Worksheet

Put ideas in a logical order

Grade 9 Reading Worksheet

NameDate

Circle the best answer.

  1. Read this first

    A Hearing Loop for the Council Chamber (argument draft)

    [1] At Wexley Town Hall, residents who use hearing aids often sit in the front row of the council chamber and still miss much of what is said at public meetings. [2] The town should install a hearing loop in the chamber, a system that sends the speakers' voices straight to the listeners' hearing aids.

    [3] In March, a retired teacher who has attended meetings for twenty years left a hearing on the park budget early because the echo in the chamber made the speakers impossible to follow. [4] She later wrote to the council that she had stopped going to meetings she once never missed. [5] A survey that the clerk's office mailed to 600 households last year found that 87 residents use hearing aids, and 62 of them said they had skipped at least one meeting because they could not hear it. [6] Those residents are losing their chance to speak on decisions about their own streets, parks and schools. [7] A hearing loop might also make Wexley known as a welcoming town, which could draw new families to move here. [8] Some residents may even discover that they enjoy the meetings.

    [9] As the current flows through the loop, it creates a magnetic field that rises and falls with the speaker's voice. [10] A council member speaking at the table talks into a microphone, as members already do. [11] A small coil inside many hearing aids, called a telecoil, picks up that changing field and turns it back into sound inside the listener's ear. [12] An amplifier turns the voice from that microphone into an electric current and sends it through a thin wire laid in a loop around the edge of the room.

    [13] A hearing loop would cost the town about as much as new chairs for the chamber, yet it would let every resident follow the meetings. [14] The council should vote to install one before its spring meetings begin.

  2. Bo sees that paragraph 3 explains the hearing loop's steps out of order. Which order of sentences [9] to [12] makes the sequence logical?

    • [10], [12], [9], [11]
    • [11], [10], [12], [9]
    • [10], [9], [12], [11]
    • [9], [10], [11], [12]

  3. For the town council, the writer wants a new paragraph showing how one meeting a resident cannot hear leads to a chain of losses. Which plan suits that purpose?

    • Set a hearing loop beside a sign-language interpreter, comparing the cost, reach and ease of each choice point by point.
    • Tell how the council chamber has been used since the town hall opened in 1911, decade by decade up to this year.
    • List the problems of the chamber one at a time: the echo, the high ceiling, the old speakers and the noisy heater.
    • Follow one resident who cannot hear a meeting, showing how missing what is said leads to missing the chance to speak, then to staying home.

  4. Bottle-Filling Stations at Grafton High (argument draft)

    [1] Grafton High has eleven drinking fountains, but none of them can fill a water bottle, so many students buy bottled water from the cafeteria and the vending machines. [2] The school should replace four of its busiest fountains with bottle-filling stations before the next school year begins.

    [3] Filling stations might also encourage students to drink more water during the long school day. [4] Some coaches believe that students who carry full bottles would feel better at afternoon practice. [5] A count by the student environmental club found that the school sold about 14,000 plastic water bottles last year, and a custodian's tally showed that most of them went into the trash rather than the recycling bins. [6] Each of those bottles was used for a few minutes and then thrown away, often with water still inside it. [7] During a heat wave in September, the only working fountain on the second floor broke, and a gym class waited in a line that reached the stairwell. [8] The teacher, who has taught at Grafton for nine years, said it was the longest line for water she had ever seen there.

    [9] The sensor would switch on a cooled, filtered stream of water that fills an ordinary bottle in a few seconds. [10] Each time, a small counter on the front would add one more bottle to its total, showing how many plastic bottles the station has replaced. [11] A student would hold a bottle under the spout, where a small sensor notices that it is there. [12] Once the bottle is full and pulled away, the stream would shut off on its own.

    [13] Bottle-filling stations would give students cold water in seconds and cut down a pile of plastic that the school now throws away. [14] The school board should include the four stations in this year's building budget.

  5. Jun notices that paragraph 3 switches on the water before any bottle is under the spout. Which order of sentences [9] to [12] makes the sequence logical?

    • [11], [12], [9], [10]
    • [11], [9], [12], [10]
    • [9], [10], [11], [12]
    • [10], [11], [9], [12]

  6. Kira reads the writer's plan: lead with the reason that has the most support, then give the others in falling order. Which order of the three reasons follows the plan?

    • The bottle count, then the broken fountain in September, then drinking more water.
    • The broken fountain in September, then the bottle count, then drinking more water.
    • Drinking more water, then the broken fountain in September, then the bottle count.
    • Drinking more water, then the bottle count, then the broken fountain in September.

  7. The board must choose between filling stations and more ordinary drinking fountains. Which plan for a new paragraph helps the board compare the two?

    • Walk the reader through what a student does at a station, from holding up a bottle to reading the counter.
    • Take cost, speed of filling and plastic saved in turn, and show how a filling station and a plain fountain measure up on each.
    • Tell the story of Grafton's fountains in time order, from the year the school opened to the heat wave in September.
    • List facts about stations and fountains: spout heights, filter sizes, colors, prices and the number of digits on a counter, one after another.

  8. Weekly Water Tests at Crane Lake Beach (argument draft)

    [1] Crane Lake Beach is the one public swimming spot in the town of Orley, and on summer weekends it draws hundreds of swimmers. [2] The town should test the beach water every week from June through August, instead of twice a summer as it does now.

    [3] County records from three nearby lakes that are tested weekly show that bacteria levels rose above the safe limit on nineteen days over the last three summers, almost always within two days of heavy rain. [4] Because Crane Lake is tested just twice a summer, a rise like those could come and go without anyone knowing. [5] Weekly testing might also make visitors from other towns more likely to choose Crane Lake for a day trip. [6] Some residents think posted results would simply make the beach look well run. [7] Last July, a lifeguard saw the water turn cloudy and brown on the morning after a storm and closed the swimming area, with no test to show whether the water was unsafe. [8] She reopened it two days later, still without a test result.

    [9] The result would then be posted on a sign at the beach entrance, and the swimming area would close whenever the count rose above the limit. [10] The bottles would be packed on ice and driven to the county lab the same morning. [11] Each Monday, a lifeguard would fill clean, sealed sample bottles with water from three marked spots where swimmers wade knee-deep. [12] At the lab, the bacteria in each sample would be grown for about a day and then counted.

    [13] Weekly tests would give swimmers a clear answer about the water instead of a guess. [14] The town council should add them to next summer's beach budget.

  9. For new council members who have never visited the beach, the writer wants a paragraph that shows the problem first and then the fix. Which plan suits that purpose?

    • List the testing supplies and their prices: sealed bottles, ice chests, sample labels, lab fees and a new sign.
    • Describe a busy beach after a storm and the long gaps between tests, then explain how weekly tests would close those gaps.
    • Compare Crane Lake Beach with the three other lakes in the county, feature by feature, from the sand to the parking lots.
    • Trace the beach from the year the town bought the lake, through each summer season, up to the storm last July.

  10. Noah reads the writer's plan: build up from the reason with the least support and save the one with the most for last. Which order of the three reasons follows the plan?

    • The county records, then the day-trip visitors, then the cloudy morning last July.
    • The county records, then the cloudy morning last July, then the day-trip visitors.
    • The day-trip visitors, then the county records, then the cloudy morning last July.
    • The day-trip visitors, then the cloudy morning last July, then the county records.

  11. Pia sees that paragraph 3 posts the result before any water is collected. Which order of sentences [9] to [12] makes the sequence logical?

    • [11], [12], [10], [9]
    • [11], [10], [12], [9]
    • [9], [10], [11], [12]
    • [9], [11], [10], [12]

  12. Open the Library Before First Bell (argument draft)

    [1] At Dunmore High School, the early bus drops about eighty students at the front doors at 7:05 each morning, but the building does not open until 7:40. [2] The school should open its library at 7:00 as a supervised study room for the students who arrive early.

    [3] Last January, one early-bus rider waited outside in freezing rain for thirty-five minutes and then went home sick at noon, missing an afternoon quiz. [4] The rider's father says it was not the first time the wait had made the day harder. [5] An open library might also give students a calm place to talk with friends before the day begins. [6] Some teachers think students would simply enjoy the quiet. [7] A student council survey of 312 early-bus riders found that 241 of them, more than three in four, would use the room to finish homework or study for tests. [8] Nearly half of those riders said that they now spend the wait sitting on the front steps with nothing useful to do.

    [9] That schedule leaves the high school riders standing outside the locked doors for thirty-five minutes. [10] As a result, many of them start first period chilled and distracted, still trying to finish work that they could have done during the wait. [11] In winter, a wait that long means standing in wind, snow or freezing rain with no shelter except the narrow front entry. [12] Two years ago, the district began using the same buses for the elementary routes, so the high school run must now finish by 7:05.

    [13] Opening the library at 7:00 would turn a cold, wasted half hour into useful study time. [14] The principal should start a trial in January, when the mornings are coldest.

  13. Ren reads the writer's plan: open with the reason that has the most support and end with the one that has the least. Which order of the three reasons follows the plan?

    • The council survey, then the January rider, then the calm place to talk.
    • The January rider, then the council survey, then the calm place to talk.
    • The calm place to talk, then the January rider, then the council survey.
    • The January rider, then the calm place to talk, then the council survey.

  14. Tala sees that paragraph 3 gives results before their causes. Which order of sentences [9] to [12] makes the chain of causes logical?

    • [12], [11], [9], [10]
    • [9], [10], [11], [12]
    • [10], [12], [9], [11]
    • [12], [9], [11], [10]
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Put ideas in a logical order

Answer Key - Grade 9 Reading Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

  1. Read this first

    A Hearing Loop for the Council Chamber (argument draft)

    [1] At Wexley Town Hall, residents who use hearing aids often sit in the front row of the council chamber and still miss much of what is said at public meetings. [2] The town should install a hearing loop in the chamber, a system that sends the speakers' voices straight to the listeners' hearing aids.

    [3] In March, a retired teacher who has attended meetings for twenty years left a hearing on the park budget early because the echo in the chamber made the speakers impossible to follow. [4] She later wrote to the council that she had stopped going to meetings she once never missed. [5] A survey that the clerk's office mailed to 600 households last year found that 87 residents use hearing aids, and 62 of them said they had skipped at least one meeting because they could not hear it. [6] Those residents are losing their chance to speak on decisions about their own streets, parks and schools. [7] A hearing loop might also make Wexley known as a welcoming town, which could draw new families to move here. [8] Some residents may even discover that they enjoy the meetings.

    [9] As the current flows through the loop, it creates a magnetic field that rises and falls with the speaker's voice. [10] A council member speaking at the table talks into a microphone, as members already do. [11] A small coil inside many hearing aids, called a telecoil, picks up that changing field and turns it back into sound inside the listener's ear. [12] An amplifier turns the voice from that microphone into an electric current and sends it through a thin wire laid in a loop around the edge of the room.

    [13] A hearing loop would cost the town about as much as new chairs for the chamber, yet it would let every resident follow the meetings. [14] The council should vote to install one before its spring meetings begin.

  2. Bo sees that paragraph 3 explains the hearing loop's steps out of order. Which order of sentences [9] to [12] makes the sequence logical?

    • [10], [12], [9], [11]
    • [11], [10], [12], [9]
    • [10], [9], [12], [11]
    • [9], [10], [11], [12]

  3. For the town council, the writer wants a new paragraph showing how one meeting a resident cannot hear leads to a chain of losses. Which plan suits that purpose?

    • Set a hearing loop beside a sign-language interpreter, comparing the cost, reach and ease of each choice point by point.
    • Tell how the council chamber has been used since the town hall opened in 1911, decade by decade up to this year.
    • List the problems of the chamber one at a time: the echo, the high ceiling, the old speakers and the noisy heater.
    • Follow one resident who cannot hear a meeting, showing how missing what is said leads to missing the chance to speak, then to staying home.

  4. Bottle-Filling Stations at Grafton High (argument draft)

    [1] Grafton High has eleven drinking fountains, but none of them can fill a water bottle, so many students buy bottled water from the cafeteria and the vending machines. [2] The school should replace four of its busiest fountains with bottle-filling stations before the next school year begins.

    [3] Filling stations might also encourage students to drink more water during the long school day. [4] Some coaches believe that students who carry full bottles would feel better at afternoon practice. [5] A count by the student environmental club found that the school sold about 14,000 plastic water bottles last year, and a custodian's tally showed that most of them went into the trash rather than the recycling bins. [6] Each of those bottles was used for a few minutes and then thrown away, often with water still inside it. [7] During a heat wave in September, the only working fountain on the second floor broke, and a gym class waited in a line that reached the stairwell. [8] The teacher, who has taught at Grafton for nine years, said it was the longest line for water she had ever seen there.

    [9] The sensor would switch on a cooled, filtered stream of water that fills an ordinary bottle in a few seconds. [10] Each time, a small counter on the front would add one more bottle to its total, showing how many plastic bottles the station has replaced. [11] A student would hold a bottle under the spout, where a small sensor notices that it is there. [12] Once the bottle is full and pulled away, the stream would shut off on its own.

    [13] Bottle-filling stations would give students cold water in seconds and cut down a pile of plastic that the school now throws away. [14] The school board should include the four stations in this year's building budget.

  5. Jun notices that paragraph 3 switches on the water before any bottle is under the spout. Which order of sentences [9] to [12] makes the sequence logical?

    • [11], [12], [9], [10]
    • [11], [9], [12], [10]
    • [9], [10], [11], [12]
    • [10], [11], [9], [12]

  6. Kira reads the writer's plan: lead with the reason that has the most support, then give the others in falling order. Which order of the three reasons follows the plan?

    • The bottle count, then the broken fountain in September, then drinking more water.
    • The broken fountain in September, then the bottle count, then drinking more water.
    • Drinking more water, then the broken fountain in September, then the bottle count.
    • Drinking more water, then the bottle count, then the broken fountain in September.

  7. The board must choose between filling stations and more ordinary drinking fountains. Which plan for a new paragraph helps the board compare the two?

    • Walk the reader through what a student does at a station, from holding up a bottle to reading the counter.
    • Take cost, speed of filling and plastic saved in turn, and show how a filling station and a plain fountain measure up on each.
    • Tell the story of Grafton's fountains in time order, from the year the school opened to the heat wave in September.
    • List facts about stations and fountains: spout heights, filter sizes, colors, prices and the number of digits on a counter, one after another.

  8. Weekly Water Tests at Crane Lake Beach (argument draft)

    [1] Crane Lake Beach is the one public swimming spot in the town of Orley, and on summer weekends it draws hundreds of swimmers. [2] The town should test the beach water every week from June through August, instead of twice a summer as it does now.

    [3] County records from three nearby lakes that are tested weekly show that bacteria levels rose above the safe limit on nineteen days over the last three summers, almost always within two days of heavy rain. [4] Because Crane Lake is tested just twice a summer, a rise like those could come and go without anyone knowing. [5] Weekly testing might also make visitors from other towns more likely to choose Crane Lake for a day trip. [6] Some residents think posted results would simply make the beach look well run. [7] Last July, a lifeguard saw the water turn cloudy and brown on the morning after a storm and closed the swimming area, with no test to show whether the water was unsafe. [8] She reopened it two days later, still without a test result.

    [9] The result would then be posted on a sign at the beach entrance, and the swimming area would close whenever the count rose above the limit. [10] The bottles would be packed on ice and driven to the county lab the same morning. [11] Each Monday, a lifeguard would fill clean, sealed sample bottles with water from three marked spots where swimmers wade knee-deep. [12] At the lab, the bacteria in each sample would be grown for about a day and then counted.

    [13] Weekly tests would give swimmers a clear answer about the water instead of a guess. [14] The town council should add them to next summer's beach budget.

  9. For new council members who have never visited the beach, the writer wants a paragraph that shows the problem first and then the fix. Which plan suits that purpose?

    • List the testing supplies and their prices: sealed bottles, ice chests, sample labels, lab fees and a new sign.
    • Describe a busy beach after a storm and the long gaps between tests, then explain how weekly tests would close those gaps.
    • Compare Crane Lake Beach with the three other lakes in the county, feature by feature, from the sand to the parking lots.
    • Trace the beach from the year the town bought the lake, through each summer season, up to the storm last July.

  10. Noah reads the writer's plan: build up from the reason with the least support and save the one with the most for last. Which order of the three reasons follows the plan?

    • The county records, then the day-trip visitors, then the cloudy morning last July.
    • The county records, then the cloudy morning last July, then the day-trip visitors.
    • The day-trip visitors, then the county records, then the cloudy morning last July.
    • The day-trip visitors, then the cloudy morning last July, then the county records.

  11. Pia sees that paragraph 3 posts the result before any water is collected. Which order of sentences [9] to [12] makes the sequence logical?

    • [11], [12], [10], [9]
    • [11], [10], [12], [9]
    • [9], [10], [11], [12]
    • [9], [11], [10], [12]

  12. Open the Library Before First Bell (argument draft)

    [1] At Dunmore High School, the early bus drops about eighty students at the front doors at 7:05 each morning, but the building does not open until 7:40. [2] The school should open its library at 7:00 as a supervised study room for the students who arrive early.

    [3] Last January, one early-bus rider waited outside in freezing rain for thirty-five minutes and then went home sick at noon, missing an afternoon quiz. [4] The rider's father says it was not the first time the wait had made the day harder. [5] An open library might also give students a calm place to talk with friends before the day begins. [6] Some teachers think students would simply enjoy the quiet. [7] A student council survey of 312 early-bus riders found that 241 of them, more than three in four, would use the room to finish homework or study for tests. [8] Nearly half of those riders said that they now spend the wait sitting on the front steps with nothing useful to do.

    [9] That schedule leaves the high school riders standing outside the locked doors for thirty-five minutes. [10] As a result, many of them start first period chilled and distracted, still trying to finish work that they could have done during the wait. [11] In winter, a wait that long means standing in wind, snow or freezing rain with no shelter except the narrow front entry. [12] Two years ago, the district began using the same buses for the elementary routes, so the high school run must now finish by 7:05.

    [13] Opening the library at 7:00 would turn a cold, wasted half hour into useful study time. [14] The principal should start a trial in January, when the mornings are coldest.

  13. Ren reads the writer's plan: open with the reason that has the most support and end with the one that has the least. Which order of the three reasons follows the plan?

    • The council survey, then the January rider, then the calm place to talk.
    • The January rider, then the council survey, then the calm place to talk.
    • The calm place to talk, then the January rider, then the council survey.
    • The January rider, then the calm place to talk, then the council survey.

  14. Tala sees that paragraph 3 gives results before their causes. Which order of sentences [9] to [12] makes the chain of causes logical?

    • [12], [11], [9], [10]
    • [9], [10], [11], [12]
    • [10], [12], [9], [11]
    • [12], [9], [11], [10]