What a phrase means beyond its words
Grade 9 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
The Ship on Fenwick Street (story)
[1] For thirty-four years Uncle Tomas had called his hardware store on Fenwick Street "the ship," and he swept its narrow aisles each morning like a deck. [2] Luz started working there the summer the developer's letters began to arrive, cream-colored envelopes that Uncle Tomas stacked unopened by the register. [3] Each letter offered to buy the building, and each raised the price by a polite, patient amount, the way water rises in a harbor without anyone seeing it move. [4] Uncle Tomas said the ship had weathered worse: the recession, the flood of 1998, and the superstore by the highway that closed after eleven years.
[5] Still, Luz noticed that the back shelves had begun to thin and that paint now came in by the can, not the case. [6] One slow afternoon Uncle Tomas admitted that the ship was taking on a little water, though he said it lightly, the way a captain might mention a cloud. [7] Mrs. Pell, a customer since opening day, told Luz the place was no longer a business but a museum with a cash drawer, and museums run on donors, not customers. [8] When the ninth letter came, Uncle Tomas opened it at the register, read it twice, and laid it face up for the first time.
[9] "I called her a ship for thirty-four years," he said, "so nobody, least of all me, would call her a building, because buildings get sold." [10] In October Luz carried the last cartons to the curb, and the new owner, a cheerful woman in a pressed blazer, promised the building would "find its next chapter." [11] Uncle Tomas shook her hand, tucked the brass bell from the door into his pocket, and stood a moment on the sidewalk as if waiting for the pavement to sway. [12] Then he walked down Fenwick Street without looking back, like a sailor stepping off a long voyage onto ground that does not move.
Kira reads sentence 3, where each raise in price is “polite” and “patient” and rises like harbor water. How does the wording shape the reader's view of the offers?
- They seem openly hostile, a plan to flood the store and drive the family out.
- They seem gentle and generous, a kindness Uncle Tomas is too proud to accept.
- They simply report that the price went up by a small amount with each new letter.
- They seem courteous yet steadily rising, a pressure that wins by never stopping.
Bo follows the ship comparison from sentence 1 to sentence 9. What does its last stage, in sentence 9, add?
- It shows Uncle Tomas now regrets the comparison and sees the store as worthless to him.
- It marks the moment the store sinks at last, the end of the leak that began in sentence 6.
- It shows the comparison was a shield: calling it a ship kept the idea of selling away.
- It confirms the store's steady course: a ship that weathered the recession can weather this too.
Esme reads Mrs. Pell's comparison in sentence 7. What does it show about how Mrs. Pell sees the store?
- She resents the old store and hopes the developer will buy the building soon.
- She sees a busy, thriving shop whose customers will keep it going for years to come.
- She values what it preserves but sees it kept alive by loyalty now, not by its sales.
- She sees a sturdy ship that has come through hard times and will sail on, as its owner says.
Pia reads sentences 11 and 12. How does the sailor simile change the meaning of “without looking back”?
- It makes him helpless without the ship, a sailor too lost to walk on alone.
- It makes leaving a hard landing, not coldness: the loss is still felt, but he walks on.
- It shows Uncle Tomas is glad the store is gone and eager to forget it.
- It adds little; walking without looking back simply means the store no longer matters.
The Promise (story)
[1] Coach Delgado never called the baton a baton; she called it the promise, and she said a relay was just four people keeping one promise for about a minute. [2] Kira, who ran third, thought this sounded like a poster, and Bo, who ran anchor, described the race more bluntly as four solo sprints stapled together at the corners. [3] In April each runner ran fast and alone, and the promise moved around the track in a series of grabs, as if snatched from a closing door. [4] At the regional qualifier the promise slipped from Kira's fingers at the second exchange and rolled into the next lane.
[5] The team was disqualified, and on the bus home the only voice was Bo's, telling the window that some people could not hold on to a simple stick. [6] Coach Delgado did not argue; on Monday she had the team practice exchanges at walking speed for a full hour, the slowest practice in history, the runners said. [7] Her rule was simple: the incoming runner calls "stick," and the outgoing runner does not look back but holds one open hand behind, trusting that the promise will arrive. [8] Kira found that the hard part was not the running but the open hand, which had to stay still while everything in the body wanted to turn around and grab.
[9] By May the exchanges had grown quiet, almost polite, the promise passing from palm to palm as smoothly as a note slipped between friends in class. [10] At the league final no runner was faster than in April, yet the team finished second, more than a second ahead of its old times. [11] Afterward Bo admitted, a little grudgingly, that the staples had mattered more than the sprints. [12] Kira decided the coach had been right, though not in the way of posters: a promise is kept less by the hand that gives it than by the hand that waits.
Ari reads sentence 3, where the promise travels in “a series of grabs.” How do the word choices shape our view of the April handoffs?
- They make the handoffs seem quick and confident, the team at its fastest and sharpest.
- They just describe how fast the baton moved from one runner to the next one.
- They make each exchange a hurried seizing, as if no runner trusted the handoff.
- They show the runners were angry with one another and refused to work together.
Milo reads Bo's “four solo sprints stapled together” in sentence 2 and the staples again in sentence 11. What do the two uses show about Bo?
- Bo first sees the handoffs as mere joins, then grants that they decided the race.
- Bo sees the relay as one promise kept by four people, just as Coach Delgado does.
- Bo dislikes running with a team and now plans to switch to solo races.
- Bo first values the handoffs most, then decides the solo sprints matter more.
Noah reads sentences 7 and 8 through the promise comparison. Why is the open hand “the hard part” for Kira?
- Kira no longer trusts any teammate after Bo's remark on the bus home.
- Holding one arm still behind the body for an hour is tiring, harder than sprinting.
- A promise must be seized quickly before it slips away, and an open hand is too slow.
- Keeping this promise means trusting it will arrive, and waiting is harder than grabbing.
The Lot on Carver Street (story)
[1] For six years the corner of Carver and Ninth was, in the city's words, an underused parcel: a fenced rectangle of gravel where nothing happened. [2] Then Mrs. Odum leased it from the city for a dollar, and within a season the gravel had become a quilt of tomato rows and bean poles. [3] Pia, who lived across the street, helped stitch new patches into the quilt every Saturday, peppers here and marigolds there, until the seams ran up to the curb. [4] Each family planted its own square its own way, until the lot looked less like a farm than a patchwork no single person could have designed.
[5] In spring a councilman, Mr. Hale, visited, admired the sunflower by the sidewalk, and told a reporter the lot was a blank canvas waiting for the right developer. [6] Mrs. Odum, standing beside him, said nothing until his car pulled away; then she remarked that a canvas is only blank to someone who has decided not to look at the painting. [7] A month later the city's report called the garden a temporary activation of a blighted site and advised against renewing the lease. [8] Pia read the phrase aloud twice at the kitchen table, the second time slowly, as though checking each word for a hidden thorn.
[9] At the public meeting twenty-three families each brought a square of fabric, and Mrs. Odum's granddaughter sewed them into a real quilt, uneven and bright. [10] Mr. Hale called the quilt charming and promised that the new building would have a lobby where it could hang. [11] The council voted four to three to renew the lease for one more year, which Mrs. Odum called not a victory but a long breath held. [12] That night Pia saw that the quilt had no hem: it could always be cut apart or added to, depending on who kept showing up with thread.
Ren follows the quilt from sentence 2 to sentence 12. What does the missing hem in sentence 12 add to the comparison?
- It repeats sentence 4: the garden is a patchwork that no single person designed.
- It shows the garden is doomed, since a quilt without a hem soon falls apart.
- It points out that the granddaughter ran out of time to hem the quilt at the meeting.
- It makes the quilt's openness a risk and a hope: it can be cut apart or added to.
Tala reads Mr. Hale's “blank canvas waiting for the right developer” in sentence 5. What does the figure show about how Mr. Hale sees the lot?
- He sees a work of art the neighbors made, worth protecting from developers.
- He sees a finished work made by many hands, one that a careless visitor could miss.
- He sees empty space whose worth will come from a building, though he praises the sunflower.
- He just means that no building stands there yet, a plain fact about the land.
Zee reads Mrs. Odum's reply in sentence 6. What does it show about Mrs. Odum's view of Mr. Hale?
- She thinks Mr. Hale truly sees the garden as art and admires the families' work.
- She thinks he sees emptiness because he has chosen to overlook what the neighbors made.
- She agrees that the lot is still a blank canvas that needs the right developer to finish it.
- She thinks Mr. Hale lied to the reporter to hide a secret deal with a developer.