Write a story with pace, tension and reflection
Grade 9 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
The Audition (story draft)
[1] This is a story about the day I had an audition for the city youth orchestra. [2] The waiting room was a narrow hallway lined with folding chairs, and every chair held a nervous player with an instrument case across both knees. [3] I had practiced the required scale on my viola for a month, but the fast part near the top still tripped my fingers about one time in three. [4] Zee, my stand partner from school, was scheduled for the slot right after mine, and we had agreed to wait together so that neither of us would have to sit alone.
[5] Ten minutes before my turn, Zee stood up, patted every pocket, and announced in a tight voice that the numbered card the judges required had disappeared. [6] Without that card, the woman at the desk said, a player could not be heard, and there were no spare cards left. [7] Zee hurried off to search the stairwell and the restrooms, and I sat with the viola, running the scale in my head while my eyes kept drifting toward the empty chair. [8] When the door opened and a judge called my number, I stood up and walked into the audition room with the viola under my arm.
[9] The judges asked for the scale first, and I set the bow on the string and began, slowly at the bottom, where the notes were easy. [10] I made myself slow down, played the top notes again in tune, and came down the other side of the scale without another mistake. [11] When I came out, Zee was back in the hallway, and the two of us sat side by side while Zee waited to be called.
[12] A week later, a letter arrived saying that we had both earned seats in the second row of the viola section. [13] On the first day of rehearsal, I clipped my old numbered card inside my music folder, where it still sits.
Pia sees that sentence [1] names the subject but no problem. Which opening sets up the problem and keeps the draft's point of view?
- On the morning of the audition, Zee felt sure that the narrator would play the hard scale perfectly.
- On the morning of my audition for the city youth orchestra, the sun was bright and the hallway smelled of floor polish.
- On the morning of my audition for the city youth orchestra, I still could not trust my fingers on the fastest part of the scale.
- I started the viola in third grade, switched teachers twice, and then joined the school orchestra, which is where I first met Zee.
Ren sees that sentence [8] drops the second plot line, Zee's missing card. Which version of [8] joins the two plot lines?
- When a judge called my number, I noticed a harp player in the corner arguing quietly with a parent about a string.
- When a judge called my number, I tucked my folder under one arm and walked in, thinking about the fast part of the scale.
- Just before my number was called, a boy two chairs down found his own lost card under a cello case and cheered.
- When a judge called my number, I reached into my folder for my card and found two cards stuck together, mine and Zee's.
Tala wants one more event right after sentence [9]. Which event grows out of [9] and raises the stakes?
- Near the bottom of the scale, I thought again about how I had practiced it each day for a whole month at home before today.
- Near the top, my fourth finger landed a little flat, and I heard one judge's pencil scratch across a score sheet.
- Outside the tall window, a delivery truck backed slowly into the loading dock behind the concert hall.
- The judges thanked me for recovering so well from my slip, and one of them gave me a small smile.
Eight Missing Pages (story draft)
[1] Ari and Noah were both members of the yearbook staff at their school. [2] The last eight pages of the yearbook, the ones that covered the spring sports and the senior trip, had to reach the printer's website by five o'clock on Friday, or the whole book would be printed without them. [3] At three o'clock, Ari opened the laptop in the yearbook room, clicked on the file that held the eight pages, and watched a gray box appear with a message saying that the file could not be opened. [4] Noah tried again on the second laptop, and the same gray box appeared, as calm and blank as before.
[5] Noah had also promised to meet a younger cousin, Luz, at the public library at four-thirty and walk Luz home, a promise that could not be broken because nobody else would be there. [6] Ari searched the school's shared drive for an older copy and found one from Wednesday, but it was missing the two pages about the senior trip. [7] At four-fifteen, with the clock over the door moving faster than seemed possible, Noah picked up a backpack and said that Luz could not be left waiting. [8] Ari stayed behind with the Wednesday copy and began rebuilding the senior-trip pages from the photographs, one caption at a time.
[9] At the library, Noah found Luz at a table in the children's room and sat down to wait while Luz finished a book. [10] At four fifty-two, the full set of eight pages reached the printer's website, and a green check mark appeared on Ari's screen. [11] Ari leaned back in the chair and laughed, mostly from relief, while the cleaning crew began stacking chairs in the hall.
[12] That evening, Luz asked Noah why a computer at the library had been more exciting than any book in the children's room.
Ren sees that sentence [9] keeps the two plot lines apart. Which version of [9] joins the library errand to the broken file?
- At the library, Noah noticed a bright poster for a summer writing camp by the door and stopped to read the whole thing.
- At the library, while Luz read, Noah saw that the public computers had the design program and asked Ari for the file.
- Back in the yearbook room, Ari kept typing captions while the clock over the door kept moving toward five.
- At the library, Noah found Luz ready at the door, and the two of them walked straight home together.
Tala wants one more event right after sentence [3]. Which event grows out of [3] and raises the stakes?
- Ari thanked the printer for sending a fresh copy of the file so quickly and opened it at once on the first laptop.
- Ari called the printer's help line and learned that the five o'clock deadline could not be moved by even an hour.
- Ari looked at the gray box again and thought once more that the file could not be opened.
- Down the hall, the jazz band started rehearsing a loud song for the spring concert.
Moving the Tank (story draft)
[1] This story tells what happened when Pia and Tala helped move the fish tank. [2] The biology class kept twelve small tropical fish in a long glass tank, and on the last Saturday of the school year the tank had to move from the old building to a room in the new science wing. [3] Ms. Ibarra, the biology teacher, explained that the fish could ride safely in buckets of their own tank water for about an hour before the water grew too cool for them. [4] Pia scooped the fish into two buckets with a soft net while Tala siphoned the rest of the water into plastic jugs, and the clock above the sink read nine-forty.
[5] That same morning was the last workday for the custodian, Mr. Hale, who was retiring after thirty years, and Tala carried a card that the whole class had signed. [6] The plan was to hand over the card at noon in the main office, after the fish were settled.
[7] Ms. Ibarra, Pia and Tala carried the buckets and jugs across the parking lot, but when they reached the new science wing, the door of the biology room would not open, because nobody had been given a key yet. [8] Ms. Ibarra called the main office and heard that the one person with a key to the new wing was out on the grounds and not answering the radio. [9] Tala sat down on the hallway floor beside the buckets and read the names on the card one more time while they waited. [10] Mr. Hale arrived four minutes later with a ring of keys, opened the door and helped set the tank on its new stand.
[11] The fish were swimming in their own water again at ten thirty-one, fifty-one minutes after Pia had first lifted the net. [12] Then, standing beside the bubbling tank instead of in the main office, Tala handed over the card, and Mr. Hale read each name aloud. [13] Ms. Ibarra later named the largest fish Hale.
Jun sees that sentence [1] names the subject but no problem. Which opening sets up the problem and keeps the draft's point of view?
- Pia and Tala loved the biology room, where twelve bright fish drifted slowly through the long glass tank.
- The biology class had kept the fish tank for nine years, ever since a former teacher brought in the first two fish.
- Pia and Tala had about an hour to move twelve tropical fish across the school grounds before the water grew too cool.
- I still remember how carefully Pia and I lifted the fish out of the old tank that morning.
Kira sees that sentence [9] keeps the two plot lines apart. Which version of [9] joins the card for Mr. Hale to the locked door?
- Tala noticed that the new hallway had no posters yet and began planning a mural for the empty wall.
- Tala ran across to the main office, handed the card to the secretary to pass on to Mr. Hale, and walked slowly back to the buckets.
- Pia dipped a hand into the nearest bucket and tried the locked door one more time while the minutes passed.
- Tala looked down at the card, remembered that Mr. Hale spent Saturday mornings fixing things in the gym, and ran to find the custodian.
Luz wants one more event right after sentence [8]. Which event grows out of [8] and raises the stakes?
- Pia dipped a finger into the nearest bucket and checked the clock: ten-fifteen, and the water already felt cooler.
- Outside, a group of volunteers began painting fresh white lines on the parking lot.
- Ms. Ibarra said again that the door was locked and that no one had been given a key yet.
- Pia set the buckets down beside the open door of the biology room and began pouring the first jug into the empty tank.
The Cloudy Fair (story draft)
[1] Milo and Kira entered a project in the county science fair. [2] Their project was a small greenhouse made of clear plastic, with a fan on the roof that ran on a solar panel no bigger than a postcard and kept the plants inside from overheating. [3] The fair was held in a gym with a wall of tall windows, and Milo had set the greenhouse in the brightest spot so that the judges would see the fan spinning in the sunlight. [4] Kira's younger cousin Esme had a first project at the same fair, a lemon battery meant to light a tiny bulb, in the elementary section across the gym.
[5] Twenty minutes before the judges reached the high school row, gray clouds slid across the sky, and the light through the windows dimmed to the color of dishwater. [6] The fan on the greenhouse slowed, stuttered and stopped. [7] Milo tilted the panel toward the windows and then toward the ceiling lights, but neither gave it enough light to turn the blades. [8] Meanwhile, Kira had walked across the gym to check on Esme, whose bulb would not light no matter how the wires were twisted. [9] Kira helped Esme press the copper and zinc strips deeper into each lemon, and the tiny bulb flickered on at last.
[10] Kira carried the lamp back across the gym, clipped it to the table and aimed it at the panel, and the blades began to turn just as the first judge arrived. [11] The judge asked why a solar project was running on a lamp, and Milo explained that a solar panel turns strong light of any kind into electricity, not just sunlight. [12] Their project took second place, and Esme's lemon battery earned a ribbon for the best first project in the elementary section. [13] On the drive home, Esme held the lamp on both knees as if it had won a prize too.
Luz sees that sentence [1] names the characters but no problem. Which opening sets up the problem and keeps the draft's point of view?
- The county science fair filled the gym with long tables, bright posters and the hum of a hundred conversations that day.
- Milo and Kira's greenhouse fan ran on sunlight, and on the day of the county science fair, clouds were due by noon.
- Milo and Kira first became lab partners in seventh grade, when they built a model volcano together.
- I was so proud of the little greenhouse that Milo and I built for the county science fair.
Zee wants one more event right after sentence [6]. Which event grows out of [6] and raises the stakes?
- In the hallway, a teacher began setting out programs for the awards on a folding table.
- Milo looked down the row and saw the judges only three tables away, clipboards in hand.
- Milo watched the fan for a while and saw once more that its blades were not turning.
- Milo thanked Kira for bringing the lamp across the gym so quickly and clipped it to the table.