How an article links and separates people, ideas and events
Grade 8 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
The Eye and the Camera (article)
[1] Photographers often describe a camera as a mechanical eye, and the comparison is more accurate than it first sounds. [2] Both devices gather light from a scene and bend it with a curved lens so that it forms a small, sharp picture on a surface at the back. [3] In a camera that surface is a sensor or a strip of film, while in the eye it is the retina, a layer of cells that responds to light.
[4] Both devices also control how much light enters. [5] A camera has an adjustable opening called the aperture, and the eye has the pupil, which widens in dim rooms and narrows in bright sunlight. [6] Without that control, a bright scene would wash out the picture and a dim scene would leave it too dark to read.
[7] The two devices focus in different ways. [8] A camera usually focuses by moving its lens closer to or farther from the sensor, but the eye keeps its lens in place and changes the lens's shape, thickening it to look at something close and flattening it to look far away. [9] The pictures differ most in what happens next. [10] A camera simply stores whatever light reached its sensor, while the eye sends signals along the optic nerve so that the brain can interpret them.
[11] The brain fills gaps, ignores blurry edges, and builds a steady scene from eye movements that a camera would record as a shaky blur. [12] That is why the camera makes a useful model for how images form but a poor model for how people actually see. Ladder (one rung for each paragraph, with the arrow into each rung marked like or unlike): P1: a camera is compared to an eye | (like) P2: both control how much light enters | (unlike) P3: they focus in different ways, and only the eye sends signals to a brain | (unlike) P4: the brain builds a steady scene, so the camera models image formation but not seeing
Ari must label the arrow between P2 and P3 on the ladder. Which choice gives the right label and the right reason?
- Unlike: in P2 the article says an eye controls light with the pupil, but in P3 it says a camera cannot focus without a person's help and must be set by hand for each picture.
- Unlike: in P1 the article says a camera is a mechanical eye, but in P4 it says a camera is a poor model for how people actually see.
- Like: in P2 the article says a camera and an eye both control how much light enters, and in P3 it adds one more way the two focus alike.
- Unlike: in P2 the article says a camera and an eye both control how much light enters, but in P3 it says the two devices focus in different ways.
Bo reads how the article compares a camera with an eye. What does the comparison say the two have in common?
- Both are tools that help a person understand what is in front of them, whatever the light is like.
- Both bend light with a curved lens so that a small, sharp picture forms on a surface at the back.
- Both work in the same way from the first step to the last, so a camera explains how people see.
- A camera stores whatever light reached its sensor, so a picture can be kept and looked at later.
Bats, Dolphins and Echoes (article)
[1] Bats and dolphins live in very different places, yet scientists often study them together because both find their food with echoes. [2] A bat sends out a burst of high-pitched sound and listens for the faint echo that bounces back from an insect, and a dolphin does the same with clicks that travel through the sea. [3] In both animals the brain measures how long an echo takes to return and how strong it is, which reveals how far away an object is and how large it might be.
[4] The two animals produce their sounds differently. [5] A bat makes its calls in the voice box and sends them out through its mouth or nose, while a dolphin makes its clicks in air passages near the blowhole and focuses them with a fatty organ in its forehead called the melon. [6] Each design suits the animal's surroundings.
[7] Surroundings also change what an echo can tell an animal. [8] Sound travels about four times faster in seawater than in air, so a dolphin receives echoes from distant objects far sooner than a bat does. [9] Because water carries sound so well, dolphins can detect prey from much farther away than most bats can track insects.
[10] Even so, the shared method has taught engineers a good deal. [11] Sonar systems on ships and ultrasound machines in hospitals both use echoes in the same basic way. [12] By comparing two animals that solved the same problem in different surroundings, researchers can separate what echolocation requires from what depends on the body that produces the sound. Ladder (one rung for each paragraph, with the arrow into each rung marked like or unlike): P1: bats and dolphins both find food with echoes | (unlike) P2: the sound is made by different body parts | (unlike) P3: sound travels faster in water than in air | (like) P4: the shared method teaches engineers how echoes work
Jun must label the arrow between P3 and P4 on the ladder. Which choice gives the right label and the right reason?
- Unlike: in P3 the article says water carries sound better than air, and in P4 it says the shared method means bats and dolphins use sound in unrelated ways, so the comparison no longer helps.
- Like: in P3 the article says sound travels faster in water, and in P4 it says engineers can build a sonar that works as well as a dolphin does.
- Like: in P3 the article says water carries sound better than air, and in P4 it says the shared method of using echoes still teaches engineers how echolocation works.
- Like: in P1 the article says both animals find food with echoes, and in P2 it says both animals listen for an echo that returns from their prey.
Kira reads how the article compares a bat with a dolphin. What does the comparison say the two have in common?
- A fatty organ in the forehead focuses the clicks before they leave the animal, which helps the sound travel in one direction.
- Both depend on their senses to find food and stay safe, so each can find its way in almost any place.
- Both send out sound and use the echoes that return to judge how far away an object is and how large it might be.
- Both hear echoes equally well in water and in air, so either animal could find food in the other's home.
Luz reads P2. According to it, how do a bat and a dolphin differ in the way they make their sounds?
- A bat makes calls in its voice box and sends them out through the mouth or nose, while a dolphin makes clicks near the blowhole and focuses them with the melon.
- Sound travels about four times faster in seawater than in air, so a dolphin receives echoes from distant objects far sooner than a bat can receive echoes from insects.
- A bat makes high-pitched sounds that people cannot hear, while a dolphin makes clicks that are loud enough for people to hear without any help.
- Both measure how long an echo takes to return and how strong it is, which tells each animal how far away an object is and how large the object might be.
The Cell and the Factory (article)
[1] Biology teachers sometimes ask students to imagine a living cell as a tiny factory. [2] In a factory, a manager's office sends out instructions, and in a cell the nucleus holds the instructions that tell the cell how to build proteins. [3] Proteins are the finished products, and they are assembled on small structures called ribosomes, which work like assembly lines.
[4] The factory's power plant has a counterpart too. [5] Mitochondria release energy from sugar, and the cell spends that energy just as a factory spends electricity to keep its machines running. [6] The cell membrane, which controls what enters and leaves, is the gate where trucks are inspected before they pass.
[7] A factory is built by people, however, and a cell is not. [8] No manager decides to add a new assembly line; the cell copies its own instructions and divides into two cells, each with its own nucleus and machinery. [9] A factory also cannot repair itself or grow on its own, while a cell can replace damaged parts from the materials it takes in.
[10] For that reason the factory is best used as a map of the cell's parts, not as an explanation of how the cell came to be. [11] It helps students remember what each part does, but it hides the fact that a cell builds itself without any manager or plan. [12] Students who use the model carefully learn the jobs of the parts and still understand that a cell is alive. Ladder (one rung for each paragraph, with the arrow into each rung marked like or unlike): P1: a cell is compared to a factory | (like) P2: its parts match a factory's power plant and gate | (unlike) P3: a factory is built by people, but a cell copies and repairs itself | (unlike) P4: the factory maps the cell's parts but does not explain how a cell came to be
Milo must label the arrow between P2 and P3 on the ladder. Which choice gives the right label and the right reason?
- Like: in P2 the article matches cell parts to a factory's power plant and gate, and in P3 it says a factory and a cell both repair themselves.
- Unlike: in P2 the article matches cell parts to a factory's power plant and gate, but in P3 it says a cell is a better machine than any factory.
- Unlike: in P1 the article says the nucleus is like a manager's office, but in P4 it says the factory hides how a cell builds itself and grows.
- Unlike: in P2 the article matches cell parts to a factory's power plant and gate, but in P3 it says a factory is built by people and a cell is not.
Noah reads how the article compares a cell with a factory. What does the comparison say the two have in common?
- A cell copies its own instructions and divides into two cells, each with its own nucleus and machinery, and no factory can do this.
- Both are built by people who plan each part ahead of time, so little in them is left to chance.
- Both are systems in which each part matters to the whole, so a broken part would stop the work.
- Both have a part that holds instructions, a source of power for the machinery and a gate that controls what goes in and out.
Pia reads P3. According to it, what can a cell do that a factory cannot?
- Release energy from sugar, which it spends as a factory spends electricity to keep its machines running.
- Copy its own instructions, divide into two cells and repair itself from the materials it takes in.
- Decide which new assembly line to add next after studying how well the old ones are working.
- Build proteins on small structures called ribosomes, which work like the assembly lines in a factory.
Frogs, Lizards and the Classes of Animals (article)
[1] Frogs and lizards look similar at a glance, since both are cold-blooded animals with four legs, but biologists place them in separate classes. [2] Frogs belong to the amphibians, whose name means double life, and lizards belong to the reptiles. [3] The separation rests on a set of characteristics that appear in nearly every member of each group. [4] Those characteristics trace back to how the ancestors of each group adapted to life in water or on land.
[5] Skin is one of the clearest traits. [6] An amphibian's skin is thin, moist and able to absorb water and oxygen, which is why most amphibians remain near ponds, streams and damp ground. [7] A reptile's skin is dry and covered in scales, which holds in water and allows reptiles to live in deserts where a frog would quickly dry out.
[8] Reproduction separates the groups just as sharply. [9] Most amphibians lay soft eggs in water, and the young hatch as tadpoles that breathe with gills before they change into air-breathing adults. [10] Reptiles lay eggs with leathery or hard shells on land, and the young hatch looking like small versions of the adults.
[11] A few animals complicate the classification. [12] Some reptiles give birth to live young, and some salamanders keep their gills throughout their lives. [13] Even so, biologists sort animals by the traits that hold for nearly every member of a group, and for frogs and lizards those traits hold. Ladder (one rung for each paragraph, with the arrow into each rung marked like or unlike): P1: frogs and lizards look alike but belong to separate classes | (unlike) P2: skin separates the groups | (unlike) P3: eggs and young separate the groups | (like) P4: a few animals blur the line, but the traits still sort most animals
Ren must label the arrow between P1 and P2 on the ladder. Which choice gives the right label and the right reason?
- Unlike: in P1 the article says frogs and lizards look alike, but in P2 it says reptile skin is the better kind of skin and amphibian skin is the worse kind.
- Unlike: in P2 the article says amphibian skin absorbs water and oxygen, but in P3 it says reptile eggs have leathery or hard shells and are laid on land.
- Like: in P1 the article says frogs and lizards look alike, and in P2 it says their skin is alike too, since both are cold-blooded and have four legs.
- Unlike: in P1 the article says frogs and lizards look alike, but in P2 it says their skin differs, thin and moist in amphibians and dry and scaly in reptiles.
Zee reads P3. According to it, how do amphibians and reptiles differ in their eggs and young?
- Both are cold-blooded animals with four legs, so the eggs of each kind must be kept warm by the parents, and the young of each kind stay near them until they can feed.
- Most amphibians lay soft eggs in water and the young breathe with gills at first, while reptiles lay shelled eggs on land and the young hatch looking like small adults.
- An amphibian's skin is thin and moist and absorbs water and oxygen, while a reptile's skin is dry and covered in scales that hold in water so it can live in deserts.
- Reptiles guard their young after hatching, while amphibians leave their eggs alone from the start and do not go back to the pond where they were laid.
