LESSON 1

The Water Cycle

Water in the Atmosphere

Key Concept
• How does water cycle
What do you think? Read the two statements below and decide through the atmosphere?
whether you agree or disagree with them. Place an A in the Before
column if you agree with the statement or a D if you disagree. After
you’ve read this lesson, reread the statements to see if you have
changed your mind.
Before Statement After
Water vapor is visible as steam.

Clouds are made of tiny drops of water or

ice crystals.

Mark the Text

Where is water on Earth? Building Vocabulary As

you read, underline the
Earth is often called the blue planet because so much of its words and phrases that you
surface is covered with water. If you look at a photo of Earth do not understand. When
taken from space, you can see that water covers much more of you finish reading, discuss
Earth than land does. Water is also in clouds, the air around these words and phrases
you, beneath your feet, and in you and other living things. with another student or
your teacher.
Water is distributed unevenly on Earth. The distribution of
Academic Vocabulary
water on Earth depends on interactions among Earth systems.
Earth itself is one large system. It is broken into smaller
distribution
(noun) the way that
subsystems, including the atmosphere, the biosphere, the
Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.

something is divided or
geosphere, and the hydrosphere. Water moves within the spread out
hydrosphere and into other Earth systems. Water is not just a
liquid. Sometimes it changes state and becomes solid ice or a Academic Vocabulary
gas called water vapor. As water flows or changes state, it moves interaction
(noun) the act of things
thermal energy among Earth’s systems.
coming together and having
an effect on each other
What influences why and how quickly
Scientific Vocabulary
water “disappears?” geosphere
After a morning storm, you might notice puddles on the (noun) the solid part of
sidewalk. Later that afternoon, the puddles are gone. In the Earth
same way, water in clouds seems to vanish in the air. What Scientific Vocabulary
makes water seem to disappear? hydrosphere
(noun) all water on Earth

Reading Essentials The Water Cycle  1

THIS MATERIAL IS PROVIDED FOR INDIVIDUAL EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED OR FURTHER DISTRIBUTED.

Scientific Vocabulary
absorb
(verb) to take in or
soak up
Scientific Vocabulary
atmosphere
(noun) the mixture of
gases that surrounds Earth
Scientific Vocabulary
biosphere
(noun) all living things on
Earth
Scientific Vocabulary
freshwater
(noun) water that contains
less than 0.2 percent
dissolved salts
2  The Water Cycle Reading Essentials
THIS MATERIAL IS PROVIDED FOR INDIVIDUAL EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED OR FURTHER DISTRIBUTED.
Physical Science Connection Water does not actually
disappear from a puddle or a cloud. It evaporates. Evaporation is
the process by which a liquid, such as water, changes into a gas.
Evaporation can occur when the Sun shines on an ocean.
Water near the surface absorbs thermal energy and becomes
warmer. As a molecule of water absorbs thermal energy, it
begins to vibrate faster.
When a molecule of water has enough energy, it breaks away
from other water molecules in the ocean. It rises into the
atmosphere as a particle of gas called water vapor. Water vapor,
like other gases in the atmosphere, is invisible.
How else can water enter the
atmosphere?
Oceans hold most of Earth’s water. So oceans are major
sources of water vapor. But water also evaporates from features
such as rivers and lakes, or even puddles and soil. These
sources, along with oceans, make up 90 percent of the water
that enters the atmosphere. Where might the remaining
10 percent come from?
Life Science Connection Most of the remaining 10 percent
comes from the biosphere. All living things rely on freshwater. In
most plants, water travels from the roots up through the stems
and into the leaves. When plants have enough water or when air
temperatures increase, they transpire. Transpiration is the
process by which plants release water vapor into the
atmosphere. Transpiration usually occurs through the leaves.
Some water vapor also comes from organisms through
cellular respiration. Cellular respiration takes place in many
cells. Water and carbon dioxide are produced during cellular
Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.
respiration. When animals breathe out, they release carbon
dioxide and water vapor from their lungs into the atmosphere.
Plants release these materials through openings in their leaves.
Water is also stored in the tissues of plants and animals. The
water is released back to the environment when organisms die
and decompose.
How can you get water to “reappear?”
How can you make water vapor, an invisible gas in the air,
become liquid water again? Think about how grass is sometimes
wet with dew in the morning, even though it did not rain the
night before. Water vapor becomes liquid water as it cools.
 When you exhale outside on a cold winter day, the water
vapor in your breath cools and changes into tiny water droplets.
The droplets form a foggy cloud in front of your face. This also
happens when warm air containing water vapor cools as it rises Word Origin
in the atmosphere. Temperatures in the lower atmosphere atmosphere 
decrease with increasing altitude. So, as water vapor rises from Greek atmos-, means
through the atmosphere, it becomes cooler. Eventually it loses so “vapor”; and Greek
spharia, means “sphere”
much thermal energy that it returns to the liquid state.
Physical Science Connection The process by which a gas
changes to a liquid is condensation. Water vapor condenses on Academic Vocabulary
small particles in the air and forms droplets. Sometimes water process 
droplets in the atmosphere lose so much thermal energy that (noun) a group of actions
tiny ice crystals form. The process by which a liquid turns into a that end in a certain result
crystalline solid is called crystallization. Recall that energy is
absorbed during evaporation. When water changes from a gas to
a liquid, energy is released. Energy is also released when water
changes from a liquid to a solid.
When small water droplets or ice crystals in the atmosphere
are surrounded by thousands of other droplets or ice crystals, Science Use v. Common Use
they block and reflect light. This makes them visible as clouds reflect
or fog. Science Use to return light,
heat, sound, and so on,
after it strikes a surface

Reread the statements at the beginning of the lesson. Fill in Common Use to think
quietly and calmly
the After column with an A if you agree with the statement or a
D if you disagree. Did you change your mind?
Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.

Reading Essentials The Water Cycle  3

THIS MATERIAL IS PROVIDED FOR INDIVIDUAL EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED OR FURTHER DISTRIBUTED.
 LESSON 2
Key Concept
• How does water cycle on
Earth’s surface?
Mark the Text
Identify Main Ideas As you
read, underline the main
ideas under each heading.
After you finish reading,
review the main ideas that
you have underlined.
Scientific Vocabulary
moisture
(noun) an amount of
liquid (water) in
something
Scientific Vocabulary
gravity
(noun) an attractive force
that exists between all
objects that have mass
Academic Vocabulary
affect
(verb) to cause a change
in something
Academic Vocabulary
intense
(adjective) very strong
4  The Water Cycle Reading Essentials
THIS MATERIAL IS PROVIDED FOR INDIVIDUAL EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED OR FURTHER DISTRIBUTED.
The Water Cycle
Water on Earth’s Surface
What do you think? Read the two statements below and decide
whether you agree or disagree with them. Place an A in the Before
column if you agree with the statement or a D if you disagree. After
you’ve read this lesson, reread the statements to see if you have
changed your mind.
Before Statement After
The water cycle begins in the ocean.
Groundwater is found under the ground.
Why do some clouds rain?
Energy from the Sun causes water at Earth’s surface to
evaporate into the atmosphere. Water vapor in the air cools as it
rises. Then it condenses or crystallizes and forms clouds.
Moisture that falls from clouds to Earth’s surface is precipitation.
Liquid water falls to the ground as rain. Frozen water falls as
snow, sleet, or hail. But why does precipitation fall from some
clouds and not from others? The water droplets that make up
clouds are pulled toward Earth’s surface by gravity. Some
droplets move through warm layers of air and they evaporate
before they fall as precipitation. Some droplets move through
Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.
moist layers of air and they join together and grow bigger till
they fall to Earth as precipitation.
Water moves from Earth’s surface to the atmosphere and
back again in the water cycle. The amount of water on Earth
does not change. It is stable. However, changes in Earth’s global
temperature can affect how water is cycled. As the lower
atmosphere becomes warmer, rates of evaporation increase. This
increases the amount of moisture in the air. When the lower
atmosphere has more moisture, more intense precipitation
occurs. In other areas, warmer temperatures may lead to drier
conditions.
 Where does all the rain go?
The Sun and gravity are the two main factors driving the
water cycle. Energy from the Sun causes water at Earth’s surface
to evaporate. Gravity causes the water to fall back to Earth as Word Origin
precipitation. More than 75 percent of precipitation falls into the precipitation 
ocean. The rest falls onto land. Some of this water evaporates from Latin praecipitationem,
and goes back into the atmosphere. Some flows into lakes or means “act or fact of falling
headlong”
streams, which join together and flow back into the ocean.

Where is water stored?

On Earth’s surface, gravity moves water from higher to lower
areas. The water can enter rivers and streams, and eventually
reaches lakes or oceans. Water is constantly moving through the
water cycle. But most water remains in certain storage areas for
relatively long periods of time. A storage area is called a
reservoir. Reservoirs can be oceans, lakes, glaciers and ice caps,
and groundwater.
Water Under Your Feet Generally, water that lies below
ground is called groundwater. If you have ever been inside a Academic Vocabulary
cave, you might have seen groundwater. The water seeping immense
down the sides of the cave is groundwater seeping through rock. (adjective) very great in
Groundwater can stay underground for long periods of time. It size or amount
can remain there for thousands or millions of years.
Scientific Vocabulary
An immense amount of water below our feet is found in
permeable
aquifers. Aquifers are areas of permeable sediment or rock that
(adjective) allowing water,
hold significant amounts of water. The water seeps through soil oil, or gas to pass through it
and into tiny pores, or spaces, between sediment and rock.

Land surface
Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.

Water table
Unsaturated zone

Sand Broken rock

Saturated zone
Level of
Surface water water table
Aquifer
All openings below
the water table are
full of groundwater.

Reading Essentials The Water Cycle  5

THIS MATERIAL IS PROVIDED FOR INDIVIDUAL EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED OR FURTHER DISTRIBUTED.

Scientific Vocabulary
surface
(noun) the outer face or
area of a thing
Scientific Vocabulary
glacier
(noun) a large mass of ice
that moves slowly over
land
Scientific Vocabulary
ice sheet
(noun) a glacier that
spreads out over land in
all directions
6  The Water Cycle Reading Essentials
THIS MATERIAL IS PROVIDED FOR INDIVIDUAL EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED OR FURTHER DISTRIBUTED.
Groundwater Flow Because of gravity, groundwater flows
from higher areas to lower areas. Eventually, it reaches the
ocean. In some areas, groundwater is very close to the surface. It
keeps the soil wet. In other areas, such as deserts and other dry
climates, groundwater is hundreds of meters below the surface.
In low-lying areas at Earth’s surface, groundwater might
eventually seep out of the ground and into a stream, a lake, or a
wetland. In this way, groundwater can become surface water.
When surface water seeps into the ground, it becomes
groundwater. Groundwater is replenished by surface water.
Water in Glaciers and Ice Sheets Water on Earth can also be
stored as solid ice, such as glaciers and ice sheets. How does
this occur?
Imagine what happens when snow falls but doesn’t melt.
Year after year layers of snow pile up. The top layers of snow
press down on the lower layers of snow. This turns the lower
layers of snow into ice. Over time, the mass of ice and snow gets
very heavy. Gravity then causes it to flow downhill like a slow-
moving river of ice. For most glaciers, this process takes over
100 years.
Reread the statements at the beginning of the lesson. Fill in
the After column with an A if you agree with the statement or a
D if you disagree. Did you change your mind?
Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.