How words relate

Grade 8 Reading Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   The Bridge on Mill Street (article)

   [1] For eighty years, the footbridge on Mill Street has carried schoolchildren, shoppers and dog walkers across Tanner Creek. [2] This spring the town council proposed to demolish it, calling the structure aging and obsolete. [3] The words sounded reasonable, even sensible, the language of a council weighing costs. [4] Then an engineer hired by the town reported something less dramatic. [5] The steel beams were sound, she wrote; only the wooden deck had weakened, and a deck can be replaced plank by plank. [6] She called the bridge seasoned, a word that suggests wear earned through use rather than damage. [7] The council replied that repairs would be a stopgap, a small fix that only postpones the real expense. [8] Supporters of the bridge answered that a stopgap lasting another forty years is hard to tell from a solution. [9] By the end of the meeting the language on both sides had hardened, and neither side was describing the same bridge. [10] Council members spoke of retiring it, as if it deserved a pension. [11] Defenders spoke of erasing it, as if a piece of the town's memory were being wiped away. [12] The vote was postponed, but the vocabulary is unlikely to soften, because each phrase carries a decision inside it. [13] A town that calls a bridge obsolete has already agreed to replace it, and a town that calls it seasoned has already agreed to keep it. [14] Nobody on the council has said so aloud, yet the choice of adjective will probably decide the vote before the engineer's numbers are read again.

2. 1.

   Which pair of word choices shows the writer first crediting the council's language and later questioning it, Ari asks?

   • "Sounded reasonable" in sentence 3 and "a pension" in sentence 10, showing mockery from the start
   • "Aging and obsolete" in sentence 2 and "seasoned" in sentence 6, the two main labels in the dispute
   • "Reasonable, even sensible" in sentence 3 and "carries a decision inside it" in sentence 12
   • "Hardened" in sentence 9 and "wiped away" in sentence 11, the two harshest words in the passage
3. 2.

   Council members speak of retiring the bridge, and defenders of erasing it (sentences 10 and 11). What do the two words show together, Bo asks?

   • Retiring frames demolition as a dignified end to service, and erasing frames it as wiping out memory
   • Retiring frames demolition as an insult to the bridge's age, and erasing frames it as an honor to its history
   • Both words frame the plan as a repair, and they differ in how much the repair would cost the town
   • Both words are neutral labels for demolition, so the writer shows no leaning toward either side in them
4. 3.

   In sentence 5 the engineer separates the beams from the deck. Which relationship does the writer rely on to suggest the bridge need not come down, Kira asks?

   • Cause and result: the weak deck caused the sound beams to fail, so the whole bridge is now unsafe
   • Part and whole: only one part, the deck, has failed, so replacing the whole goes beyond the evidence
   • Same meaning: beams and deck are two words for the bridge, so nothing in the sentence is separated
   • Degree: sound and weakened are two strengths of one flaw, so the bridge is only a little damaged
5. 4.

   Sentence 12 says each phrase "carries a decision inside it." Which relationship does the writer rely on in sentences 12 and 13, Luz asks?

   • Cause and result: the word a town chooses already settles the decision it will take about the bridge
   • Same meaning: obsolete and seasoned are two ways of saying old, so the town can use either one
   • Degree: obsolete is a stronger word than seasoned, so the council's side is the more serious of the two
   • Part and whole: obsolete is one part of the larger idea of seasoned, so the words overlap

6. Whose Word for the Rider (article)

   [1] When the regional transit agency announced that it would trim the Route 9 bus, its news release used the word streamlined four times. [2] The bus would run every thirty minutes instead of every fifteen, and two stops near the hospital would close. [3] To a planner, the language was honest enough, since fewer buses do cost less to run. [4] To a rider who works the early shift, it sounded like a joke told in a flat voice. [5] Mr. Danso, who has taken the bus to the Lakeview clinic for six years, said the new schedule would not streamline his morning but stretch it. [6] The agency also described its passengers as customers, a term borrowed from stores, where a customer who leaves can simply shop elsewhere. [7] Riders without cars cannot leave, and some of them noticed the difference. [8] They began to call themselves dependents on the line, which sounds heavier, though it describes the same people the agency calls customers. [9] A city council member suggested a compromise she called a pilot, a word that promises the change can be reversed. [10] Skeptics asked whether any cut in the history of the system had ever been undone. [11] The agency's spokesperson said that the numbers would decide. [12] The numbers will probably favor the agency, since they count buses rather than the people waiting for them. [13] That is how a vocabulary can win an argument before the evidence arrives: it decides in advance what counts. [14] Anyone who questions the finding must first ask for a different list of words, which is harder than asking for different numbers.

7. 5.

   Which pair of the writer's own word choices shows a move from fairness toward doubt about the agency, Milo asks?

   • "Honest enough" in sentence 3 and "a joke told in a flat voice" in sentence 4
   • "Streamlined" in sentence 1 and "stretch" in sentence 5, the agency's word and the rider's word
   • "A pilot" in sentence 9 and "undone" in sentence 10, showing the writer is sure the cuts will last
   • "Customers" in sentence 6 and "dependents" in sentence 8, the agency's label and the riders' own
8. 6.

   What tone do "honest enough," "a joke told in a flat voice" and "will probably favor the agency" create together, Noah asks?

   • Measured criticism: fair to the planner first, then increasingly doubtful of the agency's numbers
   • Neutral reporting that takes no side on the Route 9 cut and leaves the judgment to the reader
   • Enthusiastic backing for the agency's plan, since the writer calls the planner's language honest
   • Angry mockery of the agency, which the writer shows from the very first sentence of the article
9. 7.

   A student replaces streamlined (sentence 1) with cut and customers (sentence 6) with riders. How would the two changes affect the argument, Pia asks?

   • The first swap would support the agency and the second would support the riders, so the changes would cancel out
   • The tone would change a little, since streamlined and cut both mean reduced and customers and riders both mean passengers
   • The release would be plain-spoken, so the passage would lose its target: words that disguise the cut and the riders
   • The release would sound more flattering to the agency, since cut sounds decisive and riders sounds respectful
10. 8.

    A student replaces dependents (sentence 8) with customers and a flat voice (sentence 4) with a calm voice. What happens to the passage, Ren asks?

    • The riders' protest and the writer's irony both fade, so it no longer argues that the agency's words hide need
    • A few adjectives change, so the agency's view and the riders' view are both unchanged in the passage
    • The riders' protest grows clearer, since customers is the riders' own word for themselves in sentence 8
    • The agency's release now sounds believable, so the passage argues that the cut is fair to the riders
11. 9.

    Sentences 6 and 7 argue that customers is the wrong word for riders without cars. Which relationship supports the argument, Tala asks?

    • Cause and result: a customer can leave, so the word implies a choice these riders do not have
    • Degree: customers have a milder need for the bus than riders without cars, so the agency's word is the weaker one
    • Part and whole: riders without cars are one part of the group of customers, so the word fits them
    • Same meaning: customer and rider are two words for one person, so the choice of word makes no difference
12. 10.

    Sentences 11 and 12 say the numbers count buses, not people. Which relationship does the writer use to argue the vocabulary wins first, Zee asks?

    • Cause and result: counting buses makes the people wait longer, so the numbers support the agency
    • Opposites: buses and people are opposites, so the numbers can count one of them at a time
    • Degree: buses are a stronger measure than people, so the agency's numbers settle the question for good
    • Part and whole: counting buses measures one part of the system and leaves out the people waiting