The same scene in two art forms

Grade 9 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Closing Time, and Market, After Rain (pair: a story and a painting described in words)

   Text A: “Closing Time” (a story) [1] By four o'clock the farmers' market on Hollis Square was emptying, and Luz was helping Mr. Ortega fold the green awning over the fruit stand that Mr. Ortega had run for thirty years. [2] The wind had been rising for an hour, pushing paper bags across the bricks and making the striped canvas snap like a flag above the crates of peaches. [3] Mr. Ortega counted the crates aloud while Luz stacked them, and the smell of ripe peaches mixed with the sharp, metallic smell that comes just before rain. [4] Across the square, a fiddler was still playing a slow tune for nobody, with the case open on the bricks and three coins inside it.

   [5] When the first heavy drops fell, Luz lifted the last crate into the truck, and Mr. Ortega laughed and said that the peaches had never been loaded so fast. [6] Then the rain came down all at once, and the two of them ran for the stone arch of the old bank to wait it out. [7] From under the arch, Luz watched the square turn silver and saw the fiddler hurry past, holding the case overhead like a small roof. [8] The storm lasted only ten minutes, and when it ended, the low sun slid out beneath the clouds and lit every wet brick gold.

   Text B: “Market, After Rain” (a painting, described in words) [9] Teresa Vance, a painter who lives beside Hollis Square, later made a large oil painting of that afternoon, and the description below tells what the canvas shows. [10] The painting shows the square at the moment the storm has ended, when the bricks are still wet and every puddle holds a strip of gold light. [11] On the left, a green awning lies folded beside a truck whose back doors are shut. [12] In the center, a child in a yellow raincoat stands under a stone arch, looking out at the bright, empty square. [13] Beside the child, a gray-haired man leans against the arch with his arms crossed, smiling up at the sky. [14] The painter made the clouds dark purple at the top of the canvas and nearly white just above the rooftops, where the sun breaks through. [15] There is no fiddler anywhere in the painting, and the far side of the square is empty except for a single coin shining on the wet bricks. [16] In an interview, Vance said that she wanted the picture to hold the one quiet minute after the rush, when the work was done and nobody had to hurry.

2. 1.

   Ari fills the chart. Text A’s [8] says the sun lit every wet brick gold. Which sentence in Text B keeps that detail?

   • [10] The painting shows the square at the moment the storm has ended, when the bricks are still wet and every puddle holds a strip of gold light.
   • [12] In the center, a child in a yellow raincoat stands under a stone arch, looking out at the bright, empty square.
   • [14] The painter made the clouds dark purple at the top of the canvas and nearly white just above the rooftops, where the sun breaks through.
   • [7] From under the arch, Luz watched the square turn silver and saw the fiddler hurry past, holding the case overhead like a small roof.
3. 2.

   Bo fills the chart. Text A’s [3] gives the smell of ripe peaches and of coming rain. Which row does that detail go in, and why?

   • Changed: [11] turns the smell of the peaches into a green awning folded by the truck, so the smell lives on in a new form.
   • Kept: [10] keeps the coming rain, because the bricks are still wet in the painting.
   • Left out: no sentence of Text B gives a smell, because a painting shows only what can be seen.
   • Left out: [15] shows that the painter took out every sound and smell of the market.
4. 3.

   Esme compares the two works. Which detail does Text B stress much more than Text A does?

   • The rush to load the crates before the rain, which fills [3] and [5].
   • The fiddler’s slow tune across the square, which [4] describes.
   • The green awning folded after the market closed, which each work mentions once.
   • The quiet moment after the storm, which [10] and [16] make the subject of the whole picture.
5. 4.

   Kira fills the chart. Text A tells a whole hour, from the rising wind in [2] to the sunset in [8]. Which row does the time go in, and why?

   • Changed: [11] shows the awning folded, so the painting moves through the hour.
   • Changed: [10] shows only the moment the storm has ended, because a painting holds one still instant.
   • Kept: [10] and [14] show the rain and the sun, so the whole hour from the rising wind to the sunset is still there.
   • Left out: Text B gives no sign at all of the storm or of the time of day.
6. 5.

   Milo compares the two works. Which detail does Text A stress much more than Text B does?

   • The stone arch where the two wait, which each work gives two sentences.
   • The wind and rain moving in, which [2], [5] and [6] build up one step at a time.
   • The gold light lying in the puddles, which [10] spreads across the whole square.
   • The yellow raincoat on the child, which [12] places in the center.

7. The Ribbon, and a Front-Page Photograph (pair: a story and a photograph described in words)

   Text A: “The Ribbon” (a story) [1] The new footbridge over Mill Creek had taken two summers to build, and on the morning it opened, Kira had been chosen to cut the ribbon because Kira’s essay had won the contest to name it the Heron Bridge. [2] A crowd of about two hundred people stood along both banks, and Mayor Grant gave a short speech while the high school band waited with their instruments resting on their knees. [3] When the speech ended, the mayor handed Kira a pair of enormous silver scissors, and Kira opened the blades around the wide red ribbon and squeezed. [4] Nothing happened, because the ribbon was made of thick satin and the giant scissors, it turned out, were mostly for show.

   [5] Kira squeezed again with both hands while the crowd went quiet, and someone near the front began to giggle. [6] On the third try Kira gave the ribbon a hard tug instead, and the knot on the far post slid loose, so the whole ribbon dropped into the creek with a soft splash. [7] For one second nobody moved, and then the mayor burst out laughing, the band started playing, and the crowd cheered as if the plan had always been to drop the ribbon in the water. [8] Kira fished the ribbon out with a stick, wrung it dry, and later hung it above a desk at home as a reminder that ceremonies rarely go the way the program says.

   Text B: the front page of the Millbrook Courier (a photograph, described in words) [9] The next morning, the Millbrook Courier printed one large photograph of the opening on its front page, and the description below tells what the photograph shows. [10] The photographer stood on the far bank, so the picture looks straight down the length of the new bridge toward the crowd. [11] In the center, a child stands at the rail with a giant pair of silver scissors in one hand, mouth wide open, looking down at the creek. [12] The red ribbon lies on the water below the bridge, and a ring of ripples spreads out from it across the brown creek. [13] To the right, the mayor’s head is thrown back in laughter, and behind her the faces in the crowd are a blur of open mouths. [14] Two band members in the corner have lifted their trumpets, but nobody in the picture is looking at them. [15] The caption under the photograph reads, “Kira cuts the ribbon to open the Heron Bridge on Saturday.” [16] The new railings, painted dark green, run along both edges of the photograph and lead the eye to the child in the middle.

8. 6.

   Luz fills the chart. Text A’s [6] says the whole ribbon dropped into the creek. Which sentence in Text B keeps that detail?

   • [12] The red ribbon lies on the water below the bridge, and a ring of ripples spreads out from it across the brown creek.
   • [15] The caption under the photograph reads, “Kira cuts the ribbon to open the Heron Bridge on Saturday.”
   • [8] Kira fished the ribbon out with a stick, wrung it dry, and later hung it above a desk at home as a reminder that ceremonies rarely go the way the program says.
   • [11] In the center, a child stands at the rail with a giant pair of silver scissors in one hand, mouth wide open, looking down at the creek.
9. 7.

   Noah fills the chart. Text A’s [3] and [4] describe the enormous silver scissors. Which row do the scissors go in, and why?

   • Kept: [11] shows the child holding a giant pair of silver scissors, just as in Text A.
   • Changed: [15] turns the scissors into a caption about cutting the ribbon.
   • Left out: the photograph shows the ribbon and the crowd, not the scissors, so no sentence of Text B names them.
   • Kept: [12] shows the ribbon lying on the water, cut cleanly by the scissors.
10. 8.

    Ren fills the chart. Text A’s [2] says the high school band waited with their instruments. Which sentence in Text B keeps the band?

    • [13] To the right, the mayor’s head is thrown back in laughter, and behind her the faces in the crowd are a blur of open mouths.
    • [14] Two band members in the corner have lifted their trumpets, but nobody in the picture is looking at them.
    • [10] The photographer stood on the far bank, so the picture looks straight down the length of the new bridge toward the crowd.
    • [7] For one second nobody moved, and then the mayor burst out laughing, the band started playing, and the crowd cheered as if the plan had always been to drop the ribbon in the water.
11. 9.

    Tala fills the chart. In Text A’s [6], Kira tugs the ribbon until the knot slides loose. Which row does how the ribbon came down go in, and why?

    • Left out: Text B gives no sign at all of how the ribbon came down.
    • Kept: [12] shows the ribbon on the water, just as it fell in Text A.
    • Changed: the photograph shows only the moment after the fall, and its caption in [15] calls it a cut.
    • Changed: [13] shows the mayor laughing, so the photograph turns the tug into a joke.
12. 10.

    Zee compares the two works. Which detail does Text B stress much more than Text A does?

    • The name of the new Heron Bridge, which each work gives once.
    • The essay that won the naming contest, which [1] explains.
    • One frozen instant after the fall, with the ripples in [12] and the laughter in [13] at once.
    • The two squeezes that fail before the tug, which fill [4] and [5].