How order and timing create suspense or surprise
Grade 9 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
The Silent Auction (story)
[1] At the spring fundraiser in the school gym, a hand-painted rocking chair sat at the end of the silent auction table, and Tala was assigned to guard its bid sheet until eight. [2] Mr. Lund, the custodian who was retiring in June, had painted the chair with forty small birds, one for each year at the school. [3] Across town, Bo stood in line at the hardware store with a can of clear varnish, checking the clock above the register.
[4] By seven thirty, the bid sheet showed a tug-of-war between a parent who kept writing a higher number and someone who signed only as Bidder 47. [5] Bo paid for the varnish, ran the three blocks back to the school, and paused at the gym door to catch a breath. [6] While the table was crowded, Bidder 47 had raised the bid to eighty-five dollars, and Tala wondered which grown-up in the room cared so much about a rocking chair. [7] At seven fifty-eight, the parent reached for the pen again. [8] The pen hovered over the sheet, and the gym seemed to go quiet around it while the parent tapped it once against the paper, read the last number twice, glanced at the clock, and looked across the room at the chair's painter, folding tables near the stage. [9] Then the parent smiled, set the pen down without writing anything, and walked away just as the bell rang for eight.
[10] Ms. Novak, the principal, read out the winning number, and heads turned toward the door, where Bo stood with the varnish and an envelope from the class fund. [11] Bo's class had saved bake-sale money all spring, with classmates taking turns at the pen, so that Bidder 47 could win the chair and give it back to the man who had painted it. [12] Mr. Lund sat down in the rocking chair right there in the gym, and Bo set the varnish beside it, explaining that painted birds on a porch need protection from rain.
Kira is marking the pace of The Silent Auction. Where does the pace slow, and what does the slowing build?
- Sentence 8: the story skips over the last minutes of the auction, building excitement as the bell nears for the bidders.
- Sentence 8: a few seconds of the hovering pen fill one long sentence, building tension about the next bid.
- Sentence 3: the long wait in the hardware store line slows the story, building tension about the varnish.
- Sentence 8: one long sentence stretches the moment, building mystery about who painted the forty birds.
The Third Piece (story)
[1] The youth orchestra's winter concert began at three, and Luz sat in the second row of the stage with an oboe across both knees and an empty seat in the audience to watch. [2] That seat, on the aisle in row F, had been saved for Grandpa Sol, whose train from Albany was running forty minutes late because of ice on the tracks. [3] On the train, Grandpa Sol held a concert program that a volunteer had handed him at the station, reading one line of it again and again. [4] The first two pieces went by in a blur of strings, and Luz played the right notes while watching the aisle door each time it creaked.
[5] At the station, Grandpa Sol skipped the taxi line and walked the six blocks to the hall, the program rolled tight in one gloved hand. [6] The third piece was the one with the solo, a slow melody that the conductor, Ms. Okafor, had chosen in September without telling anyone why. [7] Grandpa Sol slipped into row F as Ms. Okafor lifted her baton for the third piece, and sat down so quietly that the people beside him did not look up. [8] Luz raised the oboe, felt the reed between both lips, breathed in slowly, counted four silent beats under the hum of the cellos, and, on the fifth, let the first long note go. [9] The melody rose over the hall, and in row F an old man closed his eyes.
[10] Afterward, in the lobby, Grandpa Sol unrolled the program and pointed to the line that had been read again and again on the train. [11] Under the title of the third piece it said, "For Sol Ramírez, who taught me to listen," and the conductor, Ms. Okafor, had been his student forty years before. [12] Luz had not known, and neither had anyone else in the orchestra, that the melody had been chosen as a thank-you.
Ari is filling in the margin for The Third Piece. What does the author hold back until late, and what does holding it back do?
- What the program line says; the story reveals it in sentence 6, when Ms. Okafor chooses the piece.
- What the program line says; hiding it makes the reader stop caring whether Grandpa Sol reaches the concert hall in time.
- What the program line says; hiding it from sentence 3 to sentence 11 makes the reader wonder why the piece matters.
- What the volunteer at the station wanted; hiding it keeps the reader guessing about the station.
Bo is marking the pace of The Third Piece. Where does the pace slow, and what does the slowing build?
- Sentence 8: the breath, the four silent beats and the first note are spread out, building tension about the solo.
- Sentence 8: the slow count before the note builds mystery about where Grandpa Sol is sitting.
- Sentence 8: the solo passes in a quick blur of strings, building excitement as the concert rushes on toward the finale.
- Sentence 8: Luz raises the oboe, breathes in, counts four beats and plays the first note of the solo.
Esme is filling in the margin for the cuts in The Third Piece. What does switching between the stage and the late journey do?
- It shows two afternoons that do not meet, so the reader can follow the music without thinking about the late train.
- It runs the concert beside the journey until the two lines meet in sentence 5, at the train station.
- It cuts between Ms. Okafor and the cellos, so the reader sees how a conductor and a section work together.
- It runs the concert beside the late journey, so the reader waits for the solo and the arrival to come together.
Route 9 (story)
[1] Noah noticed the empty backpack pocket at four fifteen, standing in the kitchen, and the sketchbook that held a whole year of drawings was gone. [2] At almost the same moment, at the far end of Route 9, a bus driver named Mr. Dahl found a blue sketchbook wedged between two seats and set it on the dashboard. [3] Noah retraced the day at a run, first to the library, where the librarian checked the return cart twice, and then to the park bench, which was empty. [4] At the turnaround, Mr. Dahl paged slowly through the book, past pigeons, umbrellas, a fruit stand and dozens of tired faces on buses, and then he stopped at the last page and laughed out loud.
[5] By six, Noah had called the bus company, left a message with a recording, and sat down on the front steps with no plan left. [6] On the last run of the evening, Mr. Dahl kept the sketchbook on the dashboard and watched each stop more carefully than usual. [7] Noah walked to the corner of Elm and Fifth at seven, not expecting anything, because it was the stop where each morning ride began. [8] The bus came around the corner, and Noah saw it in pieces: the headlights, the number 9 glowing above the windshield, and then, propped against the glass, a flash of blue that could have been anything at all. [9] The doors folded open with a hiss.
[10] Mr. Dahl held out the sketchbook and opened it to the last page, which showed a bus driver in a cap waving from the driver's seat and a corner sign that read Elm and Fifth. [11] Noah had drawn that picture on a gray Monday in March, after Mr. Dahl had held the bus an extra minute while Noah ran half a block to catch it. [12] "I wondered who was drawing me," Mr. Dahl said, and Noah asked whether the next drawing could be done with permission.
Jun is filling in the margin for Route 9. What does the author hold back until late, and what does holding it back do?
- What the fruit stand drawing showed; hiding it keeps the reader picturing the stand and its colors.
- What Mr. Dahl found on the last page; hiding it until sentence 10 keeps the reader asking why he laughed.
- Where the sketchbook was found; hiding it until the end keeps the reader guessing about which bus and which seat.
- What Mr. Dahl found on the last page; hiding it makes the reader lose interest in the driver's side of the story.
Kira is marking the pace of Route 9. Where does the pace slow, and what does the slowing build?
- Sentence 8: the bus rushes past in a blur, building surprise when it stops a block away.
- Sentence 8: the bus arrives in pieces, headlights, number and a flash of blue, building tension over whether the book is there.
- Sentence 8: the bus comes around the corner with the number 9 lit and something blue in the window.
- Sentence 3: the search of the library and the park slows the story, building tension about the bench.
Luz is filling in the margin for the cuts in Route 9. What does switching between the search and the bus do?
- It runs the search beside the bus route until the two lines meet in sentence 4, at the turnaround.
- It moves between Noah at home and Mr. Dahl on Route 9, which shows the reader two ends of the city.
- It cuts between the librarian and the bus company, so the reader sees two places that could not help Noah find the book.
- It lets the reader see both halves of the search, so the reader hopes the two lines will meet before Noah gives up.
Board Two (story)
[1] The city chess final came down to two boards at once, and the school needed a draw from both Ren on board one and Esme on board two to win the cup. [2] Before the round, Coach Abara had handed each player a folded note, to be opened only if the clock dropped below one minute. [3] On board one, Ren traded pieces carefully and steered the game toward a quiet ending with a king and three pawns on each side. [4] On board two, Esme lost a pawn, then another, and sat with both elbows on the table, staring at the knight that had caused the trouble.
[5] At move forty, Ren's opponent offered a draw, and Ren, knowing the team still needed board two, shook hands and turned to watch. [6] Esme's clock read fifty-eight seconds when Esme unfolded the coach's note under the table, read it, and folded it again. [7] What followed took less than a minute and felt like an hour: Esme moved the king one square and pressed the clock, the opponent's rook went back and forth in answer, Esme moved the king back and pressed the clock again, and the same dance was repeated while the room went so quiet that the clocks could be heard from the doorway. [8] Then Esme claimed a draw, and the arbiter checked both score sheets and ruled the game drawn because the same position had appeared three times. [9] The school had won the city cup, and the team crowded around board two, cheering.
[10] On the bus home, Esme passed the note around, and the team read the coach's plan in six words: "If you are losing, repeat yourself." [11] Coach Abara explained that a draw by repetition was one result a stronger player could not always escape, so it was worth trying when no win was left. [12] Ren laughed and said the note for board one must have been very different, but Coach Abara admitted that both notes said exactly the same thing.
Milo is filling in the margin for Board Two. What does the author hold back until late, and what does holding it back do?
- Who needs a draw for the cup; keeping it hidden makes the reader guess at the team's score.
- What the coach's note says; keeping it folded from sentence 2 to sentence 10 makes the reader wonder what advice could save the game.
- What the coach's note says; the story reveals it in sentence 6, when Esme reads it under the table.
- What the opponent on board one had planned; keeping it hidden makes the reader picture the quiet ending of that game.
Noah is marking the pace of Board Two. Where does the pace slow, and what does the slowing build?
- Sentence 3: the careful trading on board one slows the story, building tension about the pawns.
- Sentence 7: less than a minute of moves is spread over one long sentence, building tension about whether the plan will work.
- Sentence 7: the long sentence stretches the moves, building mystery about who won on board one.
- Sentence 7: Esme moves the king back and forth while the opponent answers with the rook.
Pia is filling in the margin for the two boards in Board Two. What does cutting between board one and board two do?
- It moves between Ren on board one and Esme on board two, which shows the reader two chess games.
- It sets the safe game beside the losing one, so when board one ends, all the reader's worry moves to board two.
- It shows two games that do not affect each other, so the reader can enjoy each one on its own.
- It runs the two boards side by side until the lines meet in sentence 9, when the cup is won.
