Work out a word, then check it

Grade 9 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Questions Worth Asking (science essay)

   [1] For years the lab's founder insisted that a good question was worth more than a good result. [2] His students found this maddening, since their funding depended on results, but they came to see that his questions were fertile in a way their data seldom were. [3] A single question could seed three papers, and a failed experiment could prune a hypothesis so cleanly that the next one grew stronger. [4] By contrast, the rival lab down the hall measured everything and asked almost nothing, and its shelves of data lay barren. [5] When the funding finally dried up for both, the founder's students had the tools to move on, and the rival lab's did not.

2. 1.

   Ari reads the passage. Is “fertile” literal or figurative in sentence 2, and what does it mean?

   • Literal: able to grow crops in rich soil
   • Figurative: producing many new ideas
   • Figurative: dull and unproductive
   • Figurative: expensive to carry out
3. 2.

   Bo replaces “prune” in sentence 3. Which word keeps the meaning and the paragraph's growing imagery?

   • water
   • trim
   • delete
   • lock
4. 3.

   Esme guesses that “prune” means “to dry a plum.” Which check shows the guess is wrong and gives the better meaning?

   • A hypothesis cannot be dried; the next one grew stronger, so prune means cut away what fails
   • Prune means to shape a tree for show, so the lab shapes its ideas to look good
   • The guess works, since an idea that fails shrivels up like a dried plum does
   • Prune means to cut away, a loss the founder regretted and wished he had avoided

5. The Judge and the Pier (civic essay)

   [1] The town's debate over the old pier had been a storm for months, with shouted meetings, angry letters and a petition that ran to forty pages. [2] Then the council hired a retired judge, Hana Whitcomb, to hear every side, and she asked each speaker the same two questions, never raised her voice, and thanked even those who insulted her. [3] By the fourth week, speakers who arrived with fists clenched were leaving with their hands open. [4] Her report did not please everyone, but no one called it unfair; it became the anchor that held the town through the final vote. [5] When the council approved the plan, the harbor was calm.

6. 4.

   Jun reads the passage. Is “anchor” literal or figurative in sentence 4, and what does it mean?

   • Literal: a part of the old pier that the council voted to repair
   • Literal: a heavy iron hook that holds a boat in place
   • Figurative: something that steadies and keeps others from drifting
   • Figurative: something that drags a person down and holds them back
7. 5.

   Kira replaces “storm” in sentence 1. Which word keeps the meaning and sets up “the harbor was calm” in sentence 5?

   • gale
   • tide
   • dispute
   • parade

8. The Jawbone (science narrative)

   [1] The evidence for the new theory was threadbare: a few fossil fragments, a single drawing and a diary entry of doubtful date. [2] Most of her colleagues dismissed it. [3] Dr. Mirela Voss, dogged as ever, spent three summers digging in a riverbank no one else wanted, until a graduate student's trowel turned up a jawbone that matched the drawing exactly. [4] The skeptics fell silent. [5] Voss herself did not gloat; she wrote a short, careful paper, and she thanked the diarist by name.

9. 6.

   Milo reads the passage. Is “threadbare” literal or figurative in sentence 1, and what does it mean?

   • Literal: worn cloth with the threads showing
   • Figurative: rich and heavily supported
   • Figurative: barely enough to support anything
   • Figurative: very old and badly damaged
10. 7.

    Noah replaces “dogged” in sentence 3. Which word keeps the meaning and the writer's respectful tone?

    • unenthusiastic
    • bullheaded
    • persistent
    • industrious
11. 8.

    Pia guesses that “gloat” in sentence 5 means “to celebrate happily with others.” Which check shows the guess is wrong?

    • She wrote a careful paper and thanked the diarist, so gloat means showing smug pleasure
    • Gloat means to stare greedily, so Voss did not stare at the jawbone she had found
    • Gloat means to show smug pleasure, which the writer admires in Voss after the long dig
    • The guess holds, since thanking the diarist shows she celebrated with others after the find

12. The Audition Screen (profile)

    [1] The conservatory's reputation rested on its ruthless audition process, and Professor Imre Halász had refined it into an art. [2] Applicants played for four minutes behind a screen while he scribbled notes that no one else was permitted to read, and the students whispered that he could hear a missed breath from the hallway. [3] Yet his own studio was a place of odd gentleness; he corrected wrong notes with the patience of a man gardening in a drought. [4] Former students describe him as flinty on the outside and warm at the core. [5] "He cut us down," one said, "so that something could grow."

13. 9.

    Ren reads the passage. Is “flinty” literal or figurative in sentence 4, and what does it mean?

    • Figurative: sharp-eyed about wrong notes
    • Figurative: hard and stern in manner
    • Literal: made of a hard gray stone
    • Figurative: soft and easily moved
14. 10.

    Zee guesses that “cut us down” in sentence 5 means “drove us away from the school.” Which check shows the guess is wrong?

    • Cut us down means defeated us in a contest, since auditions at the school are contests
    • The speaker adds that something could grow, so it means corrected harshly to help us improve
    • Cut us down means criticized us harshly, which the speaker still resents after many years
    • The guess holds, since students who are cut down at an audition leave the conservatory