Study Island
Copyright © 2014 Edmentum - All rights reserved.
Generation Date: 12/19/2014
Generated By: Cheryl Shelton
Title: Grade 8 Blizzard Bag 2014-2015 ELA-Day 3
1.
The debate over snacking is very confusing. Even experts cannot agree on
whether snacking helps or prevents weight control. Some studies show that snacking
results in eating a greater number of calories, which leads to weight gain. Other studies
show that this is not always the case. These studies say that snacks might even make
weight control easier. The ultimate answer may be that the pros and cons of snacking
vary among individuals.
What is the best summary of this paragraph?
Snacking is a big part of America's growing weight problem. Snacking on junk food can
A. make a person drink more soda. This will lead a person to eat a lot of food in one day and
then gain weight.
Snacking causes a person to gain weight and should be avoided whenever possible.
B. Snacking leads to a person eating a greater number of calories for the entire day, which
makes a person gain weight.
Snacking can reduce the overall amount of food a person eats and can lead to weight loss.
C. Snacking helps to curb cravings throughout the day and leads to people eating less food at
large meal times.
There is a debate among experts as to the advantages and disadvantages of snacking. Some
D. studies say snacking leads to weight gain, while others say that snacking makes weight
control easier.
2.
I loved to look at the old photographs, especially the ones with me in them. I
suppose that was bad of me, and proved I was stuck on myself or something, but I
couldn't help it, the pictures with me in them were just more interesting. Every stage of
my life was there, snapped by the camera and stamped on a glossy piece of paper, and
it made me feel safe to see myself at three, standing with Donald in front of the house in
our matching cowboy and cowgirl outfits, or standing on a chair in front of the kitchen
counter, mixing a birthday cake for Mother. The pictures reminded me that I was real,
that I always had been real and always would be real, and that I wasn't just some girl
someone had made up.
What does the story reveal about human character?
A. Most people do not like to see their own picture.
B. In some way we all want self assurance.
C. People need to look at pictures of themselves to feel good.
D. Most people are very self-centered.
3.
American soldiers captured by the Japanese army suffered greatly. The beginning
of the suffering was the Bataan Death March in the Philippines. Those who survived the
march had to face their captors' brutality on a regular basis. The Japanese army
considered the soldiers less honorable foes because they had surrendered. The
soldiers also suffered illnesses like dysentery and malaria. For three years, these "ghost
soldiers" lived in misery and suffered terrible losses.
Army Rangers who were among Douglas MacArthur's forces went to the Philippines.
They hatched a daring plan to help their captured friends. They knew that a successful
mission would boost morale on the front and at home. A young officer named Henry
Mucci led these men. Mucci was known as "Little MacArthur" because, like MacArthur,
he constantly smoked a pipe and was a brilliant strategist. A group made up of Rangers
and Filipino soldiers went far behind enemy lines. It attacked the Japanese forces
guarding Allied prisoners at a jungle outpost called Cabanatuan. Finally, the group led
hundreds of prisoners to safety while the Japanese army pursued them. Amazingly,
there were very few casualties.
Which of the following best summarizes the passage above?
American prisoners of war were brutalized by their Japanese captors. Army Rangers, led
A. by Henry Mucci, daringly fought Japanese forces and rescued these prisoners in the
Philippines.
"Ghost soldiers" died of malaria and dysentery. The conditions they lived in were horrible.
B. The American troops were considered less honorable than others because they had
surrendered.
American prisoners of war were able to escape with very few casualties. The "ghost
C. soldiers" had dealt with diseases and their captors' brutality for three years. "Little
MacArthur" freed them.
Troops led hundreds of prisoners to safety while suffering only light casualties. They
D. rescued these prisoners from a jungle outpost called Cabanatuan. Many prisoners suffered
from malaria.
4.
One day, the hare and the tortoise were talking. Actually, the hare was bragging
and the tortoise was listening. "I run faster than the wind," boasted the hare. "I pity you
because you are the slowest thing I've ever seen!"
"Oh really?" asked the tortoise with a smile. "Let's race to the other side of the
meadow."
"Ha!" laughed the hare. "You must be joking! You'll lose! Well, if you insist, let's
race."
"I'm on my way," the tortoise said, and started walking slowly and steadily across the
meadow. The hare stood there and laughed. "How sad! That slowpoke wants to
compete with me!" he said. "I'll take a little nap while that poor old tortoise plods along.
When I wake up, he'll still only be halfway there." Some time later, the hare woke up. He
saw that while he had been sleeping, the tortoise had won the race.
What statement does the theme of this story make?
A. Never enter a race you can't win.
B. Always size up your opponent before competing.
C. Never underestimate the importance of speed.
D. A consistent effort will pay off in the long run.
Going Home
by Jon Caswell
I hadn’t seen Ricky since Dad’s funeral. It’s such a long drive home to west Texas,
and I said when I left that old farm, that I’d never go back. However, Ricky’s my brother,
and when his wife Connie called after the accident, I packed my bags and went. You
know, when your family calls, you have to go.
The accident wasn’t that bad, but it came at a bad time. They were just breaking
ground to put the cotton seed in when the tractor ran over Ricky’s foot. There wouldn’t
be any lasting damage, but he couldn’t drive a tractor for a few weeks, and seed won’t
wait: If it goes in the ground too late, it won’t be ready before the first freeze. They
needed to get that seed in quickly, or they would be out of business. Ricky and Connie
didn’t have any money to pay somebody to plow and plant. That’s why they called me.
After all, family is who you call when you’re facing a crisis.
Ricky’s older than me, and he got the farm after Dad died. That was okay with me. I
left when I got out of high school and went to college for a little while but never
graduated. Like a father, Ricky always encouraged me to get my degree, but so far I
haven’t. Mostly, I work at ski resorts in the winter and travel in the summer, so when
Connie called I was able to come.
I was a little worried about plowing the first time, but Ricky said it was just like
swimming, you never forget. By the end of the first row, it was like I had never left.
I was amazed at how comfortable it felt to be with Ricky again, and Connie is such a
good cook. I could hardly remember why I had been so anxious to leave home after
high school. Truth was that my rootless lifestyle was wearing thin, and I was ready to do
something else. It felt good to be with Ricky and Connie.
I had agreed to stay until Ricky came out of his cast. After dinner the night before he
was going to the doctor to have that done, he pushed his plate back and asked if I’d be
willing to stay and work the farm with him for a share of the profits. He said, “It’s just
been great having my brother at home with us. You just fit here.”
I was totally blown away! He was thinking my thoughts exactly. We had been so
close as kids, it just felt right. “Brothers as close as us ought to work together,” I said.
5. Based on this passage, which of these statements would the narrator most likely make?
A. I wish Dad had never died.
B. I like being a ski bum.
C. Blood is thicker than water.
D. Traveling in the summer is fun.
As usual, Alex Cormier was running late. It took thirty-two minutes to drive from her
house in Sterling to the superior court in Grafton County, New Hampshire, and that was
only if she speeded through Orford. She hurried downstairs in her stockings, carrying
her heels and the files she'd brought home with her over the weekend. She twisted her
thick copper hair into a knot and anchored it at the base of her neck with bobby pins,
transforming herself into the person she needed to be before she left her house.
Alex had been a superior court judge now for thirty-four days. She'd believed that,
having proved her mettle as a district court judge for the past five years, this time
around the appointment might be easier. But at forty, she was still the youngest judge in
the state. She still had to fight to establish herself as a fair justice—her history as a
public defender preceded her into her courtroom, and prosecutors assumed she'd side
with the defense. When Alex had submitted her name years ago for the bench, it had
been with the sincere desire to make sure people in this legal system were innocent
until proven guilty. She just never anticipated that, as a judge, she might not be given
the same benefit of the doubt.
The smell of freshly brewed coffee drew Alex into the kitchen. Her daughter was
hunched over a steaming mug at the kitchen table, poring over a textbook. Josie looked
exhausted—her blue eyes were bloodshot; her chestnut hair was a knotty ponytail. "Tell
me you haven't been up all night," Alex said.
Josie didn't even glance up. "I haven't been up all night," she parroted.
Alex poured herself a cup of coffee and slid into the chair across from her.
"Honestly?"
"You asked me to tell you something," Josie said. "You didn't ask for the truth."
Alex frowned. "You shouldn't be drinking coffee."
"And you shouldn't be smoking cigarettes."
Alex felt her face heat up. "I don't—"
"Mom," Josie sighed, "even when you open up the bathroom windows, I can still
smell it on the towels." She glanced up, daring Alex to challenge her other vices.
Alex herself didn't have any other vices. She didn't have time for any vices. She
would have liked to say that she knew with authority that Josie didn't have any vices,
either, but she would only be making the same inference the rest of the world did when
they met Josie: a pretty, popular, straight-A student who knew better than most the
consequences of falling off the straight-and-narrow. A girl who was destined for great
things. A young woman who was exactly what Alex had hoped her daughter would grow
to become.
Josie had once been so proud to have a mother as a judge. Alex could remember
Josie broadcasting her career to the tellers at the bank, the baggers in the grocery
store, the flight attendants on planes. She'd ask Alex about her cases and her
decisions. That had all changed three years ago, when Josie entered college, and the
tunnel of communication between them slowly bricked shut. Alex didn't necessarily think
that Josie was hiding anything more than any other teenager, but it was different: a
normal parent might metaphorically judge her child's friends, whereas Alex could do it
legally.
adapted from Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
6. Which of the following actions contributes to the theme?
A. Alex runs late for work and eats with Josie.
B. Alex wants a better relationship with her daughter.
C. Alex does not know if Josie has any vices.
D. Alex brags to everyone about her daughter.
7. What is the best way to describe the theme in this story?
A. It is easy to judge others especially when you don't know them.
B. People never change, even as they become adults.
C. Children should respect their elders and be seen and not heard.
D. Work can wedge its way into a family and cause tension and conflict.
David Masterson was one of the last of his generation without a cell phone. The 29
year old is a strong believer in personal privacy and space. To his thinking, when
someone calls him on the phone, they are asking that he interrupt whatever else in the
world he might previously have been involved in and put it on hold, just because
someone dialed 10 numbers and wanted to chat.
When out with friends, David would see that most people were willing to interrupt
anything just to answer what would likely be an unimportant phone call. “I remember
one time,” David said, “I was having dinner with my friend Katrina. She was near tears,
describing to me feelings of depression she’d been dealing with. Then, all of a sudden,
she dug through her purse until she located her vibrating phone and answered it. We
were not again able to reach the same depth of conversation when she finally finished
her one-minute phone chat with another friend.”
Perhaps more important, David sees cell phones as merely one symptom of a larger
problem. He believes that people today sacrifice actual time face to face with others in
favor of communicating with them via cell phones and social networking Web sites. “If I
want to talk to you,” he once said, “I’ll come to your house.” It was easy to see that he
expected the same of his friends and family.
So it was quite a surprise when, last month and almost a decade after most people
got their own, David finally gave in and got his first cell phone. His reason: “My girlfriend
just kept bothering me about it. I guess finally I could see that she had a point.”
8. What is the best summary of the passage?
A.
For reasons of personal space, privacy, and the rudeness of others, David Masterson had no
cell phone until his girlfriend finally talked him into it.
B.
David Masterson did not like people calling him up to chat because he thought it
interrupted what he was doing, so he would not get his own cell phone.
C.
Because his girlfriend kept bothering him about it, David Masterson finally did get a cell
phone because he could see that she actually had a good point.
D.
David Masterson had a friend who was going through a bout of depression, and she
interrupted their deep conversation to answer her cell phone.
The Midnight News
by Jon Caswell
Say good-bye to the pupfish,
He’s gone and hardly missed;
No one knows why he deserves it,
He just no longer exists.
Without knowing the pupfish at all,
He is gone and surely forgotten:
No fins waving in the current,
His bubbly breath stamped forbidden.
The fish-counting scientist insisted
There were no survivors.
But of what were there no survivors?
Our toilets flushed into their living rooms?
Fish-counting divers?
Say good-bye to the fishpup,
Ignoble and scaly dish
That lived into the twentieth century
When men couldn’t talk to fish.
In the way we think about Nature,
It’s just another kink,
Someone—pupfish, man or eagle—
Has to become extinct.
9. Which line from the poem most clearly expresses its theme that human activity causes animals
to become extinct?
A. "He is gone and surely forgotten"
B. "When men couldn't talk to fish"
C. "No one knows why he deserves it"
D. "There were no survivors"
10. Which best states a theme of this poem?
A. Dirty water is not good for the fish.
B. Water pollution is caused by human waste.
C. Humans are not in harmony with nature.
D. Counting fish can be dangerous work.
Michael Jackson, known as the King of Pop, was born August 29, 1958, in Gary,
Indiana. He had eight brothers and sisters, and he began singing at the age of six in a
group with four of his brothers. The group came to be known as the Jackson 5, and
Michael would soon take over as the group’s lead singer. With hits such as “ABC” and
“I’ll Be There,” the Jackson 5 had tremendous success with its early major label
releases. The group sold very well, with multiple albums selling over 4 million copies.
The Jackson 5, later renamed the Jacksons, would release music until 1990, but
Michael left the group in 1984 to pursue his career as a solo musician.
Michael Jackson began work on a solo album, Off the Wall, in 1978 while still with
the Jacksons. The album was released in 1979 and would go on to sell over 20 million
copies. The success of the solo album caused many people to wonder when Michael
would leave the Jacksons. As it turned out, Michael would stay with the group even
while recording the most successful album in history, Thriller.
It was, however, Thriller’s success that would eventually lead Michael to leave the
Jacksons after a 1984 tour. Thriller would eventually sell over 100 million copies
worldwide, by far the most ever. The video of the album’s title track, a 14-minute short
film that was at the time the most expensive music video ever produced, was also the
most commercially successful music video ever. Its popularity on MTV would help to
cement Jackson’s place at the top of the pop world. The “Thriller” video, directed by
John Landis, is like a short horror film with Michael, as some sort of monster, and a
large cast of zombies engaged in choreographed dancing. Aside from the song
“Thriller,” the album also produced six other singles, several of which went to number
one in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Michael Jackson would release four more albums after Thriller, including the highly
successful Bad. In his solo career, he earned thirteen Grammy Awards and had 13
number one singles. He has sold 750 million albums worldwide. Michael Jackson died
on June 25, 2009 at the age of 50. Thanks to one of the richest musical contributions in
history, Michael Jackson will forever be remembered as the King of Pop.
11. In a short summary of this article, which detail would be most important to include?
A. What his most successful album was.
B. When and where he was born.
C. How many brothers and sisters he had.
D. When and how he died.
Vitamin D’s best known trait is probably the role it plays in maintaining healthy
bones. Vitamin D sends chemical messages to your intestines to increase the
absorption of calcium, an important nutrient in creating healthy bones. It not only helps
to form and maintain bones by promoting calcium absorption, it also works with other
vitamins, minerals, and hormones to promote bone mineralization. Without Vitamin D,
bones can become thin, brittle, and deformed. Having enough Vitamin D in your diet
prevents skeletal diseases that weaken bones. Vitamin D also helps prevent the onset
of osteoporosis, a disease that weakens bones. Vitamin D helps stop osteoporosis if it
has already started.
12. Which statement best describes a theme of this passage?
A. Vitamin D is important for strong bones.
B. Vitamin D is an important mineral.
C. Vitamins are crucial for a good personality.
D. Calcium is important to overall health.