Worth More than Gold

Which sentence from the passage best supports the idea that growing monocultures can

be risky?

• “American farmers grow wheat, soybeans, corn, and other foodstuffs, and it’s an

  impressive sight.”

• “If one cornstalk in the field can be killed easily by an attacker, so can all the rest.”

• “Every cornstalk in the cornfield is exactly like its neighbors, with the same DNA.”

• “One problem was that we didn’t have the science to know what had gone wrong;

  people didn’t know about DNA.”

• “The cell can read DNA like a cookbook, finding recipes that tell how to make other

  molecules that it needs.”

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.2

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RL.5.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

What is one main idea of “Worth More Than Gold”?

• Gene banks protect the world’s food supply.

• People have studied DNA for hundreds of years.

• Monocultures are often destroyed by pests.

• The Irish potato famine began in 1845.

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CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RL.5.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

Which sentence from the article best supports the answer to part A?

• “That means it has the same instructions for building itself.”

• “Because all the potatoes in Ireland at the time were so similar, most of the potato

  crop died.”

• “If you want molecules that will fight potato fungus, you need the genes for making

  those molecules.”

• “If crops are in trouble, what’s in those vaults is worth more than gold.”

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CCSS.RI.5.2

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RL.5.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

Which of the following would not belong in a summary of the passage?

• The Irish potato famine in the 1800s was made worse because people at the time did not

  know about DNA.

• To get molecules that will fight a potato fungus, you need to have the right materials.

• One solution to possible problems caused by monocultures lies in the field of genetics,

  in plant DNA.

• To protect the world’s crops, a gene bank in Svalbard, Norway, has backup copies of more

  than half a million seeds.

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.9

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RL.5.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

What is the main purpose of paragraph 5?

• It introduces the topic of worldwide famine.

• It provides a definition of the key term “fungus.”

• It shows how genes can solve the problem of crop disease.

• It poses and answers logical questions about DNA and genes.

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.2

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RL.5.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2