Is the reasoning sound?

Grade 8 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   A Speech for Weekly Glass Pickup (printed speech)

   [1] Members of the Harlow Town Council, I am here to ask you to add a weekly glass pickup to our recycling program. [2] Harlow households throw away about eleven tons of glass a month, according to the county waste report. [3] The county plant accepts glass, but it received only two tons from Harlow last month, because residents must drive their jars to a drop-off site on the other side of town.

   [4] Our town was founded in 1887 by glassblowers, and the old factory chimney still stands on Mill Street. [5] Marsh Landing is a town about our size, and it began weekly glass pickup in 2023. [6] Its glass recycling rose from three tons a month to nine, so ours will rise by the same amount.

   [7] Some members worry about the cost of a new truck route. [8] The county has offered to pay for the bins, so the town would cover only the driver's hours. [9] Every neighbor I have spoken to is counting on you tonight.

   [10] A vote for glass pickup is a vote for a cleaner and more responsible Harlow. [11] I urge the council to approve it.

2. 1.

   Tala listens to the speech. Which belief must be true for the step in sentence [6] to work?

   • Any town that adds glass pickup will triple its glass recycling within a few years.
   • Harlow residents would use weekly pickup the way Marsh Landing residents did.
   • The county plant will keep accepting glass from Harlow.
   • Marsh Landing is a town about the size of Harlow, and it began its pickup in 2023.
3. 2.

   Jun is a listener who wants to answer the speech fairly. Which reply goes at its weakest link without attacking the speaker?

   • Marsh Landing's results show what will happen here, so the council should not wait and should vote yes tonight to start the pickup.
   • The glass figures are persuasive, but Marsh Landing's gain does not prove Harlow's, so we should learn whether Harlow households would use a pickup.
   • The speaker has not worked for the county on recycling or run a truck route, so the council should set the glass figures aside and look at other proposals.
   • The eleven-ton figure may be an overcount, so the council should doubt that Harlow throws away so much glass until the county checks it.
4. 3.

   Kira asks which sentence still supports the claim even if sentence [6] turns out to be wrong. Which is it?

   • [11] I urge the council to approve it.
   • [6] Its glass recycling rose from three tons a month to nine, so ours will rise by the same amount.
   • [3] The county plant accepts glass, but it received only two tons from Harlow last month, because residents must drive their jars to a drop-off site on the other side of town.
   • [9] Every neighbor I have spoken to is counting on you tonight.

5. A Speech for the Maplewood Garden (printed speech)

   [1] Members of the Parks Board, I ask you to turn the unused tennis courts behind Maplewood Hall into a community garden. [2] Volunteers counted players on the courts for sixty days this summer, and the courts were used on only four of them. [3] The cracks in the surface have grown so wide that the tennis club moved its lessons to the high school in June.

   [4] The courts were built in 1964 with money raised at a pancake supper. [5] When the garden club announced plots last month, twenty-two families signed up within two weeks. [6] That shows these families will be tending their plots every week all summer. [7] The beds would be built from donated lumber, so the board's cost would be the water line, estimated at nine hundred dollars.

   [8] Some residents ask whether the courts should be fixed for tennis instead. [9] Repairing the surface would cost about forty thousand dollars, according to a quote from a paving company. [10] Either we create a garden now, or we leave a cracked slab in the middle of the park for years. [11] Every family on Elm Street hopes the board will say yes tonight.

6. 4.

   Bo is a board member who wants to answer sentence [10] fairly. Which reply goes at its weak link without attacking the speaker?

   • Sixty days is too short a time to count players, so the board should doubt that the courts are unused and wait for a longer count.
   • The repair quote is very high, so the board has no choice but to build the garden.
   • The speaker belongs to the garden club, so the board should not trust the speech.
   • A garden and a cracked slab are not the only choices, since the board could repair part of the courts or share the space.
7. 5.

   Milo asks which sentence still supports the claim even if sentence [6] turns out to be wrong. Which is it?

   • [6] That shows these families will be tending their plots every week all summer.
   • [1] Members of the Parks Board, I ask you to turn the unused tennis courts behind Maplewood Hall into a community garden.
   • [11] Every family on Elm Street hopes the board will say yes tonight.
   • [2] Volunteers counted players on the courts for sixty days this summer, and the courts were used on only four of them.

8. A Speech for Sunday Hours (printed speech)

   [1] Members of the Library Board, I ask you to open the Alder Hill Library on Sundays. [2] On the four Saturdays in March, the library counted an average of two hundred ten visitors, and staff had to turn people away at closing. [3] The meeting rooms were booked every Saturday afternoon, and eleven community groups are on a waiting list for space.

   [4] The library building was finished in 1922, with bricks from the old mill. [5] The library gave a survey to every student at Alder Hill Middle School, and ninety of the one hundred fifty who answered said they would visit on Sunday. [6] So about sixty percent of the students at Alder Hill Middle School will come every Sunday.

   [7] The board says Sunday hours would cost about three thousand dollars a month in staff pay. [8] But the Friends of the Library have offered to raise half of that each month, and the town's parks fund could cover the rest during the first year. [9] Every library worth visiting is open on Sundays, and ours should be no different. [10] I hope the board will agree that a library belongs to the whole community.

9. 6.

   Ren listens to the speech. Which belief must be true for the step in sentence [6] to work?

   • Ninety of the one hundred fifty students surveyed said they would visit.
   • Students who say they would visit on Sunday will really come.
   • The Friends of the Library will keep raising money each month.
   • Students across the county would answer the survey the same way.
10. 7.

    Ari is a listener who wants to answer the speech fairly. Which reply goes at its weakest link without attacking the speaker?

    • The Saturday counts may be wrong, because a visitor can be counted twice in one day.
    • Ninety students said they would visit, so Sunday hours are sure to be busy.
    • The speaker does not work at the library or serve on the board, so the board need not weigh the Saturday counts or the waiting list for meeting rooms.
    • The Saturday counts are strong, but a survey answer is not a visit, so the board could try Sunday hours for a month and count who comes.

11. A Speech for Peer Tutoring (printed speech)

    [1] Members of the School Board, I ask you to fund a daily peer-tutoring period at Cedar Ridge High School. [2] Last semester, forty students joined a pilot tutoring group that met twice a week. [3] Their average math grade rose from seventy-one to eighty. [4] The tutoring room is the old woodshop, which has the tallest windows in the building.

    [5] The forty students signed up on their own, after a teacher announced the pilot in class. [6] Because their grades rose, a daily period would raise the grades of students across Cedar Ridge. [7] Students who tutor others also gain, since teaching a lesson helps a person remember it.

    [8] The board has asked how a daily period would fit the schedule. [9] The school can place it in the thirty-minute homeroom, which now holds no lessons. [10] Parents of students who did not join the pilot are watching tonight, and they trust that the board will put students first. [11] A yes vote would show that Cedar Ridge cares about the success of its students.

12. 8.

    Pia listens to the speech. Which belief must be true for the step in sentence [6] to work?

    • Their average math grade rose from seventy-one to eighty.
    • The homeroom period can be spared from the schedule.
    • Any extra help raises a student's grades, whether or not the student asked for it.
    • The forty students who signed up are like the other students in the school.
13. 9.

    Noah is a listener who wants to answer the speech fairly. Which reply goes at its weakest link without attacking the speaker?

    • The homeroom may be needed for announcements, so the plan cannot fit the schedule.
    • Grades rose from seventy-one to eighty, so a daily period will help students across the school and the board should vote yes tonight.
    • The speaker is a teacher at the school, so the board should ignore the grades.
    • The grades rose, but the forty students chose to join, so the board could compare them with similar students who did not join.
14. 10.

    Esme asks which sentence still supports the claim even if sentence [6] turns out to be wrong. Which is it?

    • [10] Parents of students who did not join the pilot are watching tonight, and they trust that the board will put students first.
    • [1] Members of the School Board, I ask you to fund a daily peer-tutoring period at Cedar Ridge High School.
    • [6] Because their grades rose, a daily period would raise the grades of students across Cedar Ridge.
    • [7] Students who tutor others also gain, since teaching a lesson helps a person remember it.