Technical and figurative words in an article
Grade 9 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
How a Submarine Dives and Rises (article)
[1] A submarine can float on the surface like a ship and then sink beneath the waves, yet it never changes its size or shape. [2] What changes is its weight compared with the water it pushes aside, the balance that decides whether any object floats or sinks. [3] Between the submarine's inner hull and its outer hull are large ballast tanks, which can hold either air or seawater. [4] When the submarine is on the surface, the ballast tanks are full of air, and the vessel rides high in the water.
[5] To dive, the crew opens vents at the top of the tanks, and seawater rushes in through openings at the bottom as the air escapes. [6] With its tanks full of water, the submarine weighs more than the water it displaces, so it slowly settles downward. [7] In this way a submarine borrows a trick from many fish, which rise and sink by changing the amount of gas in a small sac called a swim bladder. [8] The ballast tanks are the submarine's swim bladder: filling them with water lets the vessel settle deeper, and emptying them lets it drift upward.
[9] To rise, the crew sends compressed air from storage tanks into the ballast tanks, and the air forces the seawater back out. [10] Once the vessel is underwater, smaller trim tanks let the crew move water forward or backward to keep it level. [11] Short wings called diving planes then tilt the submarine up or down as it moves, much as a bird tilts its wings to glide. [12] Through all of these changes, the crew works smoothly and quietly, adjusting the tanks a little at a time so that the vessel glides calmly from one depth to another.
Glossary entry (written by PencilGo): ballast (noun). 1. (ships) water or heavy material carried low in a ship or submarine to control how deep it sits and to keep it steady. 2. (railways) crushed stone packed under and around railroad tracks. 3. (general) something that keeps a person or a plan steady.
Ari checks ballast, from sentence [3], in the glossary entry. Which sense does the article use?
- water or heavy material carried to control how deep a vessel sits
- something that keeps a person or a plan steady and calm in hard times
- crushed stone packed under and around railroad tracks
- the space between the submarine's inner hull and outer hull
How a Submarine Dives and Rises (article)
[1] A submarine can float on the surface like a ship and then sink beneath the waves, yet it never changes its size or shape. [2] What changes is its weight compared with the water it pushes aside, the balance that decides whether any object floats or sinks. [3] Between the submarine's inner hull and its outer hull are large ballast tanks, which can hold either air or seawater. [4] When the submarine is on the surface, the ballast tanks are full of air, and the vessel rides high in the water.
[5] To dive, the crew opens vents at the top of the tanks, and seawater rushes in through openings at the bottom as the air escapes. [6] With its tanks full of water, the submarine weighs more than the water it displaces, so it slowly settles downward. [7] In this way a submarine borrows a trick from many fish, which rise and sink by changing the amount of gas in a small sac called a swim bladder. [8] The ballast tanks are the submarine's swim bladder: filling them with water lets the vessel settle deeper, and emptying them lets it drift upward.
[9] To rise, the crew sends compressed air from storage tanks into the ballast tanks, and the air forces the seawater back out. [10] Once the vessel is underwater, smaller trim tanks let the crew move water forward or backward to keep it level. [11] Short wings called diving planes then tilt the submarine up or down as it moves, much as a bird tilts its wings to glide. [12] Through all of these changes, the crew works smoothly and quietly, adjusting the tanks a little at a time so that the vessel glides calmly from one depth to another.
Which tone, with three of the article's words that build it, fits the way the article describes the crew's work in sentence [12]?
- Tense and hurried: “smoothly,” “quietly” and “calmly”
- Calm and steady: “smoothly,” “quietly” and “calmly”
- Calm and steady: “hull,” “vents” and “trim tanks”
- Calm and steady: “smoothly,” “rushes” and “forces”
Fresh Water from the Sea (article)
[1] Nearly all of the water on Earth is in the oceans, but seawater is far too salty for people to drink or for most crops to grow in. [2] In dry coastal regions, some cities now turn seawater into fresh water by a process called desalination, which means removing the salt. [3] The most common method today is reverse osmosis, which relies on a special plastic membrane with openings too small for dissolved salt to slip through. [4] In ordinary osmosis, water moves on its own through such a membrane from the less salty side toward the saltier side. [5] Desalination plants run this process backward by pumping seawater against the membrane at very high pressure.
[6] The membrane works like a strict gatekeeper at a narrow door. [7] It waves the small water molecules through to the fresh side but turns the dissolved salt away, keeping it on the seawater side. [8] What passes the gate becomes drinking water after a few more treatments, while the salt stays behind in a stream of extra-salty water called brine.
[9] The method works, but it comes at a heavy price, because the powerful pumps use large amounts of energy. [10] The leftover brine creates a troubling problem as well, since pouring it back into the sea in one place can harm the plants and animals living nearby. [11] Engineers are searching for ways to reduce these costly side effects, such as mixing the brine with ocean water before releasing it. [12] For now, desalination remains a worrisome trade, offering a dependable supply of fresh water while demanding a great deal in return.
Sentences [6] to [8] describe the membrane as a strict gatekeeper. What does Kira decide the figure shows?
- The membrane lets the dissolved salt pass through and holds the water back on the seawater side.
- The membrane lets water molecules pass through and keeps the dissolved salt from getting through.
- A worker stands at a door in the plant and checks the water that comes in.
- The membrane decides which cities deserve fresh water and turns the other cities away.
Which tone, with three of the article's words that build it, fits the last paragraph, sentences [9] to [12]?
- Concerned: “troubling,” “costly” and “worrisome”
- Concerned: “membrane,” “molecules” and “osmosis”
- Concerned: “troubling,” “dependable” and “fresh”
- Cheerful: “troubling,” “costly” and “worrisome”
How the Ear Turns Sound into Signals (article)
[1] Every sound, from a whisper to a thunderclap, reaches us as a wave of tiny pressure changes traveling through the air. [2] The outer ear acts as a funnel, collecting these waves and guiding them down the ear canal to the eardrum, a thin, tight membrane. [3] The waves make the eardrum vibrate, and on its far side a remarkable chain of three tiny bones picks up the motion. [4] Anatomists named the first bone the hammer, because its shape reminded them of that tool, and they named the other two the anvil and the stirrup. [5] The stirrup, smaller than a grain of rice, is the smallest bone in the human body, and it passes the vibrations into the inner ear.
[6] The inner ear holds the cochlea, a delicate tube coiled like a snail shell and filled with fluid. [7] Inside the cochlea, thousands of hair cells sit in rows along its length, and each one bends when the fluid around it moves. [8] The cochlea is a piano keyboard rolled into a spiral. [9] Its high notes sit near the entrance, where the hair cells answer shrill sounds, and its low notes sit deep in the far tip, where the cells answer deep, rumbling ones. [10] When a sound plays a particular note, the cells at the matching place along the keyboard bend the most and send the strongest signal to the brain.
[11] The brain reads which places are signaling and turns that pattern into the astonishing variety of sounds we hear, from music to the voices of friends. [12] Because human hair cells do not grow back once they are destroyed, protecting this delicate system from very loud noise matters for a lifetime.
Glossary entry (written by PencilGo): hammer (noun). 1. (general) a tool with a heavy head, used to drive nails. 2. (anatomy) the first of the three tiny bones in the middle ear, which picks up vibrations from the eardrum. 3. (music) a small felt-covered part inside a piano that strikes a string when a key is pressed.
Milo checks hammer, from sentence [4], in the glossary entry. Which sense does the article use?
- the thin, tight membrane that vibrates when sound waves reach it
- the first of three tiny bones that carry vibrations on from the eardrum
- a small felt-covered part in a piano that strikes a string when a key is pressed
- a tool with a heavy head that is used for driving in nails
How the Ear Turns Sound into Signals (article)
[1] Every sound, from a whisper to a thunderclap, reaches us as a wave of tiny pressure changes traveling through the air. [2] The outer ear acts as a funnel, collecting these waves and guiding them down the ear canal to the eardrum, a thin, tight membrane. [3] The waves make the eardrum vibrate, and on its far side a remarkable chain of three tiny bones picks up the motion. [4] Anatomists named the first bone the hammer, because its shape reminded them of that tool, and they named the other two the anvil and the stirrup. [5] The stirrup, smaller than a grain of rice, is the smallest bone in the human body, and it passes the vibrations into the inner ear.
[6] The inner ear holds the cochlea, a delicate tube coiled like a snail shell and filled with fluid. [7] Inside the cochlea, thousands of hair cells sit in rows along its length, and each one bends when the fluid around it moves. [8] The cochlea is a piano keyboard rolled into a spiral. [9] Its high notes sit near the entrance, where the hair cells answer shrill sounds, and its low notes sit deep in the far tip, where the cells answer deep, rumbling ones. [10] When a sound plays a particular note, the cells at the matching place along the keyboard bend the most and send the strongest signal to the brain.
[11] The brain reads which places are signaling and turns that pattern into the astonishing variety of sounds we hear, from music to the voices of friends. [12] Because human hair cells do not grow back once they are destroyed, protecting this delicate system from very loud noise matters for a lifetime.
Sentences [8] to [10] describe the cochlea as a piano keyboard rolled into a spiral. What does Noah decide the figure shows?
- The cochlea can play music on its own, even when no sound reaches the ear.
- Each hair cell answers high and low pitches alike, no matter where it sits in the cochlea.
- The cochlea holds tiny keys that are pressed down whenever music is playing.
- Each place along the cochlea answers its own pitch, high near the entrance and low at the far tip.
Which tone, with three of the article's words that build it, fits the way the article presents the ear?
- Admiring: “cochlea,” “stirrup” and “fluid”
- Admiring: “remarkable,” “delicate” and “astonishing”
- Doubtful: “remarkable,” “delicate” and “astonishing”
- Admiring: “remarkable,” “destroyed” and “shrill”
How a Jet Engine Pushes a Plane (article)
[1] A jet engine works on a principle that Isaac Newton described more than three hundred years ago: pushing something one way pushes you the other way. [2] The engine throws a huge mass of air backward at high speed, and in return the air pushes the engine, and the plane, forward. [3] Air enters through the intake, the wide round opening at the front of the engine. [4] Like a swimmer between strokes, the engine breathes in, taking enormous gulps of air through that opening every second.
[5] Rows of spinning blades in the compressor then squeeze the air into a much smaller space, which makes it hotter and raises its pressure. [6] In the combustion chamber, fuel is sprayed into the squeezed air and burned, and the gases expand with tremendous force. [7] The engine then breathes out, as the blazing gases roar from the back through a narrow nozzle at enormous speed. [8] On their way out, the gases spin a turbine, a wheel of blades that is connected by a shaft to the compressor and keeps it turning. [9] In this way the engine powers its own breathing, using part of the energy of each breath out to draw in the next breath.
[10] Most airliners today use turbofans, which have a giant fan at the front that pushes extra air around the outside of the hot center of the engine. [11] This bypass air provides most of the push and also makes the engine quieter, since the cooler, slower air softens the roar of the hot gases. [12] Two engineers working separately, Frank Whittle in Britain and Hans von Ohain in Germany, built the first working jet engines in the 1930s, a mighty leap that reshaped travel.
Glossary entry (written by PencilGo): intake (noun). 1. (engines) the opening through which air or fuel enters an engine or machine. 2. (health) the amount of something, such as water or food, taken into the body. 3. (schools and workplaces) the group of new people admitted at one time.
Ren checks intake, from sentence [3], in the glossary entry. Which sense does the article use?
- the amount of water or food that a person takes in
- the group of new students or workers admitted at one time
- the opening at the front where air enters the engine
- the rows of spinning blades that squeeze the air
How a Jet Engine Pushes a Plane (article)
[1] A jet engine works on a principle that Isaac Newton described more than three hundred years ago: pushing something one way pushes you the other way. [2] The engine throws a huge mass of air backward at high speed, and in return the air pushes the engine, and the plane, forward. [3] Air enters through the intake, the wide round opening at the front of the engine. [4] Like a swimmer between strokes, the engine breathes in, taking enormous gulps of air through that opening every second.
[5] Rows of spinning blades in the compressor then squeeze the air into a much smaller space, which makes it hotter and raises its pressure. [6] In the combustion chamber, fuel is sprayed into the squeezed air and burned, and the gases expand with tremendous force. [7] The engine then breathes out, as the blazing gases roar from the back through a narrow nozzle at enormous speed. [8] On their way out, the gases spin a turbine, a wheel of blades that is connected by a shaft to the compressor and keeps it turning. [9] In this way the engine powers its own breathing, using part of the energy of each breath out to draw in the next breath.
[10] Most airliners today use turbofans, which have a giant fan at the front that pushes extra air around the outside of the hot center of the engine. [11] This bypass air provides most of the push and also makes the engine quieter, since the cooler, slower air softens the roar of the hot gases. [12] Two engineers working separately, Frank Whittle in Britain and Hans von Ohain in Germany, built the first working jet engines in the 1930s, a mighty leap that reshaped travel.
Sentences [4], [7] and [9] describe the engine as breathing. What does Tala decide the figure shows?
- The engine takes in air, uses it and pushes it out again, over and over in a steady cycle.
- The engine has lungs inside it that fill with air the way a swimmer's lungs do.
- The engine pushes air out through the front and pulls it in through the back.
- The engine grows tired after a long flight and needs to rest, as a swimmer does.
Which tone, with three of the article's words that build it, fits the way the article presents the jet engine?
- Gentle: “tremendous,” “blazing” and “mighty”
- Forceful: “compressor,” “turbine” and “nozzle”
- Forceful: “tremendous,” “quieter” and “softens”
- Forceful: “tremendous,” “blazing” and “mighty”
