Chapter 7

Junior Comprehension
Stories—Level 6

Stories in this chapter:

• Knuckle Cracking
• Vampire Bats
• Adverbs
• Word Problems
• Fairy Tales And Fables
• Environment Boy
• Digging to China
• Babysitting
• An Adventure

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Chapter 7: Junior Comprehension Stories—Level 6

Knuckle Cracking
Most people know how to crack their knuckles but no one can crack them twice within a few
minutes. Doctors recently discovered that the popping noise that you hear when you crack your
knuckles is caused by tiny exploding gas bubbles. They found that the fluid in your joints contains
dissolved gases. When you stretch the joint, you reduce the pressure. This lets the gas bubbles
“pop” out of the fluid. The same thing happens when you open a bottle of soda. But the gas in the
knuckle can’t escape and eventually dissolves back into the joint fluid. This takes about fifteen
minutes. This has to happen before you can crack your knuckles again.

1 What causes the popping noise when you crack your knuckles?
2 Liquid in your body is called body ______.
3 The fluid in your joints contains _________ gases.
4 What does not happen when you crack your knuckles?
5 What happens first when you crack your knuckles?

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Vampire Bats
Some say that all bats acquired their bad reputation from the vampire bat. Vampire bats live in
South and Central America. They feed only on blood from cattle, pigs, horses, or large birds and
not on humans. They lap up blood from tiny wounds that they make with their front teeth. But
they are not a real menace. They make up only a small part of the world’s bat population. There
are about 900 species of bats. Most of them play a very important role in the ecosystem. They eat
huge numbers of insects. They spread plants by carrying and dropping seeds from one place to
another. Today, in the hope of attracting bats, some people even build bat houses in their
backyards.

1 Why do vampire bats give all bats a bad reputation?

2 There are about 900 ______.
3 What is one important role that bats play in the ecosystem?
4 How does a bat help spread plant life?
5 People build bat houses because they want to ___.

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Chapter 7: Junior Comprehension Stories—Level 6

Adverbs
You can increase your writing powers by understanding how to use different parts of speech. Let’s
examine adverbs. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They describe how, when,
or where. Consider these sentences: “Enter quietly.” “Janet arrived early”.” I left my pencil here.”
The words “quietly”, “early”, and “here” are adverbs. Adverbs don’t have a fixed position in a
sentence. In fact, you can alter the meaning by changing the adverb’s position. Read these
sentences and notice how the position of the adverb “only” affects the meanings:

1 He whispered to me that he loved only me.

2 What is the main topic of this paragraph?
3 What do adverbs modify? Pick the most precise answer.
4 According to this passage, you can alter the meaning in a sentence by ______.
5 An adverb is not ______.
6 Find the word used in the paragraph that means “to change”.

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Word Problems
To solve a word problem in math, first read it carefully. Look for special phrases that tell what
operations you need to do. For example, “how many in all” and “find the total” tell you to add.
Learn to recognize that some of the facts in what you read are unnecessary to the solution. Don’t
let them mislead you. Then, express the problem in your own words. Include only the necessary
facts and the question you must answer. You may have to put the facts in order. This is most
important when two or more steps are needed to solve the problem. Next, do the number
operation. Remember that it may take two or more operations to solve the problem. Keep in mind
too that you should estimate what a reasonable answer would be. Finally, answer the question.
Check the estimate to be sure your answer makes sense.

1 What is the first thing you should do to solve a word problem in math?
2 When a problem says to “find the total”, you should ___.
3 Why should you learn to recognize that some of the facts in the problem are unnecessary facts?
4 When you try to solve a math problem, you should remember to estimate what a reasonable answer
would be. This will help you ___.
5 Which of these is the final step when you solve a word problem in math?

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Chapter 7: Junior Comprehension Stories—Level 6

Fairy Tales And Fables

Fairy tales are special stories for children. They’re full of make-believe, magic, and happy endings.
They’re about witches, monsters, and dragons. They’re about handsome heroes and brave heroines.
“Beauty and the Beast” is a famous fairy tale.
Fables, however, are a little different. Fables are stories about animals that act like people. Often
the animals can think and talk. Fables are supposed to teach us a lesson. We say they have a
moral. They don’t always have happy endings. The animals often get punished for being bad,
mean, or lazy. Have you read the famous fable “The Hare and the Tortoise”?

1 What kind of story usually has a happy ending?

2 What is a fable?
3 Fables are supposed to ______.
4 “Slow and steady wins the race” is the ________ of “The Hare and the Tortoise”.
5 “Beauty and the Beast” is ______.

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Environment Boy
I read a story in the school newspaper about a boy. This boy was worried about the environment.
He had not had a bath or shower in two weeks. Our dwindling fresh water supply concerned him,
so he cleaned himself with a sponge and a pail of water. He also washed his clothes by hand. He
tried to put all of his ideas and feelings about the environment into action. That was why he
recycled everything he could. He planted trees in his backyard and helped clean up his
neighborhood. He also spent a lot of time reading, looking for new ways to help the environment.

1 The boy was concerned about our fresh water supply because it is ___.
2 What did the boy do to save water?
3 What is one of the ways the boy put his feelings about the environment into action?
4 How is this boy a model environmentalist?
5 What is a good title to express the theme in this paragraph?

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Chapter 7: Junior Comprehension Stories—Level 6

Digging to China
I was watching television one day when I saw a cartoon rabbit dig into the earth until he reached
China, on the opposite side of the world. I thought I could do the same, so I took a shovel and
started digging. I dug for the next two hours and made a small hole about four feet deep. I was
very hot, so I took a break and went into the house to get a glass of water. My mother asked me
why I was making a hole in the backyard. I told her my plan to dig to China. My mother then got
a book and showed me how impossible my plan was to achieve. She explained that I would have
to dig for at least forty lifetimes, through the earth’s crust, the mantle, and finally the earth’s
molten core before I would get to China. So I gave up and went back to watching cartoons on
television!

1 Where did the writer get the idea to dig to China?

2 What was the writer doing before he went into the house to get a glass of water?
3 What did the mother use to show him how impossible his plan was?
4 Why could nobody ever dig all the way through the earth?

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Babysitting
Pat stomped into the house and threw her schoolbooks on the floor. She didn’t want to miss going
shopping with Liz, but her mom had asked her to baby-sit her little brother after school. Pat
walked over to the window and glared down the street looking for Matt. The wind was blowing
drifts of snow over the sidewalks and the sky was growing dark. After twenty minutes, Pat started
to get worried. Finally, she saw Matt’s small form plodding through the deep snow, slowly
making its way up the street. Pat was so relieved to see him, she no longer cared about missing a
shopping trip.

1 How was Pat probably feeling when she came into the house?
2 Why couldn’t Pat go shopping with Liz?
3 What was the weather like outside?
4 What caused Pat to start getting worried?
5 Why was Pat relieved to see Matt?

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Chapter 7: Junior Comprehension Stories—Level 6

An Adventure
Nino grasped the handlebars more tightly, and pedaled faster and faster. Down the hill he sped,
past the house with the bright blue door. The wheels went round and round. He selected another
gear, then shot by the mailbox and over the railroad bridge, the wind whistling in his ears. Just as
he reached the dangerous bend in the road by the maple tree, his wheels left the pavement, and he
soared into the air. Nino screamed in delight as a startled blackbird squawked and fled the treetop.
But in that moment of lost concentration, he also lost his balance. As he tumbled towards the
ground, he heard his alarm clock.

1 In this story, what does the word “grasped” mean?

2 What was Nino riding?
3 What happened just as Nino reached the dangerous bend in the road?
4 What kind of sound did Nino make as his wheels left the ground?
5 Explain the importance of the information you get at the end of this story.

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