Assessment Title: Cause and Effect: Second Assessment Passage: RAIN, SNOW, AND HAIL Kirsten Bishop
Rainstorms: maybe you don't like them because you can't go outside. Or if you get caught in one, it's like taking a shower with your clothes on. Or maybe you like to lie around the house all day with the weather as an excuse, playing games, reading books, and listening to the sound rain makes on the roof.
Whether you like rain or not, you probably know that it comes from clouds. But what exactly is a cloud? How does it get up there? And why do clouds turn into rain?
The ancient Chinese believed that rain was caused by dragons in the sky. The Incas had a rain god called Chac who collected water from the Milky Way and poured it down on the Earth.
Actually, clouds come from the water on the Earth's surface—mostly from the oceans, but also from lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water. The sun makes some of this water evaporate, or turn into a gas. This gas is called water vapor. Water vapor is invisible. You can see evaporation in action when you dry your hair or put clothes out to dry in the sun. The water seems to mysteriously disappear. Actually, it's still there, but you can't see it. It has turned into invisible water vapor.
Warm air is lighter than cool air. Therefore, the warm air (with the water vapor in it) rises. Up high in the sky, the air is colder. As the warm air rises and cools off, the water vapor turns back into tiny droplets of liquid water. Clouds are made of these droplets of water. The droplets don't just float in thin air, though. They sit on particles of dust and smoke that drift around in the atmosphere.
When water vapor turns into water, we call this condensation. It's the opposite of evaporation. An example of this is when you can see your breath in front of you as a white mist on cold mornings. Your breath is warm and has water vapor in it. When the water vapor hits the cold air outside your body, it condenses and forms a little cloud.
When the water in a cloud becomes too heavy to stay in the air, it falls back down to the Earth as rain. Evaporation and condensation are responsible for cycling about 100 million billion gallons of water each year. That's a lot of rainy days! This is called the water cycle.
Snowflakes form in cold clouds. Rather than staying liquid, the water droplets freeze and turn into ice crystals. Actually, a lot of rain starts as snow in the clouds, but melts on the way down. In winter, the temperature of the air is cold enough that the ice crystals don't melt, and presto, snow!
Hailstones start as raindrops in a storm. When strong storm winds blow upward, they stop the rain from falling. As the rain blows about in the cold air, it freezes into ice. Hailstones are these frozen raindrops. Big hailstones form when very strong winds keep small hailstones up in the air. Raindrops hit the hailstones and freeze, packing more ice onto the hailstone—just like making a snowball.
Snow and hail eventually melt, of course, and turn back into water. The water evaporates, and the cycle starts again—the way it has for billions of years.
1) Based on the passage above, one thing needed for clouds to form is
/ A. / hot days./ B. / ice crystals.
/ C. / strong winds.
/ D. / water vapor.
2) Based on the passage, evaporation is caused by
/ A. / clouds./ B. / heat.
/ C. / rain.
/ D. / vapor.
3) One EFFECT of water vapor rising high into the sky is
/ A. / condensation./ B. / evaporation.
/ C. / global warming.
/ D. / shrinking oceans.
4) Which of the following is needed for hailstones to form?
/ A. / snowflakes/ B. / strong winds
/ C. / thunder and lightning
/ D. / freezing temperatures on the ground
5) Based on the passage, air with water vapor ends up high in the sky because
/ A. / warm air rises./ B. / water vapor is invisible.
/ C. / the air is colder high up in the sky.
/ D. / most of the Earth is covered with water.
Assessment Title: Text Features: Second Assessment Passage:
Dessert Eating Records
Leslie Patterson
In competitive eating events, participants compete to see who can eat the most food in a certain amount of time. This kind of event is quickly becoming very popular around the country. Eating contests focus on many kinds of food, from chicken nuggets to oysters to pickles. The chart below lists the records for desserts.
1) Which of the competitors holds the most records of those listed?
/ A. / Eric Booker/ B. / Sonya Thomas
/ C. / Cookie Jarvis
/ D. / Timothy Janus
2) For the desserts measured in pounds, what is the MOST food eaten in 8 minutes or less?
/ A. / Key Lime Pie/ B. / cheesecake
/ C. / Shoo-Fly Pie
/ D. / chocolate candy bars
3) Based on the chart, how many contests lasted MORE than 9 minutes?
/ A. / 1/ B. / 2
/ C. / 3
/ D. / 4
4) Based on the chart, how many competitors only hold one record for eating desserts?
/ A. / 1/ B. / 2
/ C. / 3
/ D. / 4
5) Based on the chart, most of the desserts eaten in contests are measured by
/ A. / weight./ B. / the slice.
/ C. / number eaten.
/ D. / volume.
Assessment Title: Similarities/Differences among Settings: Second Assessment Passage:
TWO WORLDS
Iain Rowan
The little fish hovered in the safety of the reef. All around it was the dance of life as schools of brightly-colored fish swam in ten different directions at once. They shot past and between one another but never collided. The little fish darted out into the clear water, but he sensed something moving above. He swam quickly back to the safety of the rock. A big, dark shape moved lazily through the water, powerful and cruel. The little fish kept very still and waited until long after the shark was gone. Then it swam out into the open.
The little fish looked up at the bright surface of the water and saw a splash of arms and legs. It watched the people swimming for a while. Then the little fish saw a hungry eel closing in and shot away, swimming as fast as it could. The eel kept up its chase, hunting for its next meal. The little fish swam frantically, but it was getting tired. It could not keep up this speed for much longer.
* * *
On his way into the city, Billy stood on the corner, looking out at the traffic. Cars shot past from all directions. It looked as if they would crash, but somehow the traffic flowed and merged and they did not. Billy decided that it was safe to cross the road. He started to cross, but then he felt, more than heard, a low noise, and he stepped back onto the sidewalk. The massive truck roared down the street, and Billy waited until it had passed before crossing. Then he walked into the city.
He stopped for a while outside the pet shop and stared into the fish tank, watching the blues and reds darting about between stones and plants. Then he looked at his watch. It was time to get back home for lunch. Billy pretended that he was a spy and that his enemies were chasing him. He fled back home, dodging his opponents. They nearly caught him, but he used one final burst of speed that took him back through his front door.
* * *
The eel was just about to catch the little fish when there was a sparkle of light on plastic, and the little fish found itself rising up. It came out of the sea, into the brilliant sunshine, caught in a big plastic net. Then the net was tipped into a tank. The little fish swam around in its new world. It was safe from the eel that swam in circles in the sea. The tank fell into the bottom of a boat, along with a dozen others, all full of other brightly-colored fish.
* * *
Billy walked home, thinking about what he had seen. He would save up his pocket money. Next week he would go back and buy a fish. He would keep it in a tank in his room. It would be interesting watching it swim around. Its world was so different from his.
1) In the story, Billy's street corner is most LIKE the
/ A. / boat./ B. / net.
/ C. / reef.
/ D. / tank.
2) The shark and the big truck are ALIKE because they are both
/ A. / predators chasing after their prey./ B. / creatures that make the most noise.
/ C. / the most dangerous thing in their environments.
/ D. / moving faster than any other thing in their habitat.
3) Billy's trip home from the pet store was DIFFERENT from the fish trying to get away from the eel because Billy
/ A. / was late for something./ B. / wasn't caught by his enemies.
/ C. / only pretended there was danger.
/ D. / didn't need any help from his friends.
4) One way that Billy's city is LIKE the fish's water is that they both
/ A. / are very relaxing./ B. / have scary things in them.
/ C. / are impossible to get out of.
/ D. / have loud, disturbing noises.
5) The swimming schools of fish are LIKE the cars in traffic because they both
/ A. / are brightly colored./ B. / are things to be afraid of.
/ C. / looked like they would run into each other.
/ D. / seemed like they would never stop moving.
Assessment Title: Locate, Interpret, Organize Information: Second Assessment Passage:
THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE
Matthew Cheney
One of the most exciting explorations in the modern era occurred when Charles Darwin sailed around the world on the ship, the H.M.S. Beagle. The Beagle's journey gave Darwin the chance to see many types of plant and animal life.
Darwin quickly discovered that being on the ship made him seasick. So whenever he had a chance to go onto land, he took it. He saw volcanoes and jungles. He collected many plant and animal species previously unknown to scientists. In fact, he collected so many specimens he had to send many back to England long before he returned home to study them.
The Beagle traveled in many areas on this voyage. First, it went to Brazil. Then it traveled down the coast of Argentina. From there, the ship crossed into the Pacific Ocean through the dangerous Magellan Strait in Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost part of South America.
Here are a few terms associated with his voyage.
Darwin, Charles (Robert) (1809-1882) British natural scientist. Charles Darwin was 22 years old in 1831 when Captain Robert FitzRoy invited him to sail on the H.M.S. Beagle. The Beagle was heading to South America to gather information needed to create better maps of the coasts. Darwin had thought he would become a minister. But his interest in nature made the trip to South America hard to resist, even though the voyage would last for five years.
FitzRoy, Robert (1805-1865) Sailor and meteorologist. FitzRoy was a great-grandson of King Charles I of England. FitzRoy became captain of the H.M.S. Beagle during its first voyage, a mapping survey to Tierra del Fuego. On the second voyage, FitzRoy brought Charles Darwin on board mainly to have someone interesting to talk with. However, it soon became clear that Darwin's natural collections from the voyage would be important contributions to science.
hydrography (hi-DROG-ra-fee) noun. The scientific measurement and mapping of bodies of water, particularly for travel by ships.
Tierra del Fuego (Spanish for "Land of Fire"). An archipelago at the tip of South America, separated from the continent by the Strait of Magellan. Western and southern islands are territories of Chile. The eastern islands are part of Argentina, including the world's southernmost city, Ushuaia.
archipelago (ahr-kih-PEL-ah-goh) noun. A cluster of islands, or an area of water containing many islands.
Darwin at the Galapagos
Some of Darwin's most exciting discoveries occurred late in the Beagle's voyage in September 1835. This was when the ship reached the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador. Darwin said of the volcanic landscape of the first island they landed on "Nothing could be less inviting than the first appearance." He soon discovered, though, that the high mountains of the islands had a more damp climate and offer fairly thick plant growth.
Within this plant life, Darwin discovered many animals similar to, but slightly different from, ones found on the mainland. He noticed that each island had a different kind of mockingbird. He was amazed to discover how many kinds of finches were flying around the islands. He later found, when he returned to England that each island appeared to have a completely different type of finch. They had many different sorts of beaks, each one good for eating a different type of food.
Darwin was also fascinated by the giant, ancient tortoises on the Galapagos Islands. He spent days observing as they climbed the hills to go to springs for water.
SOURCES http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-voyage-of-the-beagle/chapter-17.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voyage_of_the_Beagle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_darwin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Fitzroy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tierra_del_Fuego dictionary definitions based on The Oxford American Dictionary (1980 and 2005 editions), with alterations