a light on shore to tell them where they were. [2] A steady light was not much help, because one glowing point looks much like another on a dark coast. [3] Lighthouse authorities therefore gave each major light its own pattern of flashes, such as two flashes followed by a long dark pause, and printed the patterns in guides for sailors. [4] A navigator who counted the flashes could match the pattern to the guide and know which light was ahead.
[5] Producing those flashes took clever engineering. [6] In the 1820s, the French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel designed a lens made of rings of glass prisms that bent the light from a single lamp into a narrow, powerful beam. [7] Fresnel's lens could be seen from much farther away than older mirror-and-lamp systems, which wasted much of the light. [8] The lens sat on a slowly turning platform, so the beam swept past an observer once with each turn and appeared as a flash. [9] Panels fitted to the lens changed the number of flashes in each turn.
[10] Keepers wound the clockwork that turned the platform, and a slip in winding could throw off a light's pattern, which ships depended on. [11] Motors now turn most lenses, but the patterns printed on charts are the same.
Zee reads the passage. All four sentences are true. Which one proves this answer most strongly: “A navigator could tell one lighthouse from another by its flashes”?
- [2] A steady light was not much help, because one glowing point looks much like another on a dark coast.
- [3] Lighthouse authorities therefore gave each major light its own pattern of flashes, such as two flashes followed by a long dark pause, and printed the patterns in guides for sailors.
- [4] A navigator who counted the flashes could match the pattern to the guide and know which light was ahead.
- [1] Before satellites and radar, sailors often had just a light on shore to tell them where they were.
Ari needs the best reason behind a claim. All four sentences are true. Which one gives the strongest reason to believe this: “Fresnel's lens made a lighthouse's light reach farther”?
- [3] Lighthouse authorities therefore gave each major light its own pattern of flashes, such as two flashes followed by a long dark pause, and printed the patterns in guides for sailors.
- [8] The lens sat on a slowly turning platform, so the beam swept past an observer once with each turn and appeared as a flash.
- [7] Fresnel's lens could be seen from much farther away than older mirror-and-lamp systems, which wasted much of the light.
- [6] In the 1820s, the French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel designed a lens made of rings of glass prisms that bent the light from a single lamp into a narrow, powerful beam.
Bo wants the sentence that shows an idea in action. All four sentences are true. Which one is the strongest example of this: “A keeper's work could affect whether ships found their way safely”?
- [4] A navigator who counted the flashes could match the pattern to the guide and know which light was ahead.
- [11] Motors now turn most lenses, but the patterns printed on charts are the same.
- [10] Keepers wound the clockwork that turned the platform, and a slip in winding could throw off a light's pattern, which ships depended on.
- [9] Panels fitted to the lens changed the number of flashes in each turn.
