Pick the quotes that prove it best
Grade 9 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
The Missing Lane on Harlan Street (editorial)
[1] On school mornings, approximately two hundred students ride or walk along Harlan Street to reach Redfield Middle School. [2] The street has no bike lane, and the sidewalk on its north side ends a full block before the school gate, so some pedestrians must walk beside moving traffic. [3] Town records show six crashes involving bicycles on Harlan Street last year, more than on any other road in Redfield. [4] A parent survey this spring found that most families who now drive their children to school would allow them to bike if a protected lane separated riders from traffic. [5] Today thirty-one students bike to school, a small share of the students who live close enough to ride.
[6] Critics of the proposal argue that it would cost $400,000 and eliminate twelve parking spaces on a street where residents already struggle to find them. [7] They also observe that no student was seriously injured on the street last year. [8] These objections are reasonable, since money and parking matter to the residents who would live beside the lane. [9] Even so, the lane would cost less than the $650,000 the town spent in 2022 to repave the lot behind town hall. [10] A near miss is also a warning, and six crashes in a single year is a pattern worth correcting before someone is seriously injured.
[11] Redfield has paid for safer crossings before and has not regretted the expense, and Harlan Street deserves the same investment. [12] The council should vote yes on the protected lane when it meets in June.
Ari is testing a claim about this editorial: “The editorial makes a case that Harlan Street needs a lane and that the town can afford one.” Which set of sentences supports the whole claim best?
- [6] Critics of the proposal argue that it would cost $400,000 and eliminate twelve parking spaces on a street where residents already struggle to find them. [7] They also observe that no student was seriously injured on the street last year.
- [3] Town records show six crashes involving bicycles on Harlan Street last year, more than on any other road in Redfield. [9] Even so, the lane would cost less than the $650,000 the town spent in 2022 to repave the lot behind town hall.
- [1] On school mornings, approximately two hundred students ride or walk along Harlan Street to reach Redfield Middle School. [9] Even so, the lane would cost less than the $650,000 the town spent in 2022 to repave the lot behind town hall.
- [2] The street has no bike lane, and the sidewalk on its north side ends a full block before the school gate, so some pedestrians must walk beside moving traffic. [3] Town records show six crashes involving bicycles on Harlan Street last year, more than on any other road in Redfield.
The Cracked Bowl (story)
[1] Tala had spent three weeks on the blue bowl, shaping the walls so thin that light glowed through them when Tala held the bowl up to the window. [2] When the art teacher, Ms. Okafor, opened the kiln on Friday, a crack ran from the rim to the base. [3] Tala set the bowl on the shelf without a word and went to the sink to scrub clay from under both thumbnails for much longer than the job needed. [4] Noah, who had watched the whole thing, offered to help glue it, but Tala said the fair was in a week anyway and walked on.
[5] That weekend, Tala read about potters in Japan who mend broken bowls with lacquer and powdered gold and leave the seams in plain sight. [6] On Monday, Tala asked Ms. Okafor whether there was time to try it, and Ms. Okafor found a spare jar of gold powder in the supply closet. [7] Tala worked on the bowl through lunch for three days, pressing the pieces together and painting the seam with a thin brush. [8] Noah stopped by on Wednesday and said the repaired bowl looked more interesting than the one Tala had planned to make. [9] Tala laughed and said the gold line was the part that people would look at first.
[10] At the fair, a visitor picked up the bowl and asked what had happened to it. [11] Tala smiled and began the whole story, from the thin walls to the gold seam, without pausing for breath. [12] Ms. Okafor, standing nearby, noticed that Tala had not once used the word "mistake."
Esme is testing a claim about this story: “Tala's feelings about the cracked bowl shifted over the course of the story.” Which set of sentences supports the whole claim best?
- [2] When the art teacher, Ms. Okafor, opened the kiln on Friday, a crack ran from the rim to the base. [11] Tala smiled and began the whole story, from the thin walls to the gold seam, without pausing for breath.
- [3] Tala set the bowl on the shelf without a word and went to the sink to scrub clay from under both thumbnails for much longer than the job needed. [11] Tala smiled and began the whole story, from the thin walls to the gold seam, without pausing for breath.
- [5] That weekend, Tala read about potters in Japan who mend broken bowls with lacquer and powdered gold and leave the seams in plain sight. [6] On Monday, Tala asked Ms. Okafor whether there was time to try it, and Ms. Okafor found a spare jar of gold powder in the supply closet.
- [8] Noah stopped by on Wednesday and said the repaired bowl looked more interesting than the one Tala had planned to make. [9] Tala laughed and said the gold line was the part that people would look at first.
The Long Flight of the Monarch (article)
[1] Each fall, millions of monarch butterflies from eastern Canada and the United States fly south to a few mountain forests in central Mexico, a trip of up to three thousand miles. [2] No single monarch makes the whole round trip. [3] The butterflies that fly south in autumn live for several months, while those born during the summer live just a few weeks. [4] In spring, the survivors lay eggs on milkweed plants in the southern United States and soon reach the end of their lives. [5] Their offspring move north and breed again, and three or four generations pass before the species reaches Canada.
[6] Scientists once could not say where monarchs spent the winter. [7] In 1975, volunteers who tagged butterflies helped Fred Urquhart, a Canadian zoologist, and his team locate the forests in Mexico where the monarchs gather by the millions. [8] The clustered butterflies cover the trees, so scientists measure the area of forest they occupy. [9] That area fell from about eighteen hectares in the winter of 1996–97 to less than one hectare in 2013–14. [10] Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed and no other plant, and the loss of milkweed from farm fields, where herbicides have cleared it, is a likely cause of the decline.
[11] Weather in Mexico and along the migration path also affects the numbers, so researchers hesitate to blame a single factor. [12] Planting milkweed in yards, parks and roadsides is a reasonable step, though it may not be enough without protection for the winter forests.
Jun is testing a claim about this article: “The article names more than one pressure on monarch numbers.” Which set of sentences supports the whole claim best?
- [1] Each fall, millions of monarch butterflies from eastern Canada and the United States fly south to a few mountain forests in central Mexico, a trip of up to three thousand miles. [10] Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed and no other plant, and the loss of milkweed from farm fields, where herbicides have cleared it, is a likely cause of the decline.
- [9] That area fell from about eighteen hectares in the winter of 1996–97 to less than one hectare in 2013–14. [10] Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed and no other plant, and the loss of milkweed from farm fields, where herbicides have cleared it, is a likely cause of the decline.
- [6] Scientists once could not say where monarchs spent the winter. [7] In 1975, volunteers who tagged butterflies helped Fred Urquhart, a Canadian zoologist, and his team locate the forests in Mexico where the monarchs gather by the millions.
- [10] Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed and no other plant, and the loss of milkweed from farm fields, where herbicides have cleared it, is a likely cause of the decline. [11] Weather in Mexico and along the migration path also affects the numbers, so researchers hesitate to blame a single factor.
The Missing Lane on Harlan Street (editorial)
[1] On school mornings, approximately two hundred students ride or walk along Harlan Street to reach Redfield Middle School. [2] The street has no bike lane, and the sidewalk on its north side ends a full block before the school gate, so some pedestrians must walk beside moving traffic. [3] Town records show six crashes involving bicycles on Harlan Street last year, more than on any other road in Redfield. [4] A parent survey this spring found that most families who now drive their children to school would allow them to bike if a protected lane separated riders from traffic. [5] Today thirty-one students bike to school, a small share of the students who live close enough to ride.
[6] Critics of the proposal argue that it would cost $400,000 and eliminate twelve parking spaces on a street where residents already struggle to find them. [7] They also observe that no student was seriously injured on the street last year. [8] These objections are reasonable, since money and parking matter to the residents who would live beside the lane. [9] Even so, the lane would cost less than the $650,000 the town spent in 2022 to repave the lot behind town hall. [10] A near miss is also a warning, and six crashes in a single year is a pattern worth correcting before someone is seriously injured.
[11] Redfield has paid for safer crossings before and has not regretted the expense, and Harlan Street deserves the same investment. [12] The council should vote yes on the protected lane when it meets in June.
Kira is checking how the text connects a reason and a result. Claim: “Few students bike to Redfield Middle School, and the editorial ties that to the way Harlan Street is built.” Which set supports it best?
- [2] The street has no bike lane, and the sidewalk on its north side ends a full block before the school gate, so some pedestrians must walk beside moving traffic. [3] Town records show six crashes involving bicycles on Harlan Street last year, more than on any other road in Redfield.
- [3] Town records show six crashes involving bicycles on Harlan Street last year, more than on any other road in Redfield. [5] Today thirty-one students bike to school, a small share of the students who live close enough to ride.
- [1] On school mornings, approximately two hundred students ride or walk along Harlan Street to reach Redfield Middle School. [5] Today thirty-one students bike to school, a small share of the students who live close enough to ride.
- [4] A parent survey this spring found that most families who now drive their children to school would allow them to bike if a protected lane separated riders from traffic. [5] Today thirty-one students bike to school, a small share of the students who live close enough to ride.
The Sea Wall That Changed a Country (article)
[1] On the night of January 31, 1953, a powerful storm drove the North Sea over the dikes along the southwest coast of the Netherlands. [2] The flood claimed more than eighteen hundred lives and covered a large area of farmland with salt water. [3] Dutch engineers had spent centuries raising dikes one section at a time, and the disaster exposed the weakness of that habit. [4] Within five years, parliament passed the Delta Act of 1958, which set out a plan to shorten the coastline that faced the sea. [5] Instead of strengthening hundreds of miles of old dikes, the plan closed the wide river mouths with dams and storm barriers.
[6] The Delta Works took nearly forty years to build, and the last great barrier, the Maeslant, was finished in 1997. [7] Some of the dams were built to hold back the sea completely, and they now protect lakes and farms behind them. [8] The plan changed partway through, because fishers and scientists worried that sealing the Oosterschelde estuary would destroy its oyster beds and salt marshes. [9] The Oosterschelde barrier, completed in 1986, was redesigned with huge gates that close when a storm surge threatens and stay open in calm weather. [10] The redesign cost more and took years longer than the first plan.
[11] Today the main sea defenses are built to withstand storms so rare that they would be expected once in many thousands of years in the most crowded regions. [12] Engineers from other countries visit the Delta Works to study how a nation can live behind its defenses rather than simply fight the water.
Luz is checking how the text connects a reason and a result. Claim: “According to the article, concern for sea life made the Oosterschelde project more expensive.” Which set supports it best?
- [7] Some of the dams were built to hold back the sea completely, and they now protect lakes and farms behind them. [9] The Oosterschelde barrier, completed in 1986, was redesigned with huge gates that close when a storm surge threatens and stay open in calm weather.
- [9] The Oosterschelde barrier, completed in 1986, was redesigned with huge gates that close when a storm surge threatens and stay open in calm weather. [10] The redesign cost more and took years longer than the first plan.
- [8] The plan changed partway through, because fishers and scientists worried that sealing the Oosterschelde estuary would destroy its oyster beds and salt marshes. [10] The redesign cost more and took years longer than the first plan.
- [6] The Delta Works took nearly forty years to build, and the last great barrier, the Maeslant, was finished in 1997. [10] The redesign cost more and took years longer than the first plan.
The Long Flight of the Monarch (article)
[1] Each fall, millions of monarch butterflies from eastern Canada and the United States fly south to a few mountain forests in central Mexico, a trip of up to three thousand miles. [2] No single monarch makes the whole round trip. [3] The butterflies that fly south in autumn live for several months, while those born during the summer live just a few weeks. [4] In spring, the survivors lay eggs on milkweed plants in the southern United States and soon reach the end of their lives. [5] Their offspring move north and breed again, and three or four generations pass before the species reaches Canada.
[6] Scientists once could not say where monarchs spent the winter. [7] In 1975, volunteers who tagged butterflies helped Fred Urquhart, a Canadian zoologist, and his team locate the forests in Mexico where the monarchs gather by the millions. [8] The clustered butterflies cover the trees, so scientists measure the area of forest they occupy. [9] That area fell from about eighteen hectares in the winter of 1996–97 to less than one hectare in 2013–14. [10] Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed and no other plant, and the loss of milkweed from farm fields, where herbicides have cleared it, is a likely cause of the decline.
[11] Weather in Mexico and along the migration path also affects the numbers, so researchers hesitate to blame a single factor. [12] Planting milkweed in yards, parks and roadsides is a reasonable step, though it may not be enough without protection for the winter forests.
Noah is checking how the text connects a reason and a result. Claim: “Monarchs return to Canada each summer even though no individual completes the round trip, and the article explains how.” Which set supports it best?
- [4] In spring, the survivors lay eggs on milkweed plants in the southern United States and soon reach the end of their lives. [5] Their offspring move north and breed again, and three or four generations pass before the species reaches Canada.
- [6] Scientists once could not say where monarchs spent the winter. [7] In 1975, volunteers who tagged butterflies helped Fred Urquhart, a Canadian zoologist, and his team locate the forests in Mexico where the monarchs gather by the millions.
- [1] Each fall, millions of monarch butterflies from eastern Canada and the United States fly south to a few mountain forests in central Mexico, a trip of up to three thousand miles. [2] No single monarch makes the whole round trip.
- [2] No single monarch makes the whole round trip. [3] The butterflies that fly south in autumn live for several months, while those born during the summer live just a few weeks.
The Missing Lane on Harlan Street (editorial)
[1] On school mornings, approximately two hundred students ride or walk along Harlan Street to reach Redfield Middle School. [2] The street has no bike lane, and the sidewalk on its north side ends a full block before the school gate, so some pedestrians must walk beside moving traffic. [3] Town records show six crashes involving bicycles on Harlan Street last year, more than on any other road in Redfield. [4] A parent survey this spring found that most families who now drive their children to school would allow them to bike if a protected lane separated riders from traffic. [5] Today thirty-one students bike to school, a small share of the students who live close enough to ride.
[6] Critics of the proposal argue that it would cost $400,000 and eliminate twelve parking spaces on a street where residents already struggle to find them. [7] They also observe that no student was seriously injured on the street last year. [8] These objections are reasonable, since money and parking matter to the residents who would live beside the lane. [9] Even so, the lane would cost less than the $650,000 the town spent in 2022 to repave the lot behind town hall. [10] A near miss is also a warning, and six crashes in a single year is a pattern worth correcting before someone is seriously injured.
[11] Redfield has paid for safer crossings before and has not regretted the expense, and Harlan Street deserves the same investment. [12] The council should vote yes on the protected lane when it meets in June.
Pia restates the text in new words: “The writer admits the critics have a fair point and then explains why it should not decide the vote.” Which set supports that statement best?
- [8] These objections are reasonable, since money and parking matter to the residents who would live beside the lane. [9] Even so, the lane would cost less than the $650,000 the town spent in 2022 to repave the lot behind town hall.
- [8] These objections are reasonable, since money and parking matter to the residents who would live beside the lane. [10] A near miss is also a warning, and six crashes in a single year is a pattern worth correcting before someone is seriously injured.
- [10] A near miss is also a warning, and six crashes in a single year is a pattern worth correcting before someone is seriously injured. [11] Redfield has paid for safer crossings before and has not regretted the expense, and Harlan Street deserves the same investment.
- [6] Critics of the proposal argue that it would cost $400,000 and eliminate twelve parking spaces on a street where residents already struggle to find them. [7] They also observe that no student was seriously injured on the street last year.
The Sea Wall That Changed a Country (article)
[1] On the night of January 31, 1953, a powerful storm drove the North Sea over the dikes along the southwest coast of the Netherlands. [2] The flood claimed more than eighteen hundred lives and covered a large area of farmland with salt water. [3] Dutch engineers had spent centuries raising dikes one section at a time, and the disaster exposed the weakness of that habit. [4] Within five years, parliament passed the Delta Act of 1958, which set out a plan to shorten the coastline that faced the sea. [5] Instead of strengthening hundreds of miles of old dikes, the plan closed the wide river mouths with dams and storm barriers.
[6] The Delta Works took nearly forty years to build, and the last great barrier, the Maeslant, was finished in 1997. [7] Some of the dams were built to hold back the sea completely, and they now protect lakes and farms behind them. [8] The plan changed partway through, because fishers and scientists worried that sealing the Oosterschelde estuary would destroy its oyster beds and salt marshes. [9] The Oosterschelde barrier, completed in 1986, was redesigned with huge gates that close when a storm surge threatens and stay open in calm weather. [10] The redesign cost more and took years longer than the first plan.
[11] Today the main sea defenses are built to withstand storms so rare that they would be expected once in many thousands of years in the most crowded regions. [12] Engineers from other countries visit the Delta Works to study how a nation can live behind its defenses rather than simply fight the water.
Ren restates the text in new words: “The article treats the Oosterschelde barrier as a compromise between protection and nature.” Which set supports that statement best?
- [8] The plan changed partway through, because fishers and scientists worried that sealing the Oosterschelde estuary would destroy its oyster beds and salt marshes. [9] The Oosterschelde barrier, completed in 1986, was redesigned with huge gates that close when a storm surge threatens and stay open in calm weather.
- [10] The redesign cost more and took years longer than the first plan. [12] Engineers from other countries visit the Delta Works to study how a nation can live behind its defenses rather than simply fight the water.
- [4] Within five years, parliament passed the Delta Act of 1958, which set out a plan to shorten the coastline that faced the sea. [5] Instead of strengthening hundreds of miles of old dikes, the plan closed the wide river mouths with dams and storm barriers.
- [6] The Delta Works took nearly forty years to build, and the last great barrier, the Maeslant, was finished in 1997. [11] Today the main sea defenses are built to withstand storms so rare that they would be expected once in many thousands of years in the most crowded regions.
The Cracked Bowl (story)
[1] Tala had spent three weeks on the blue bowl, shaping the walls so thin that light glowed through them when Tala held the bowl up to the window. [2] When the art teacher, Ms. Okafor, opened the kiln on Friday, a crack ran from the rim to the base. [3] Tala set the bowl on the shelf without a word and went to the sink to scrub clay from under both thumbnails for much longer than the job needed. [4] Noah, who had watched the whole thing, offered to help glue it, but Tala said the fair was in a week anyway and walked on.
[5] That weekend, Tala read about potters in Japan who mend broken bowls with lacquer and powdered gold and leave the seams in plain sight. [6] On Monday, Tala asked Ms. Okafor whether there was time to try it, and Ms. Okafor found a spare jar of gold powder in the supply closet. [7] Tala worked on the bowl through lunch for three days, pressing the pieces together and painting the seam with a thin brush. [8] Noah stopped by on Wednesday and said the repaired bowl looked more interesting than the one Tala had planned to make. [9] Tala laughed and said the gold line was the part that people would look at first.
[10] At the fair, a visitor picked up the bowl and asked what had happened to it. [11] Tala smiled and began the whole story, from the thin walls to the gold seam, without pausing for breath. [12] Ms. Okafor, standing nearby, noticed that Tala had not once used the word "mistake."
Zee restates the text in new words: “An adult in the story notices a change in how Tala talks about the crack.” Which set supports that statement best?
- [6] On Monday, Tala asked Ms. Okafor whether there was time to try it, and Ms. Okafor found a spare jar of gold powder in the supply closet. [12] Ms. Okafor, standing nearby, noticed that Tala had not once used the word "mistake."
- [9] Tala laughed and said the gold line was the part that people would look at first. [11] Tala smiled and began the whole story, from the thin walls to the gold seam, without pausing for breath.
- [11] Tala smiled and began the whole story, from the thin walls to the gold seam, without pausing for breath. [12] Ms. Okafor, standing nearby, noticed that Tala had not once used the word "mistake."
- [4] Noah, who had watched the whole thing, offered to help glue it, but Tala said the fair was in a week anyway and walked on. [8] Noah stopped by on Wednesday and said the repaired bowl looked more interesting than the one Tala had planned to make.
The Long Flight of the Monarch (article)
[1] Each fall, millions of monarch butterflies from eastern Canada and the United States fly south to a few mountain forests in central Mexico, a trip of up to three thousand miles. [2] No single monarch makes the whole round trip. [3] The butterflies that fly south in autumn live for several months, while those born during the summer live just a few weeks. [4] In spring, the survivors lay eggs on milkweed plants in the southern United States and soon reach the end of their lives. [5] Their offspring move north and breed again, and three or four generations pass before the species reaches Canada.
[6] Scientists once could not say where monarchs spent the winter. [7] In 1975, volunteers who tagged butterflies helped Fred Urquhart, a Canadian zoologist, and his team locate the forests in Mexico where the monarchs gather by the millions. [8] The clustered butterflies cover the trees, so scientists measure the area of forest they occupy. [9] That area fell from about eighteen hectares in the winter of 1996–97 to less than one hectare in 2013–14. [10] Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed and no other plant, and the loss of milkweed from farm fields, where herbicides have cleared it, is a likely cause of the decline.
[11] Weather in Mexico and along the migration path also affects the numbers, so researchers hesitate to blame a single factor. [12] Planting milkweed in yards, parks and roadsides is a reasonable step, though it may not be enough without protection for the winter forests.
Tala restates the text in new words: “The article is careful about naming a single cause for the monarch decline.” Which set supports that statement best?
- [9] That area fell from about eighteen hectares in the winter of 1996–97 to less than one hectare in 2013–14. [10] Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed and no other plant, and the loss of milkweed from farm fields, where herbicides have cleared it, is a likely cause of the decline.
- [11] Weather in Mexico and along the migration path also affects the numbers, so researchers hesitate to blame a single factor. [12] Planting milkweed in yards, parks and roadsides is a reasonable step, though it may not be enough without protection for the winter forests.
- [8] The clustered butterflies cover the trees, so scientists measure the area of forest they occupy. [9] That area fell from about eighteen hectares in the winter of 1996–97 to less than one hectare in 2013–14.
- [10] Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed and no other plant, and the loss of milkweed from farm fields, where herbicides have cleared it, is a likely cause of the decline. [12] Planting milkweed in yards, parks and roadsides is a reasonable step, though it may not be enough without protection for the winter forests.