The Sheaves - Comprehension Questions Answer Key

1. What is happening where the shadows of the wind have rolled?

A. green wheat is yielding to change
B. a thousand girls with golden hair are rising
C. a thousand girls with golden hair are sleeping
D. things are being bought and sold

2. What rhyme scheme does the poet use to express ideas in this poem?
A. ABABABAB CDCCDC
B. ABCDABCD BBCCDD
C. ABCABCAB CDCDCD
D. ABBAABBA CDCDCD

3. The green wheat is changing color.

What lines from the poem best support this conclusion?

A. lines 2-4, 11
B. lines 7 and 8
C. lines 9 and 10
D. lines 1, 5, and 6

4. What are "the sheaves"?

A. girls with golden hair
B. bodies and minds
C. bundles of wheat
D. days that are not fair

5. What is a theme of the poem?

A. change
B. greed
C. loyalty
D. exploration

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 The Sheaves - Comprehension Questions Answer Key

6. Read lines 6-9 from the poem:

It waited there, the body and the mind;

And with a mighty meaning of a kind
That tells the more the more it is not told.

What idea is the poet expressing in lines 8 and 9?

A. When something is not told to anyone, it loses all of its meaning.

B. Waiting for something is more difficult to do mentally than it is to do physically.
C. The best way to learn something is to ask someone about it.
D. The more something is kept a secret, the more meaningful it is.

7. Read lines 11-14 from the poem:

A thousand golden sheaves were lying there,

Shining and still, but not for long to stay --
As if a thousand girls with golden hair
Might rise from where they slept and go away.

What words does the poet use to compare the sheaves to girls with golden hair?

A. "from where" (line 14)

B. "as if" (line 13)
C. "but not" (line 12)
D. "were lying" (line 11)

8. How are the sheaves similar to girls with golden hair? Support your answer with
evidence from the poem.

Responses may vary, as long as they reflect the text. The most obvious
similarities are in color and number: there are "a thousand golden
sheaves" (line 11) and "a thousand girls with golden hair" (line 13).

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 The Sheaves - Comprehension Questions Answer Key

9. Read these lines from the poem:

Where long the shadows of the wind had rolled,

Green wheat was yielding to the change assigned;
And as by some vast magic undivined
The world was turning slowly into gold.
Like nothing that was ever bought or sold 5
It waited there, the body and the mind;

And with a mighty meaning of a kind

That tells the more the more it is not told.

What does "It" in line 6 refer to? Support your answer with evidence from the poem.

Answers may vary, as long as they are supported by the poem. For
example, students may respond that "It" refers to "The world" (line 4)
because "The world" is the closest previous singular noun that would
make sense in place of "It." Alternatively, students may take "The world"
as metonymy for the wheat-it is really the wheat, not the world, that is
turning golden.

10. What might a "mighty meaning" of the wheat be? Support your answer with
evidence from the poem.

Answers may vary, as long as they are supported by the poem. For
example, students may respond that the "mighty meaning" of the wheat
has to do with change or transformation. The wheat is described in terms
of magical transformation into something of surpassing value: gold unlike
anything "ever bought or sold" (lines 4 and 5). At the same time as the
splendor of the change is emphasized, so is its impermanence. The golden
sheaves are "not for long to stay" (line 12) and look as if they might "rise"
and "go away" (line 14). The "mighty meaning" of the wheat could be that
change is wondrous but fleeting.

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 Genetic Basis of Butterflies - Comprehension Questions Answer Key

1. What does genetic information dictate, or control?

A. what characteristics an organism will have
B. where an organism will live and die
C. which predators will eat the organism
D. who the organism's parents were

2. The passage describes the sequence of a butterfly's life. Which of the following shows
the life cycle of a butterfly in the correct order?
A. egg, pupa, adult, caterpillar
B. pupa, egg, caterpillar, adult
C. egg, caterpillar, pupa, adult
D. egg, pupa, caterpillar, adult

3. Monarch butterflies are protected by their bright coloration. What evidence from the
passage supports this conclusion?
A. Their bright coloration makes monarch butterflies easily noticeable to predators.
B. The monarch's color warns predators that they are poisonous, so they don't get
eaten.
C. Unlike other butterflies, monarchs do not blend into their surroundings to protect
themselves.
D. If a predator eats a monarch, it can taste the poison and will spit the butterfly out.

4. Butterfly A is blue with black markings. Butterfly B is green with brown spots. What
conclusion can you make about these two butterflies?
A. Both butterflies protect themselves by blending into their surroundings.
B. The two butterflies have different life cycles.
C. Both butterflies have the same genetic information.
D. The two butterflies have different genetic information.

5. What is this passage mostly about?

A. monarch butterflies
B. viceroy butterflies
C. milkweed toxins
D. caterpillars and pupae

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 Genetic Basis of Butterflies - Comprehension Questions Answer Key

6. Read the following sentences: "Inside the chrysalis, the pupa grows the legs, wings, and
other parts of an adult butterfly. Once the butterfly is fully developed, the chrysalis splits
apart, and the butterfly emerges."

What does the word "developed" mean?

A. young and small

B. changed and grown
C. safe and protected
D. soft and vulnerable

7. Choose the answer that best completes the sentence below.

Monarch butterflies are brightly colored; __________, they are highly visible to predators.

A. however
B. for example
C. as a result
D. initially

8. Why are monarch butterflies poisonous?

Monarch butterflies are poisonous because as caterpillars they eat a plant

called milkweed, which is poisonous to most vertebrates (but not to
monarchs).

9. How do predators know that monarch butterflies are poisonous?

Predators know that monarch butterflies are poisonous because of their

bright coloration, which acts as a warning that they are poisonous.

10. How does the monarch's coloration help both the butterfly and predators?

The monarch's coloration helps the butterfly, because it protects the

butterfly from predators. The butterfly's coloration helps predators,
because it warns them that the butterfly is poisonous to eat.

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 As Luck Would Have It - Comprehension Questions Answer Key

1. What does Becky have at the beginning of the story?

A. all the beauty in the world
B. all the gold in the world
C. all the talent in the world
D. all the luck in the world

2. What characteristic describes Sarah at the beginning of the story?

A. jealous
B. lucky
C. popular
D. grateful

3. Read the following evidence based on the story:

(1) Sarah feels like Becky has everything she wants, from popularity to new clothes to
luck. (2) When Sarah's artwork is praised by the art teacher, she whispers to Becky,
"Guess you have some competition." (3) When Sarah notices that Becky has been
sulking all day, she thinks to herself, "Let someone else have a shot at being lucky for
once."

Based on this evidence, what can you conclude about Sarah's relationship with Becky?

A. Sarah wishes Becky would notice her, because Becky is so popular.

B. Sarah thinks Becky is very talented and deserves to be lucky.
C. Sarah dislikes Becky's personality and thinks Becky is not a nice person.
D. Sarah feels competitive with Becky and is jealous of her success.

4. Why was Becky upset when her artwork was not praised by the art teacher?
A. because she had put a lot of effort into it
B. because she had lost her luck
C. because she thought her art was better than Sarah's
D. because she thought her art showed a lot of progress

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 As Luck Would Have It - Comprehension Questions Answer Key

5. What is a theme of this story?

A. It is better to be a lucky person than to be an unlucky person.
B. Having a lot of good luck makes you feel great, no matter what.
C. Being a nice person is more important than being lucky.
D. It is important to try and win at everything you do.

6. Read this selection from the first two paragraphs of the passage:

"Becky had everything Sarah wanted: a pool in her backyard, popularity, and new
clothes. Worse, it seemed (at least to Sarah) that Becky had the Midas touch.
Everything she touched turned to gold. She won the class lottery and with it $50! She
guessed how many jelly beans were in the jar in the yearly guess-how-many contest
and won all 768 of them. She won every race she entered, every art competition, and
every award the school offered. She had all the luck in the world.

Sarah was an only child. She wore hand-me-downs from her older cousin Clementine.
She didn't have many friends. [...] Sarah most certainly did not have good luck. She
never won anything. On the days she carried an umbrella, it never rained; on the days
she forgot her umbrella, dark rain clouds seemed to follow her around."

What is the author doing by starting the passage with these two paragraphs?

A. The author is making it clear that Becky and Sarah have a lot in common in order to
show the reader why they are friends.
B. The author is contrasting Becky and Sarah's levels of luck to set up the action
in the story.
C. The author is praising Becky and insulting Sarah to make the reader like Becky more.
D. The author is comparing Becky and Sarah's personalities to explain why Becky is
luckier than Sarah.

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 As Luck Would Have It - Comprehension Questions Answer Key

7. Choose the answer that best completes the sentence below.

Sarah had always been unlucky _____ the day she swapped luck with Becky, who
seemed like she had all the luck in the world.

A. although
B. so
C. until
D. because

8. Why did Sarah feel awful when she realized Becky was crying? Use evidence from
the passage to support your answer.

Sarah felt awful because she did not spend much time on her art project,
and Becky had put a lot of effort into it.

9. What did Kiara say to Sarah towards the end of her lucky day? Explain how Kiara's
comments make Sarah feel by using evidence from the text to support your answer.

Kiara told Sarah, "You haven't been very nice today. You've been acting
like...like you're the best person in the world." She also told Sarah that
"this just isn't like you at all." Kiara's comments made Sarah feel even
worse than before; Sarah felt like she had disappointed her best friend.

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 As Luck Would Have It - Comprehension Questions Answer Key

10. At the end of the passage, Sarah starts to think that luck is overrated. What does
she begin to realize is more important than luck? Suggest at least two qualities she may
now consider more important than luck. Support your answer with evidence from the
text.

: Answers may vary slightly, as long as they are supported by the text.
Some things that Sarah realizes are more important than luck include:

being a nice person

being yourself

being humble

Sarah realizes the importance of these qualities specifically because of

what Kiara says in reaction to Sarah's behavior. Students may also
note that Sarah realizes the importance of hard work when Becky cries
-Sarah feels bad about the recognition she received from the art
teacher because, unlike Becky, she did not work hard to earn it.

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