Explain a topic or a process in a few paragraphs
Grade 8 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
How Lightning Works (explanatory draft)
[1] A flash of lightning can light up the whole sky in less than a second. [2] Lightning is a giant spark of electricity that jumps between a cloud and the ground, or between two parts of a cloud. [3] Inside a storm cloud, bits of ice rub against one another, and the rubbing builds up electric charge, with one kind near the top of the cloud and the other kind near the bottom. [4] When the difference in charge grows large enough, the air can no longer keep the charges apart, and a huge spark leaps across the gap.
[5] Some people have the wrong idea about lightning. [6] It really is not true. [7] Tall, pointed objects give the spark an easy path to follow, so lightning strikes them again and again during a storm. [8] A lightning rod is a metal rod on top of a building that carries the charge down a wire into the ground.
[9] Lightning rods are basically a big deal because they stop buildings from getting wrecked. [10] A bolt heats the air around it to a temperature hotter than the surface of the Sun. [11] That is all about lightning.
Zee wants to replace sentences [5] and [6] with a pair that names a common belief and corrects it with evidence. Which pair does that?
- Many people believe that lightning never strikes the same place twice. In fact, lightning is a giant spark of electricity that can jump from a cloud to the ground in a fraction of a second, which is why it seems so sudden.
- Many people believe that lightning never strikes the same place twice. That idea is a common one, and many old stories repeat it.
- Tall buildings are often hit by lightning during storms. The Empire State Building is struck many times in a typical year.
- Many people believe that lightning never strikes the same place twice. In fact, the Empire State Building is struck many times in a typical year, as are other tall buildings.
Ari thinks sentence [9] is vague and too casual. Which sentence rewrites it with exact words and a formal voice?
- A lightning rod protects a building by giving the charge a metal path to the ground, so the current does not pass through the roof and walls.
- Lightning rods are an important feature of buildings because they help to prevent various kinds of difficulties.
- A lightning rod is usually made of copper or aluminum and is mounted on the highest point of a roof.
- A lightning rod gives the charge a metal path to the ground, so it totally skips the roof and walls, which is awesome for the whole house.
Bo wants to replace sentence [11] with a conclusion that gathers the essay's ideas without adding a new fact. Which sentence does that?
- Because lightning rods work so well, towns should put one on each hilltop.
- A flash of lightning can light up the whole sky in less than a second.
- Scientists estimate that lightning flashes somewhere on Earth about a hundred times each second, and each flash lasts for a fraction of a second.
- Lightning begins as charge building up in a cloud, and buildings that are struck again and again show that the old saying about it is not true.
How We Taste (explanatory draft)
[1] A bite of a ripe orange seems to burst with flavor all at once. [2] Taste begins when tiny taste buds on the surface of the tongue come into contact with the chemicals in food. [3] Each taste bud holds a group of taste cells that send signals to the brain when they touch certain chemicals. [4] The brain combines those signals with smell, which is why food tastes dull when your nose is stuffed.
[5] People get some ideas about the tongue wrong. [6] That is really not the case. [7] Humans can detect five basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami, a savory taste found in foods such as cheese and mushrooms. [8] Taste buds sit inside small bumps that are scattered all over the tongue, and a single bump can hold buds that respond to several different tastes.
[9] The thing about taste is that the nose is kind of a big helper, so stuffed-up people cannot taste much stuff. [10] Taste cells replace themselves about every two weeks, so the tongue usually recovers quickly from a mild burn. [11] That is all there is to say.
Esme wants to replace sentences [5] and [6] with a pair that names a common belief and corrects it with evidence. Which pair does that?
- Many people believe that each taste is sensed only in its own part of the tongue. That idea comes from an old chart, and many classrooms still repeat it with a colorful chart on the wall.
- Many people believe that each taste is sensed only in its own part of the tongue. In fact, researchers have found taste cells for all five basic tastes spread across the whole tongue.
- Many people believe that each taste is sensed only in its own part of the tongue. In fact, taste buds sit inside small bumps that cover the surface of the tongue.
- Taste cells for all five basic tastes are found on the tongue. Researchers have mapped these cells across the whole tongue.
Kira wants to replace sentence [11] with a conclusion that gathers the essay's ideas without adding a new fact. Which sentence does that?
- Taste cells for every basic taste cover the tongue, and the brain blends their signals with smell to make the flavors we notice.
- A bite of a ripe orange seems to burst with flavor all at once.
- Because umami tastes so good, schools should serve more cheese and mushrooms at lunch.
- Some people are born with extra taste buds and are called supertasters, so they find some foods very strong and may avoid bitter vegetables.
Why the Moon Changes Shape (explanatory draft)
[1] Over about a month, the Moon seems to change from a thin crescent to a full circle and back again. [2] The Moon does not produce any light of its own; it shines only because it reflects the light that reaches it from the Sun. [3] At any given moment, the Sun lights half of the Moon, which is the half that faces toward the Sun. [4] As the Moon travels around Earth, we see different amounts of that lit half from our position on the ground, and that is why its shape seems to change.
[5] A wrong idea about the Moon is common. [6] It does not match the facts. [7] When the Moon is located between Earth and the Sun, its lit half faces away from us, and we see almost none of the lit surface, which astronomers call a new moon. [8] About two weeks later, the Moon has moved to the far side of Earth from the Sun, and from Earth we see its entire lit half, which astronomers call a full moon.
[9] The Moon is kind of dusty and gray, but it looks super bright at night because of the Sun. [10] The Moon takes about twenty-nine and a half days to complete the cycle of phases from one new moon to the next. [11] That is the end.
Luz wants to replace sentences [5] and [6] with a pair that names a common belief and corrects it with evidence. Which pair does that?
- Many people believe that Earth's shadow causes the phases of the Moon. In fact, the Moon reflects light from the Sun and makes none of its own.
- Earth's shadow reaches the Moon only during a lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse happens a few times a year.
- Many people believe that Earth's shadow causes the phases of the Moon. In fact, Earth's shadow reaches the Moon only during a lunar eclipse, a few times a year, while the phases repeat every month.
- Many people believe that Earth's shadow causes the phases of the Moon. That idea is a common one, which many pictures seem to show and many people repeat to their friends.
Milo thinks sentence [9] is vague and too casual. Which sentence rewrites it with exact words and a formal voice?
- The Moon has a surface with certain features that cause it to appear a particular way to observers.
- The Moon's surface is dark gray, but it looks bright in the night sky because it reflects sunlight.
- The Moon's surface is dark gray, but it looks crazy bright at night because it bounces back sunlight.
- The Moon's surface is covered with craters that formed when rocks struck it long ago.
Noah wants to replace sentence [11] with a conclusion that gathers the essay's ideas without adding a new fact. Which sentence does that?
- Astronauts first walked on the Moon in 1969 and brought back rocks for scientists to study, and those rocks have helped researchers learn how old the Moon is.
- The Moon's changing shape comes from our changing view of its sunlit half, not from any shadow, so the same Moon is there each night.
- Over about a month, the Moon seems to change from a thin crescent to a full circle and back again.
- The Moon should be explored more, since people will probably live there someday.
What a Goldfish Can Remember (explanatory draft)
[1] A goldfish swimming in a bowl can seem to have nothing on its mind. [2] A goldfish brain is small, yet it contains separate areas for sensing the surroundings, controlling movement, and learning. [3] Scientists have tested goldfish memory by teaching the fish simple tasks for a food reward, and then checking what the fish remember. [4] In one kind of test, goldfish learn to swim through a marked gate to reach their food, and the scientists count how often they choose the right one.
[5] Some people hold a mistaken belief about goldfish. [6] That belief is not accurate. [7] In another test, fish that heard a sound at each feeding began to swim toward the sound, and they still did so weeks later. [8] Other researchers found that goldfish remember such lessons for at least several months, even after long breaks in practice.
[9] Goldfish brains are tiny, but they do some pretty cool stuff with them, like learning and remembering. [10] A goldfish can live for more than ten years when it is well cared for in a large, clean tank. [11] That is the whole story.
Ren thinks sentence [9] is vague and too casual. Which sentence rewrites it with exact words and a formal voice?
- A goldfish can sense changes in the temperature of the water and in the light around it.
- Although a goldfish brain is small, it supports learning and remembering as well as sensing and movement.
- The brains of goldfish are of interest to people who study the matters that animals are able to do, and these matters are of wide interest.
- A goldfish brain is tiny, but it totally handles learning and remembering, which is awesome.
Tala wants to replace sentence [11] with a conclusion that gathers the essay's ideas without adding a new fact. Which sentence does that?
- The oldest known pet goldfish lived for more than forty years in England, which is far longer than most goldfish live in homes.
- Pet stores should teach each new owner to train a goldfish with food and a gate.
- A goldfish swimming in a bowl can seem to have nothing on its mind.
- Careful tests show that a goldfish can learn and remember for months, so the idea that it forgets within seconds does not hold up.