Join short sentences and add detail
Grade 8 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
Planting a Movement (student draft: informative)
[1] In the 1970s, rural Kenyan women told Wangari Maathai that the streams were drying up, that firewood was growing scarce, and that their children were eating poorly, complaints, voiced in the villages she visited, that she realized were connected parts of a single problem unfolding across the highlands. [2] Maathai held a doctorate in veterinary anatomy. [3] She taught at the University of Nairobi. [4] She recognized the pattern.
[5] Forests had been cleared for plantations and farmland across the central highlands. [6] The bare soil could no longer hold water after the heavy rains of each season. [7] The streams dried up as a result, season after season.
[8] In 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement, an organization led by village women. [9] It paid women a small sum for each seedling that survived the dry season. [10] Its members eventually planted tens of millions of trees across Kenya and neighboring countries, restoring woodland that had been stripped away over decades.
[11] Her protests against building projects on public land, including a plan for a skyscraper in a Nairobi park, angered Kenya's government. [12] Officials arrested her more than once. [13] Police beat her during one demonstration. [14] In 2004 she received the Nobel Peace Prize, the first African woman to be honored with it, for a movement that tied care for the land, democracy, and the rights of rural women together, and she kept defending forests and village communities until her death in 2011.
Pia joins sentences [8] to [10] into one. Which sentence keeps every fact, adds none, repeats nothing, and has no comma splice?
- In 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement, an organization led by village women, it paid a small sum for each seedling that survived the dry season, its members eventually planted tens of millions of trees across Kenya and neighboring countries.
- In 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement, an organization led by village women that paid a small sum for each seedling that survived the dry season and eventually planted tens of millions of trees across Kenya and neighboring countries with the help of foreign donors.
- In 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement, an organization led by village women that paid a small sum for each seedling that survived the dry season and eventually planted tens of millions of trees across Kenya and neighboring countries.
- In 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement, an organization led by village women that paid a small sum for each seedling that survived the dry season.
Ren revises the run of short sentences [5] to [7]. Which revision varies the sentences, keeps every fact, adds none, and shows the cause correctly?
- Because forests had been cleared for plantations and farmland across the central highlands, the bare soil could no longer hold water after the heavy rains of each season.
- Forests had been cleared for plantations and farmland across the central highlands, and the bare soil could no longer hold water after the heavy rains of each season, and the streams dried up as a result, season after season.
- Although forests had been cleared for plantations and farmland across the central highlands, the bare soil could no longer hold water after the heavy rains of each season, and the streams dried up season after season.
- Because forests had been cleared for plantations and farmland across the central highlands, the bare soil could no longer hold water after the heavy rains of each season, and the streams dried up season after season.
Tala revises the run of sentences [11] to [13]. Which revision varies the sentences, keeps every fact, adds none, and has no dangling modifier?
- Her protests against building projects on public land, including a plan for a skyscraper in a Nairobi park, angered Kenya's government, whose officials arrested her more than once.
- Her protests against building projects on public land, including a plan for a skyscraper in a Nairobi park, angered Kenya's government, whose officials arrested her more than once and whose police beat her during one demonstration.
- Her protests against building projects on public land, including a plan for a skyscraper in a Nairobi park, angered Kenya's government, and officials arrested her more than once, and police beat her during one demonstration.
- Protesting building projects on public land, including a plan for a skyscraper in a Nairobi park, the government was angered, and its officials arrested her more than once and its police beat her during one demonstration.
Planting a Movement (student draft: informative)
[1] In the 1970s, rural Kenyan women told Wangari Maathai that the streams were drying up, that firewood was growing scarce, and that their children were eating poorly, complaints, voiced in the villages she visited, that she realized were connected parts of a single problem unfolding across the highlands. [2] Maathai held a doctorate in veterinary anatomy. [3] She taught at the University of Nairobi. [4] She recognized the pattern.
[5] Forests had been cleared for plantations and farmland across the central highlands. [6] The bare soil could no longer hold water after the heavy rains of each season. [7] The streams dried up as a result, season after season.
[8] In 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement, an organization led by village women. [9] It paid women a small sum for each seedling that survived the dry season. [10] Its members eventually planted tens of millions of trees across Kenya and neighboring countries, restoring woodland that had been stripped away over decades.
[11] Her protests against building projects on public land, including a plan for a skyscraper in a Nairobi park, angered Kenya's government. [12] Officials arrested her more than once. [13] Police beat her during one demonstration. [14] In 2004 she received the Nobel Peace Prize, the first African woman to be honored with it, for a movement that tied care for the land, democracy, and the rights of rural women together, and she kept defending forests and village communities until her death in 2011. Combined: Because the streams dried up season after season, forests had been cleared for plantations and farmland across the central highlands, and the bare soil could no longer hold water after the heavy rains of each season.
Ari compares sentences [5] to [7] with a classmate's combined sentence. What did the combination change?
- It changed which highlands lost their forests.
- It dropped the fact that forests had been cleared for plantations and farmland across the central highlands.
- It reversed cause and effect, so the dry streams now seem to explain the clearing of the forests.
- It kept the three facts in their original order, so the combination changed nothing about them.
Gutenberg's Press (student draft: informative)
[1] Before the middle of the fifteenth century, every book in Europe was copied by hand, in monasteries and city workshops, and producing a single Bible could occupy a scribe for many months of patient, tiring labor, so that only churches, universities, and wealthy collectors could afford more than a handful of volumes, and most ordinary families owned none, however much they wished to read. [2] Johannes Gutenberg was a goldsmith in Mainz, Germany, a busy trading city on the Rhine. [3] He understood metalwork thoroughly after years of training in the craft. [4] He knew how to cast small pieces of uniform size, which mattered because letters had to align.
[5] Around 1450 he developed movable metal type, cast letter by letter from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, a mixture that melted at a low temperature yet hardened quickly into strong letters, and he adapted the screw press that farmers used to crush grapes and olives so that it pressed the inked type evenly and firmly against sheets of paper. [6] He mixed a thicker, oil-based ink, using soot and linseed oil. [7] The ink clung to the metal letters. [8] Water-based inks would have run off the metal.
[9] The Gutenberg Bible was completed around 1455. [10] About 180 copies were printed. [11] Each page held two columns of 42 lines.
[12] By 1500 presses operated in more than two hundred European cities. [13] Books became cheaper. [14] More people learned to read.
Bo joins sentences [2] to [4] into one. Which sentence keeps every fact, adds none, repeats nothing, and has no comma splice?
- Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith in Mainz, Germany, a busy trading city on the Rhine, understood metalwork thoroughly after years of training in the craft.
- Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith in Mainz, Germany, a busy trading city on the Rhine, understood metalwork thoroughly after years of training in the craft and knew how to cast small pieces of uniform size, which mattered because letters had to align.
- Johannes Gutenberg was a goldsmith in Mainz, Germany, a busy trading city on the Rhine, he understood metalwork thoroughly after years of training in the craft, he knew how to cast small pieces of uniform size, which mattered because letters had to align.
- Johannes Gutenberg was a goldsmith in Mainz, Germany, a busy trading city on the Rhine, and Gutenberg understood metalwork thoroughly after years of training in the craft and knew how to cast small pieces of uniform size, which mattered because letters had to align.
Esme joins sentences [6] to [8] into one. Which sentence keeps every fact, adds none, and shows the right relationship?
- He mixed a thicker, oil-based ink, using soot and linseed oil, that clung to the metal letters, whereas water-based inks would have run off the metal and ruined the paper.
- He mixed a thicker, oil-based ink, using soot and linseed oil, that clung to the metal letters.
- He mixed a thicker, oil-based ink, using soot and linseed oil, that clung to the metal letters, although water-based inks would have run off the metal.
- He mixed a thicker, oil-based ink, using soot and linseed oil, that clung to the metal letters, whereas water-based inks would have run off the metal.
Jun revises the run of sentences [9] to [11]. Which revision varies the sentences, keeps every fact, adds none, and has no dangling modifier?
- The Gutenberg Bible, completed around 1455, was printed in about 180 copies.
- Completed around 1455, about 180 copies of the Gutenberg Bible were printed, and each page held two columns of 42 lines.
- The Gutenberg Bible was completed around 1455, and about 180 copies were printed, and each page held two columns of 42 lines.
- The Gutenberg Bible, completed around 1455, was printed in about 180 copies, and each page held two columns of 42 lines.
Kira revises the run of sentences [12] to [14]. Which revision varies the sentences, keeps every fact, adds none, and shows the cause correctly?
- By 1500 presses operated in more than two hundred European cities, and books became cheaper, and more people learned to read.
- As presses operated in more than two hundred European cities by 1500, books became cheaper.
- Although presses operated in more than two hundred European cities by 1500, books became cheaper and more people learned to read.
- As presses operated in more than two hundred European cities by 1500, books became cheaper and more people learned to read.
Gutenberg's Press (student draft: informative)
[1] Before the middle of the fifteenth century, every book in Europe was copied by hand, in monasteries and city workshops, and producing a single Bible could occupy a scribe for many months of patient, tiring labor, so that only churches, universities, and wealthy collectors could afford more than a handful of volumes, and most ordinary families owned none, however much they wished to read. [2] Johannes Gutenberg was a goldsmith in Mainz, Germany, a busy trading city on the Rhine. [3] He understood metalwork thoroughly after years of training in the craft. [4] He knew how to cast small pieces of uniform size, which mattered because letters had to align.
[5] Around 1450 he developed movable metal type, cast letter by letter from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, a mixture that melted at a low temperature yet hardened quickly into strong letters, and he adapted the screw press that farmers used to crush grapes and olives so that it pressed the inked type evenly and firmly against sheets of paper. [6] He mixed a thicker, oil-based ink, using soot and linseed oil. [7] The ink clung to the metal letters. [8] Water-based inks would have run off the metal.
[9] The Gutenberg Bible was completed around 1455. [10] About 180 copies were printed. [11] Each page held two columns of 42 lines.
[12] By 1500 presses operated in more than two hundred European cities. [13] Books became cheaper. [14] More people learned to read. Combined: He mixed a thicker, oil-based ink, using soot and linseed oil, that clung to the metal letters.
Luz compares sentences [6] to [8] with a classmate's combined sentence. What did the combination lose or change?
- It changed the ink from thicker to thinner.
- It dropped the comparison showing why water-based inks would not have worked.
- It dropped the fact that the ink was oil-based, so the combination no longer says what the ink was made of.
- It kept the three facts in their original order, so the combination changed nothing about them.
Gutenberg's Press (student draft: informative)
[1] Before the middle of the fifteenth century, every book in Europe was copied by hand, in monasteries and city workshops, and producing a single Bible could occupy a scribe for many months of patient, tiring labor, so that only churches, universities, and wealthy collectors could afford more than a handful of volumes, and most ordinary families owned none, however much they wished to read. [2] Johannes Gutenberg was a goldsmith in Mainz, Germany, a busy trading city on the Rhine. [3] He understood metalwork thoroughly after years of training in the craft. [4] He knew how to cast small pieces of uniform size, which mattered because letters had to align.
[5] Around 1450 he developed movable metal type, cast letter by letter from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, a mixture that melted at a low temperature yet hardened quickly into strong letters, and he adapted the screw press that farmers used to crush grapes and olives so that it pressed the inked type evenly and firmly against sheets of paper. [6] He mixed a thicker, oil-based ink, using soot and linseed oil. [7] The ink clung to the metal letters. [8] Water-based inks would have run off the metal.
[9] The Gutenberg Bible was completed around 1455. [10] About 180 copies were printed. [11] Each page held two columns of 42 lines.
[12] By 1500 presses operated in more than two hundred European cities. [13] Books became cheaper. [14] More people learned to read. Combined: By 1500 presses operated in more than two hundred European cities because books became cheaper and more people learned to read.
Milo compares sentences [12] to [14] with a classmate's combined sentence. What did the combination change?
- It reversed cause and effect, so cheap books and new readers now seem to explain the spread of presses.
- It dropped the fact that books became cheaper, so the combination no longer says what happened to their price.
- It changed the year by which the presses had spread.
- It kept the three facts in their original order, so the combination changed nothing about them.