Worksheet

Saying one thing and meaning another

Grade 9 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

NameDate

Circle the best answer.

  1. Read this first

    Save Paper Week (story)

    [1] On Monday, the school announced Save Paper Week, a five-day campaign to cut down on the stacks of worksheets, flyers and notices that filled the students’ backpacks by Friday. [2] Jun was chosen to carry the campaign packet to each family on Linden Street, which seemed like an easy job until the box arrived at the front office. [3] Inside were forty copies of a fourteen-page booklet, printed on thick, glossy paper, explaining in careful detail why families should use less paper. [4] Jun lifted the box, felt both arms complain, and announced to the empty hallway, “What a light little load for a week about saving paper.”

    [5] Ms. Whitlock, the office manager, who had printed the booklets herself, looked up from the copier and said that the machine had been running since six that morning. [6] By Wednesday, Jun had delivered thirty-nine booklets, and several neighbors had politely asked whether the school was feeling all right. [7] Mr. Petrakis, who lived at the corner, read the first page on his porch and remarked, with a slow smile, that it was the most paper he had ever been asked to save. [8] Jun carried the last booklet to the recycling bin outside the library, where the bin was already overflowing with copies that other students had delivered.

    [9] On Friday, the principal reported that the campaign had used more paper in one week than the school normally used in a month. [10] “So the plan worked a little backward,” Jun told Ms. Whitlock, who laughed so hard that the copier jammed. [11] The following Monday, the office posted a single sign by the front door that said, in large letters, “Save paper: read this once.” [12] Jun suspected that the one sign would do more good than the whole box of booklets had managed to do.

  2. Ari reads sentence 4 aloud. What does Jun really mean, and how does Jun feel about it?

    • The box is heavy, and Jun is teasing Ms. Whitlock for printing the booklets on such thick paper.
    • The box is heavy, and Jun is so angry about the campaign that Jun decides to stop the deliveries.
    • The box is heavy, and Jun is amused that a week about saving paper needs so much paper.
    • The box is light and small, so Jun is pleased that the delivery job will be quick and easy.

  3. Bo labels sentence 10 in the margin. Which figure is Jun using, and why does that label fit?

    • Understatement: Jun makes a complete failure of the plan sound like a small slip.
    • Hyperbole: Jun stretches a small slip in the plan until it sounds like a huge failure.
    • No figure: Jun is giving Ms. Whitlock a plain and exact report of how the week went.
    • Dramatic irony: the reader knows something about the booklets that Jun does not yet know.

  4. Esme fills in the margin for the whole campaign. Which choice gives what was expected and what happened instead?

    • Expected: the school would use more paper in a week than in a month; happened: the campaign cut down on paper.
    • Expected: the campaign would cut down on paper; happened: it used more paper in one week than the school used in a month.
    • Expected: the copier would keep running through the week; happened: the copier jammed when Ms. Whitlock laughed.
    • Expected: Jun would finish the deliveries in a day; happened: the heavy box took Jun until Wednesday to deliver.

  5. The Quiet Room (story)

    [1] For two years, the students of Hillcrest Middle School had asked for a quiet room, a place where anyone could read or think without the clatter of the cafeteria and the shouting of the gym. [2] When the room was finally ready, with soft chairs, a rug the color of moss and a sign on the door that read “Silence, Please,” the principal decided that such an important room deserved a grand opening. [3] Milo, who had collected the signatures that won the room, was asked to cut the ribbon at noon on Friday.

    [4] At a quarter to twelve, the school’s marching band arrived in full uniform, followed by a drum line, two trumpets borrowed from the high school and a man with a megaphone. [5] Milo watched the tubas squeeze through the narrow doorway and said to Esme, “Good thing they kept it small and simple.” [6] Esme, who had brought a book to read in the new room, pressed both hands over both ears and shouted back that the drums could be heard on the moon. [7] The band played the school song three times, the drum line added a solo, and the man with the megaphone thanked everyone for supporting a calm and peaceful place. [8] When Milo finally cut the ribbon, a machine by the window blew a cloud of confetti across the moss-colored rug.

    [9] By one o’clock, the quiet room was covered in paper scraps, the soft chairs had been pushed against the walls to make space for the tubas, and the sign on the door had fallen off. [10] The custodian, Mr. Oyelaran, spent the afternoon pulling confetti out of the rug and remarked that it had been a lively sort of quiet. [11] On Monday, Milo and Esme slipped into the room before the first bell, sat in the two soft chairs and read for twenty minutes without saying a word. [12] It was the first time anyone had used the room for the reason it had been built.

  6. Kira labels what Esme shouts in sentence 6. Which figure is Esme using, and why does that label fit?

    • Hyperbole: Esme stretches the truth to say the drums are quieter than the band claims.
    • Dramatic irony: Esme knows something about the band that Milo does not know yet.
    • Hyperbole: Esme stretches how loud the drums are far past what could be true.
    • Understatement: Esme makes the loud drums sound much softer than they really are.

  7. Luz fills in the margin for the grand opening. Which choice gives what was expected and what happened instead?

    • Expected: the students would read in the new room on Friday; happened: the confetti kept them out until Monday.
    • Expected: a grand opening would honor a room built for silence; happened: it filled the room with noise and confetti.
    • Expected: the sign on the door would stay up; happened: the sign that read “Silence, Please” fell off.
    • Expected: the band would play the song once; happened: the band played the school song three times.

  8. Walk to School Day (story)

    [1] The town of Maple Ridge declared the first Wednesday in October to be Walk to School Day, a morning meant to cut traffic and fill the sidewalks with students on foot. [2] Posters went up in the shop windows, and the local paper promised that, for one morning at least, the streets near the school would be calm and quiet. [3] Kira, who lived six blocks away, planned to walk with Ren, and the two agreed to meet at the bakery corner at a quarter to eight.

    [4] By seven forty, the line of cars on Elm Street stretched past the bakery and around the corner, and not one of the cars was moving. [5] Many parents had driven to the school so that they could take photos of their children walking the last fifty feet to the door. [6] Ren looked at the honking line of cars and said, “Ah, the peaceful streets we were promised.” [7] A crossing guard named Mrs. Delgado waved a stop sign at the jammed lane and said that this was the busiest morning she had seen in twenty years on the job. [8] Kira and Ren walked past the stuck cars, reached the school in eleven minutes and were the first two students through the door.

    [9] Behind them, the cars inched forward one length at a time while drivers held phones out of their windows to film the walkers. [10] At the morning assembly, the principal thanked the town for a record turnout and announced that Walk to School Day had been a complete success. [11] Kira, who had counted forty-two cars on Elm Street, whispered to Ren that it had certainly been a successful morning for car horns. [12] The next year, the town closed Elm Street to cars for that one morning, and the sidewalks were finally as full as the posters had promised.

  9. Milo reads Ren’s line in sentence 6. What does Ren really mean, and how does Ren feel about it?

    • The street is jammed, and Ren is making fun of Kira for choosing such a busy corner as their meeting place.
    • The street is calm, as the posters said, and Ren is pleased that the promise came true.
    • The line of cars on Elm Street reaches past the bakery and is not moving.
    • The street is jammed and noisy, and Ren is mocking the promise that the morning would be calm.

  10. Pia fills in the margin for Walk to School Day. Which choice gives what was expected and what happened instead?

    • Expected: the day would cut traffic near the school; happened: it made the busiest morning the crossing guard had seen in twenty years.
    • Expected: the parents would walk with their children; happened: the parents drove so they could take photos.
    • Expected: the busiest morning the crossing guard had seen in twenty years; happened: the day cut traffic near the school.
    • Expected: Kira and Ren would meet at a quarter to eight; happened: the line of cars already reached past the bakery at seven forty.

  11. The Lost and Found (story)

    [1] Tala had run the Lost and Found at Brookside Middle School for a whole year, sorting forgotten jackets, single gloves and water bottles into a big blue bin outside the office. [2] In June, the office moved to the new wing of the building, and the movers were given a careful list of the things that had to be carried across the courtyard. [3] The list included the copier, the filing cabinets, the principal’s desk and a fern that the secretary had kept healthy for eleven years. [4] The list did not include the big blue bin.

    [5] On the first morning in the new office, Tala looked at the empty corner where the bin should have been and said to Luz, “Well, this is a tiny problem.” [6] The two searched the courtyard, the gym and the storage closet, and Luz claimed to have opened a thousand doors before lunch. [7] Mr. Haverford, the head custodian, finally remembered that he had seen a blue bin near the loading dock, where it had been tagged as unclaimed property. [8] By the time Tala and Luz reached the dock, the bin had been loaded onto a truck for the charity drive, along with the other unclaimed items in the building.

    [9] The Lost and Found, in other words, had been lost, and nobody at the school could find it. [10] Tala spent the afternoon writing a polite letter to the charity, asking whether a large blue bin of single gloves had arrived by mistake. [11] The charity wrote back on Friday to say that the bin had been found and sent back, with a note saying that it was the first lost and found the charity had ever had to find. [12] Tala taped the note to the side of the bin, which now sits in the new office beside the fern.

  12. Ren reads Tala’s line in sentence 5. What does Tala really mean, and how does Tala feel about it?

    • The missing bin is a big problem, and Tala is so upset that Tala quits running the Lost and Found.
    • The missing bin is a big problem, and Tala is staying calm by joking about it.
    • The big blue bin is not in the corner of the new office where it should have been.
    • The missing bin is a big problem, and Tala is blaming Luz for not watching it during the move.

  13. Zee labels sentence 9 in the margin. Which kind of irony does it point out, and why does that label fit?

    • Situational irony: the place meant for finding lost things was itself lost.
    • Hyperbole: the narrator stretches a short delay in the move into a huge loss.
    • Situational irony: Tala expected the blue bin to be heavy, and it turned out to be light.
    • No irony: losing a bin during a move is an ordinary mistake with nothing unexpected about it.

  14. Ari fills in the margin for the office move. Which choice gives what was expected and what happened instead?

    • Expected: the bin itself would go missing and have to be found; happened: the Lost and Found held lost things until they were found.
    • Expected: the charity would keep the bin of gloves; happened: the charity sent the bin back on Friday.
    • Expected: Tala and Luz would reach the loading dock in time; happened: the bin was already on the charity truck.
    • Expected: the Lost and Found would hold lost things until they were found; happened: the bin itself went missing and had to be found.
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Saying one thing and meaning another

Answer Key - Grade 9 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

  1. Read this first

    Save Paper Week (story)

    [1] On Monday, the school announced Save Paper Week, a five-day campaign to cut down on the stacks of worksheets, flyers and notices that filled the students’ backpacks by Friday. [2] Jun was chosen to carry the campaign packet to each family on Linden Street, which seemed like an easy job until the box arrived at the front office. [3] Inside were forty copies of a fourteen-page booklet, printed on thick, glossy paper, explaining in careful detail why families should use less paper. [4] Jun lifted the box, felt both arms complain, and announced to the empty hallway, “What a light little load for a week about saving paper.”

    [5] Ms. Whitlock, the office manager, who had printed the booklets herself, looked up from the copier and said that the machine had been running since six that morning. [6] By Wednesday, Jun had delivered thirty-nine booklets, and several neighbors had politely asked whether the school was feeling all right. [7] Mr. Petrakis, who lived at the corner, read the first page on his porch and remarked, with a slow smile, that it was the most paper he had ever been asked to save. [8] Jun carried the last booklet to the recycling bin outside the library, where the bin was already overflowing with copies that other students had delivered.

    [9] On Friday, the principal reported that the campaign had used more paper in one week than the school normally used in a month. [10] “So the plan worked a little backward,” Jun told Ms. Whitlock, who laughed so hard that the copier jammed. [11] The following Monday, the office posted a single sign by the front door that said, in large letters, “Save paper: read this once.” [12] Jun suspected that the one sign would do more good than the whole box of booklets had managed to do.

  2. Ari reads sentence 4 aloud. What does Jun really mean, and how does Jun feel about it?

    • The box is heavy, and Jun is teasing Ms. Whitlock for printing the booklets on such thick paper.
    • The box is heavy, and Jun is so angry about the campaign that Jun decides to stop the deliveries.
    • The box is heavy, and Jun is amused that a week about saving paper needs so much paper.
    • The box is light and small, so Jun is pleased that the delivery job will be quick and easy.

  3. Bo labels sentence 10 in the margin. Which figure is Jun using, and why does that label fit?

    • Understatement: Jun makes a complete failure of the plan sound like a small slip.
    • Hyperbole: Jun stretches a small slip in the plan until it sounds like a huge failure.
    • No figure: Jun is giving Ms. Whitlock a plain and exact report of how the week went.
    • Dramatic irony: the reader knows something about the booklets that Jun does not yet know.

  4. Esme fills in the margin for the whole campaign. Which choice gives what was expected and what happened instead?

    • Expected: the school would use more paper in a week than in a month; happened: the campaign cut down on paper.
    • Expected: the campaign would cut down on paper; happened: it used more paper in one week than the school used in a month.
    • Expected: the copier would keep running through the week; happened: the copier jammed when Ms. Whitlock laughed.
    • Expected: Jun would finish the deliveries in a day; happened: the heavy box took Jun until Wednesday to deliver.

  5. The Quiet Room (story)

    [1] For two years, the students of Hillcrest Middle School had asked for a quiet room, a place where anyone could read or think without the clatter of the cafeteria and the shouting of the gym. [2] When the room was finally ready, with soft chairs, a rug the color of moss and a sign on the door that read “Silence, Please,” the principal decided that such an important room deserved a grand opening. [3] Milo, who had collected the signatures that won the room, was asked to cut the ribbon at noon on Friday.

    [4] At a quarter to twelve, the school’s marching band arrived in full uniform, followed by a drum line, two trumpets borrowed from the high school and a man with a megaphone. [5] Milo watched the tubas squeeze through the narrow doorway and said to Esme, “Good thing they kept it small and simple.” [6] Esme, who had brought a book to read in the new room, pressed both hands over both ears and shouted back that the drums could be heard on the moon. [7] The band played the school song three times, the drum line added a solo, and the man with the megaphone thanked everyone for supporting a calm and peaceful place. [8] When Milo finally cut the ribbon, a machine by the window blew a cloud of confetti across the moss-colored rug.

    [9] By one o’clock, the quiet room was covered in paper scraps, the soft chairs had been pushed against the walls to make space for the tubas, and the sign on the door had fallen off. [10] The custodian, Mr. Oyelaran, spent the afternoon pulling confetti out of the rug and remarked that it had been a lively sort of quiet. [11] On Monday, Milo and Esme slipped into the room before the first bell, sat in the two soft chairs and read for twenty minutes without saying a word. [12] It was the first time anyone had used the room for the reason it had been built.

  6. Kira labels what Esme shouts in sentence 6. Which figure is Esme using, and why does that label fit?

    • Hyperbole: Esme stretches the truth to say the drums are quieter than the band claims.
    • Dramatic irony: Esme knows something about the band that Milo does not know yet.
    • Hyperbole: Esme stretches how loud the drums are far past what could be true.
    • Understatement: Esme makes the loud drums sound much softer than they really are.

  7. Luz fills in the margin for the grand opening. Which choice gives what was expected and what happened instead?

    • Expected: the students would read in the new room on Friday; happened: the confetti kept them out until Monday.
    • Expected: a grand opening would honor a room built for silence; happened: it filled the room with noise and confetti.
    • Expected: the sign on the door would stay up; happened: the sign that read “Silence, Please” fell off.
    • Expected: the band would play the song once; happened: the band played the school song three times.

  8. Walk to School Day (story)

    [1] The town of Maple Ridge declared the first Wednesday in October to be Walk to School Day, a morning meant to cut traffic and fill the sidewalks with students on foot. [2] Posters went up in the shop windows, and the local paper promised that, for one morning at least, the streets near the school would be calm and quiet. [3] Kira, who lived six blocks away, planned to walk with Ren, and the two agreed to meet at the bakery corner at a quarter to eight.

    [4] By seven forty, the line of cars on Elm Street stretched past the bakery and around the corner, and not one of the cars was moving. [5] Many parents had driven to the school so that they could take photos of their children walking the last fifty feet to the door. [6] Ren looked at the honking line of cars and said, “Ah, the peaceful streets we were promised.” [7] A crossing guard named Mrs. Delgado waved a stop sign at the jammed lane and said that this was the busiest morning she had seen in twenty years on the job. [8] Kira and Ren walked past the stuck cars, reached the school in eleven minutes and were the first two students through the door.

    [9] Behind them, the cars inched forward one length at a time while drivers held phones out of their windows to film the walkers. [10] At the morning assembly, the principal thanked the town for a record turnout and announced that Walk to School Day had been a complete success. [11] Kira, who had counted forty-two cars on Elm Street, whispered to Ren that it had certainly been a successful morning for car horns. [12] The next year, the town closed Elm Street to cars for that one morning, and the sidewalks were finally as full as the posters had promised.

  9. Milo reads Ren’s line in sentence 6. What does Ren really mean, and how does Ren feel about it?

    • The street is jammed, and Ren is making fun of Kira for choosing such a busy corner as their meeting place.
    • The street is calm, as the posters said, and Ren is pleased that the promise came true.
    • The line of cars on Elm Street reaches past the bakery and is not moving.
    • The street is jammed and noisy, and Ren is mocking the promise that the morning would be calm.

  10. Pia fills in the margin for Walk to School Day. Which choice gives what was expected and what happened instead?

    • Expected: the day would cut traffic near the school; happened: it made the busiest morning the crossing guard had seen in twenty years.
    • Expected: the parents would walk with their children; happened: the parents drove so they could take photos.
    • Expected: the busiest morning the crossing guard had seen in twenty years; happened: the day cut traffic near the school.
    • Expected: Kira and Ren would meet at a quarter to eight; happened: the line of cars already reached past the bakery at seven forty.

  11. The Lost and Found (story)

    [1] Tala had run the Lost and Found at Brookside Middle School for a whole year, sorting forgotten jackets, single gloves and water bottles into a big blue bin outside the office. [2] In June, the office moved to the new wing of the building, and the movers were given a careful list of the things that had to be carried across the courtyard. [3] The list included the copier, the filing cabinets, the principal’s desk and a fern that the secretary had kept healthy for eleven years. [4] The list did not include the big blue bin.

    [5] On the first morning in the new office, Tala looked at the empty corner where the bin should have been and said to Luz, “Well, this is a tiny problem.” [6] The two searched the courtyard, the gym and the storage closet, and Luz claimed to have opened a thousand doors before lunch. [7] Mr. Haverford, the head custodian, finally remembered that he had seen a blue bin near the loading dock, where it had been tagged as unclaimed property. [8] By the time Tala and Luz reached the dock, the bin had been loaded onto a truck for the charity drive, along with the other unclaimed items in the building.

    [9] The Lost and Found, in other words, had been lost, and nobody at the school could find it. [10] Tala spent the afternoon writing a polite letter to the charity, asking whether a large blue bin of single gloves had arrived by mistake. [11] The charity wrote back on Friday to say that the bin had been found and sent back, with a note saying that it was the first lost and found the charity had ever had to find. [12] Tala taped the note to the side of the bin, which now sits in the new office beside the fern.

  12. Ren reads Tala’s line in sentence 5. What does Tala really mean, and how does Tala feel about it?

    • The missing bin is a big problem, and Tala is so upset that Tala quits running the Lost and Found.
    • The missing bin is a big problem, and Tala is staying calm by joking about it.
    • The big blue bin is not in the corner of the new office where it should have been.
    • The missing bin is a big problem, and Tala is blaming Luz for not watching it during the move.

  13. Zee labels sentence 9 in the margin. Which kind of irony does it point out, and why does that label fit?

    • Situational irony: the place meant for finding lost things was itself lost.
    • Hyperbole: the narrator stretches a short delay in the move into a huge loss.
    • Situational irony: Tala expected the blue bin to be heavy, and it turned out to be light.
    • No irony: losing a bin during a move is an ordinary mistake with nothing unexpected about it.

  14. Ari fills in the margin for the office move. Which choice gives what was expected and what happened instead?

    • Expected: the bin itself would go missing and have to be found; happened: the Lost and Found held lost things until they were found.
    • Expected: the charity would keep the bin of gloves; happened: the charity sent the bin back on Friday.
    • Expected: Tala and Luz would reach the loading dock in time; happened: the bin was already on the charity truck.
    • Expected: the Lost and Found would hold lost things until they were found; happened: the bin itself went missing and had to be found.