How words relate

Grade 8 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   When the Lake Ran Low (article)

   [1] For most of the summer, Lake Corbin held so much water that boaters barely noticed the dry weeks. [2] By September, however, the shoreline had begun to retreat, and the town's engineers described the supply as scarce rather than abundant. [3] Each week the lake dropped a few more inches, a slow dwindling that residents barely noticed until the old boat ramp ended in mud. [4] Officials asked families to conserve water with shorter showers and night watering, when less would dry up. [5] The request was voluntary at first, though the mayor warned that stricter rules would follow if the lake fell lower. [6] Some neighbors responded eagerly, while others shrugged off the appeal as a fuss. [7] Then a reading at the dam showed the lake nearly nine feet low, and the mood in town shifted from uneasy to alarmed. [8] The council passed a mandatory limit on outdoor watering, and inspectors began visiting streets where hoses still ran. [9] Residents who had called the first request a nuisance now called the limit a necessity. [10] By late October, steady rain had lifted the lake two feet, a modest rise that nobody mistook for the shortage's end. [11] The mayor thanked residents and said the water level, not the calendar, would decide when the limit ended. [12] For now, the limit stays.

2. 1.

   Ari reads sentence 2, which sets scarce against abundant. Which meaning of scarce fits?

   • Hard to find enough of for the town's needs
   • Unsafe to drink without special treatment
   • Present in large amounts around town
   • Spread unevenly across the neighborhoods
3. 2.

   Sentence 6 sets neighbors who responded eagerly against others who shrugged off the appeal. Which meaning of shrugged off fits, Bo asks?

   • Treated as not worth worrying about
   • Pushed away with an angry gesture of the shoulders
   • Answered with a long, loud argument against it
   • Answered with the same eager effort as the others
4. 3.

   Esme wants a word to replace conserve in sentence 4. Which word keeps the officials' meaning?

   • Waste
   • Purify
   • Save
   • Hoard
5. 4.

   Sentence 9 says residents first called the request a nuisance. Which word keeps that meaning, Jun asks?

   • Surprise
   • Danger
   • Annoyance
   • Benefit
6. 5.

   How are voluntary (sentence 5) and mandatory (sentence 8) related, Kira asks?

   • Degree: mandatory is a milder form of voluntary
   • Same topic, not meaning: both appear in sentences about watering lawns
   • Opposites: one leaves the choice to residents, the other removes it
   • Synonyms: both describe a rule that residents may ignore
7. 6.

   Sentence 7 says the mood shifted from uneasy to alarmed. How are the two words related, Luz asks?

   • Same topic, not meaning: both are feelings and nothing more
   • Opposites: uneasy means calm and alarmed means worried
   • Same feeling at different strengths: alarmed is the stronger
   • Same feeling at different strengths: uneasy is the stronger

8. The Last Reader (article)

   [1] At the Harbor Ledger, the last person to read each page before it reaches the printing press is the proofreader. [2] The work is tedious, because a single tired glance can miss a transposed letter or a missing comma. [3] Marisol Quinn, who has held the job for nineteen years, is meticulous about every page, checking dates, names and spellings against the reporters' notes. [4] A careless proofreader, she says, would let small errors slip through, and readers notice those errors more than any good sentence. [5] She works slowly on purpose, because a hasty read is the surest way to miss a mistake. [6] Her desk is cluttered with dictionaries, yet her system for marking corrections is orderly enough that the pressroom can follow it without asking questions. [7] On a recent Thursday, she caught a headline that gave the mayor's age as 51 instead of 15, a slip that might have launched a very different kind of story. [8] The editors call her work invisible, because readers only notice proofreading when it fails. [9] Marisol accepts that bargain with good humor, saying that flawless pages are their own reward. [10] Still, she admits the monotony can wear on her, so she takes a short walk to the harbor every hour to clear her head. [11] Then she goes back to the page, because the press will not wait.

9. 7.

   Sentence 3 calls Marisol meticulous, and sentence 4 sets a careless proofreader against her. Which meaning fits, Milo asks?

   • Extremely careful about small details
   • Slow to finish any page that comes to the desk
   • Fond of quiet desk work in the evening hours
   • Careless about small errors in the work
10. 8.

    Noah replaces tedious in sentence 2. Which word keeps the meaning of dull, repeated work?

    • Difficult
    • Rewarding
    • Silent
    • Wearisome
11. 9.

    Sentence 2 calls the work tedious, and sentence 10 mentions its monotony. How are the words related, Tala asks?

    • Near-synonyms: both name dull work that repeats
    • Opposites: tedious is dull and monotony is exciting
    • Stronger and weaker: monotony is the stronger word
    • Same topic, not meaning: both appear in sentences about the job
12. 10.

    Marisol is meticulous (sentence 3), and her pages are flawless (sentence 9). How are the two words related, Zee asks?

    • Synonyms: both words mean having no errors
    • Cause and effect: meticulous checking leads to flawless pages
    • Cause and effect: flawless pages lead to meticulous checking
    • Same topic, not meaning: both words appear near the word pages