Pick the quotes that prove it best
Grade 9 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence
Circle the best answer.
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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?
- [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.
- [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.
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.
Bo is testing a claim about this article: “The 1953 flood did more than cause damage: it led Dutch leaders to adopt a different way of defending the coast.” Which set of sentences supports the whole claim best?
- [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.
- [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.
- [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.
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.
- [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.
- [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.
- [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.
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?
- [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.
- [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.
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 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."
Milo is checking how the text connects a reason and a result. Claim: “Something Tala learned over the weekend is why the bowl was repaired instead of thrown away.” Which set supports it best?
- [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. [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.
- [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.
- [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.
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?
- [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.
- [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.
- [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.
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. [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.
- [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.
- [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.
- [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.
- [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.
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?
- [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.
- [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."
- [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.