AASA ELA Practice Questions II

Folding For the Future

AASA 2023 6th Grade ELA

Folding the Future

by Tracy Vonder Brink

1 Have you ever tried origami, the Japanese art of folding paper? Maybe you made a crane, or a
frog. But what about something even bigger, like a full-sized kayak that floats? Or a telescope the
size of a football field?

The First Fold

2 The name origami comes from two Japanese words: oru, to fold, and kami, paper. Nobody
knows who first started folding paper into shapes, but the oldest known origami instructions (for a
paper crane) are from Japan, about 200 years ago. From there, origami spread all over the world.

3 In traditional origami, an object must be made from a single sheet of paper. No cutting or tearing
is allowed—only folding. Simple shapes can be made from a few folds. Complex designs may need
more than a thousand. As designs become more complicated, mathematicians who study and do
origami are taking the art to a whole new level.

Far-Out Folds

4 The pattern of where the paper is creased is like the map for origami. If you do the crease pattern in the
right order, you end up with an object. The fancier the object, the more folds it takes.

5 Origami artists are always looking for new patterns of folds to make new shapes. And some of these
shapes have moved beyond paper. Way beyond—all the way to space!

6 In 1970, Koryo Miura, a Japanese astrophysicist, created a new fold pattern called Miura-ori. It’s a great
way to fold a map. It also turns out to be useful for packing things that need to fit in a small space, then
unfold big and flat. Miura thought his pattern could even be used to pack a solar panel being sent to space.

7 Sure enough, in 1995, Japan’s Space Flyer Unit blasted off with solar panels aboard, folded in Miura’s map
pattern. The panels folded up small to fit inside a rocket, then unfolded out into a wide sheet once the satellite was
in space.

8 Now many more scientists and engineers are interested in what origami can do.

Putting Origami to Work

9 Robert Lang is a physicist who became a full-time origami artist. Lang helped NASA to develop folding solar
panels that a spacecraft could spread out to make electricity from the sun. He also designed a plastic telescope
lens that could unfold to the size of a football field! That design has not yet been turned into a real telescope, but it
might someday.

10 Origami is useful for much more than outer space. Box-makers use origami to make better take-out containers
and shipping crates. Furniture makers use it to find the best way to pack their furniture flat. One company has made
a kayak that folds down into a box small enough to carry on a hike. Origami is even useful for doctors. Scientists
have invented a new stent (a device that holds open a blocked blood vessel) that folds up based on an origami
pattern.

11 Designing complex objects like solar arrays and heart stents from origami isn’t easy. It takes years of trying and
lots of mistakes. But origami artist-scientists say it’s also a lot of fun. What will they fold next?

"Folding the Future" by Tracy Vonder Brink, Ask November/December 2020 © by Cricket Media, Inc. Reproduced with permission.

Multiple Choice

This question has two parts. First answer Part A. Then answer Part B.

Part A

The section “The First Fold” is included in “Folding the Future” to—

• provide background information to introduce a larger concept

• compare origami techniques from the past and present

• provide the reader with basic understanding of another language

• list the materials needed for the reader to try origami

Multiple Choice

Part B

Which detail from the passage supports the answer in Part A?

• “The name origami comes from two Japanese words . . .” (paragraph 2)

• “. . . oldest known origami instructions (for a paper crane) are from Japan, about 200 years ago.” (paragraph 2)

• “No cutting or tearing is allowed . . .” (paragraph 3)

• “. . . are taking the art to a whole new level.” (paragraph 3)

​from “Simple Inventions: Lighting with Less”

by Liz Huyck

Listen to this discussion about types of lighting that have been invented. 

Multiple Choice

In “Simple Inventions: Lighting with Less,” the information about the clear plastic bottle and the glue helps the listener understand—

• a way to make crafts

• the effort required to save energy

• a way to create light

• the importance of light

Multiple Select

In “Simple Inventions: Lighting with Less,” the speaker suggests that light can be produced with little expense. Select two details from the recording that support this claim. 

• Electricity can be stored in a car battery for future use.

• Power stations make light for pennies a day.

• Everyone needs light to read or work during the night.

• A dynamo creates enough electricity to power small appliances.

• Inventors are devising ways to use electricity. 

Multiple Choice

Which idea is developed in both the passage and the recording?

• Designing complex objects can be difficult.

• Light can be captured in different ways. 

• Using inexpensive materials can be complicated. 

• Simple methods can be used in new ways.