7th Grade Text Structure Extra Practice

Read the text.

Of the 1.3 billion residents of China, approximately 850 million speak Mandarin Chinese as their first language. For more than 60 million others, Cantonese Chinese is their first language. Although both languages are sometimes called "Chinese," the two sound so different that a Mandarin speaker and a Cantonese speaker cannot understand one another. Mandarin, spoken in Beijing and much of northern China, is the official language of mainland China. Cantonese, however, is more common in southern China and Hong Kong. Both languages are tonal, meaning that when pronouncing words, the voice must rise or fall in certain ways. However, Mandarin has four tones, while Cantonese has nine different ones.

Which organizational structure does this text primarily use?

• sequential

• problem-solution

• compare and contrast

• cause and effect

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CCSS.RI.7.5

Read the text.

A special type of vote called a "popular referendum" gives voters the opportunity to cancel a law passed by their legislature. It's available to voters in twenty-four states. After the state legislature approves a law, voters can circulate a referendum petition. They must collect a specified number of voters' signatures within a certain number of days—generally ninety—and deliver them to a designated state official, usually the secretary of state. The official then must review and verify that the petition contains a sufficient number of valid signatures of registered voters. Once the signatures are certified, the referendum is placed on the ballot in a statewide election. At that point, the voters decide whether to approve or disapprove the law. If they disapprove it, it never goes into effect.

Which structure does this text primarily use?

• sequential

• problem-solution

• description

• compare and contrast

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.5

"from The Discovery of DNA's Structure"

They were hardly modest, these two brash young scientists who in 1953 declared...that they had "found the secret of life." But james Watson and Francis Crick's claim was a valid one, for they had in fact discovered the structure of DNA, the chemical that encodes instructions for building and replicating almost all living things.

Watson and Crick's discovery didn't come out of the blue. As early as 1943 Oswald Avery proved what had been suspected: that DNA... carries genetic information. but no one knew how it worked.

[Then, in 1951 at] King's College in London, Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins were studying DNA. Wilkins and Franklin used X-ray diffraction as their main tool--beaming X-rays through the molecule yielded a shadow picture of the molecule's structure.

What is this mainly about?

• the ideas of many scientists came together, leading to the discovery of DNA's structure

• Oswald Avery was the first person to discover the structure of DNA

• Watson and Crick's discovery was the first of its kind of the structure of DNA.

• Watson an Crick discovered the function of the structure of DNA.

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"from The Discovery of DNA's Structure"

They were hardly modest, these two brash young scientists who in 1953 declared...that they had "found the secret of life." But james Watson and Francis Crick's claim was a valid one, for they had in fact discovered the structure of DNA, the chemical that encodes instructions for building and replicating almost all living things.

Watson and Crick's discovery didn't come out of the blue. As early as 1943 Oswald Avery proved what had been suspected: that DNA... carries genetic information. but no one knew how it worked.

[Then, in 1951 at] King's College in London, Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins were studying DNA. Wilkins and Franklin used X-ray diffraction as their main tool--beaming X-rays through the molecule yielded a shadow picture of the molecule's structure.

What structure did the author use in the text?

• compare and contrast

• cause and effect

• description

• sequential

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.5

"from The Discovery of DNA's Structure"

They were hardly modest, these two brash young scientists who in 1953 declared...that they had "found the secret of life." But james Watson and Francis Crick's claim was a valid one, for they had in fact discovered the structure of DNA, the chemical that encodes instructions for building and replicating almost all living things.

Watson and Crick's discovery didn't come out of the blue. As early as 1943 Oswald Avery proved what had been suspected: that DNA... carries genetic information. but no one knew how it worked.

[Then, in 1951 at] King's College in London, Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins were studying DNA. Wilkins and Franklin used X-ray diffraction as their main tool--beaming X-rays through the molecule yielded a shadow picture of the molecule's structure.

How does the author use a sequential structure to develop ideas?

• to show the problems and solutions of not discovering the structure of DNA and how Watson and Crick solved it.

• to tell what events led to the discovery of DNA's structure

• to explain the function and the structure of DNA

• to describe how the scientists uncovered the structure of DNA by using certain microscopes at King's College

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.5

Read the text.

Traveling from state to state, especially if you're in a car, you may notice that the price of gasoline varies widely. Many factors combine to determine the price that a gas station charges. Gasoline is refined from crude oil, so if the price of crude oil increases, then gasoline prices also rise. The price of gas also depends upon the tax that the individual state charges. The higher the taxes that are imposed on gasoline, the higher the total cost of gas becomes. In addition, during the summer, more people want to drive, so the demand for gas is higher. Higher demand pushes prices higher. In winter, when fewer people drive, lower demand sends prices lower.

Which structure does this text primarily use?

• cause-effect

• problem-solution

• compare-contrast

• description

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.5

"from The Discovery of DNA's Structure" (continued)

Referring to Franklin's X-ray image known as "Exposure 51," james Watson is reported to have said, "The instant I saw the picture, my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race." Shortly after, Watson and Crick made a crucial advance when they proposed that the DNA molecule was made up of two chains paired in such a way to form a double helix, like a spiral staircase.

For their work, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in 1962. Despite her contribution to the discovery of DNA's helical structure, Rosalind Franklin was not named a prize winner: She had died of cancer four years earlier, at the age of 37.

How does the information in these paragraphs contribute t othe central idea of the article?

• It emphasizes why Franklin and WIlkins believed that the X-ray image would inspire other scientists.

• It explains th emakeup of the DNA image known as "Exposure 51".

• It proves the accuracy of the author's claim that the young scientists were quite brash.

• It shows how the scientists depended on each other's work to make their final discovery.

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"from The Discovery of DNA's Structure" (continued)

Referring to Franklin's X-ray image known as "Exposure 51," James Watson is reported to have said, "The instant I saw the picture, my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race." Shortly after, Watson and Crick made a crucial advance when they proposed that the DNA molecule was made up of two chains paired in such a way to form a double helix, like a spiral staircase.

For their work, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in 1962. Despite her contribution to the discovery of DNA's helical structure, Rosalind Franklin was not named a prize winner: She had died of cancer four years earlier, at the age of 37.

What is the role of the following sentence?

"Shortly after, Watson and Crick made a crucial advance when they proposed that the DNA molecule was made up of two chains paired in such a way to form a double helix, like a spiral staircase."

• to show how the scientists made a breakthrough in DNA structure discovery

• to describe how Watson, Crick, and Wilkins worked together to solve the DNA structure problem

• to explain how the X-ray image, "Exposure 51" was discovered by Watson and Crick.

• to illustrate how each scientist's ideas were individually built upon each others.

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Scotland finally unveils the fossil of a monster sea creature

By Washington Post, adapted by Newsela staff, 2016

1 Fifty years after it was first discovered, an ancient Scottish creature is finally getting its time in the spotlight. It is called an ichthyosaur, but its more common name is the Storr Lochs Monster.

2 The ichthyosaur, a dolphin-like creature, ruled the seas some 170 million years ago. Its fossil, or preserved remains, had been sitting on a shelf in the National Museums Scotland for a half century.

3 The museum has finally unveiled the creature to the public.

4 "A lot of specimens are in museums for a long time before they're studied," said Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland.

Now It's Study Time

5 Sometimes fossils really are forgotten on some neglected shelf. They are tucked away in an unmarked box, stored under a sink, or even mislabeled as another species.

6 But that's not what happened to the Storr Lochs Monster. Researchers just did not have the ability to study her until now.

7 Scientists have known about the creature since her discovery in 1966 on the Isle of Skye. Her bones have been lovingly preserved and cared for.

8 Back then, the fossil was clearly remarkable. Her vertebrae stuck out from the shore like a line of dominoes. It was the most complete marine reptile skeleton of her age ever found in Scotland.

Skeleton Preserved In Rock

9 However, the fossil was too tightly enclosed in stone. The scientists could not safely free her. Instead, she was brought to the museum, fully preserved in the rock.

10 At that time, Scotland did not have a strong community of scientists studying fossils like the Storr Lochs Monster. "I don't think there were any here at the time, actually," Brusatte said.

11 Brusatte moved to Scotland to help strengthen the science community. He said he felt there was not enough research happening in Scotland.

12 It took half a century for the pieces of the puzzle to fit together. Scientists had developed new techniques, or methods, for getting fossils out of rock. There were also many more new researchers who were interested in creatures like the Storr Lochs Monster.

Could It Be A New Species?

13 Brusatte and his team have not studied the ichthyosaur in detail yet. They don't know for sure if it is a new, previously unknown species.

14 Brusatte believes that the sea monster was pretty similar to marine reptiles that have been found elsewhere. The creature would have looked a lot like a dolphin at about the size of a small boat. It had a mouth full of cone-shaped teeth used to chow down on fish. It sat at the top of the underwater food chain.

15 Brusatte still suspects he will be adding a brand-new species to the books.

16 "There's a good chance it's a new species just because it's from a part of the world and a place in time where very few fossils are known," he explained. Very few fossils have been hunted down and studied in Scotland, and in the rest of the world fossils from the Middle Jurassic Period, when this creature lived, are very rare."

17 The Middle Jurassic Period is a period of time where many dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

The Big Ones Emerge

18 "We know that quite a lot was happening then," Brusatte said. "On land, the tyrannosaurs were getting their start, and it's probably when the first birds were flying around, and in the ocean you had this big turnover event when smaller marine animals were replaced by bigger ones."

19 It's frustrating, Brusatte said, because though it seems like an active period where you would find many animal fossils, scientists have found very few.

20 His hope is that an increase in interest in Scottish paleontology could mean that more new species and fossils might be found.

21 "So few people have ever looked for fossils here," he said. "Scotland isn't what you think of when you think of fossils. But there are a lot out there waiting to be found."

What is the section, "Could It Be a New Species?" about?

• To explain how the ichthyosaur lived, such as its habitat, eating habits, and when it lived.

• To question if the ichthyosaur could be a new species and discuss factors that go into the question.

• To discuss the idea that the ichthyosaur is a new species and what it looked like in the Middle Jurassic Period.

• To estimate when it lived and the area in which it was found because during the Middle Jurassic Period, not many fossils were found.

Tags

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Scotland finally unveils the fossil of a monster sea creature

By Washington Post, adapted by Newsela staff, 2016

1 Fifty years after it was first discovered, an ancient Scottish creature is finally getting its time in the spotlight. It is called an ichthyosaur, but its more common name is the Storr Lochs Monster.

2 The ichthyosaur, a dolphin-like creature, ruled the seas some 170 million years ago. Its fossil, or preserved remains, had been sitting on a shelf in the National Museums Scotland for a half century.

3 The museum has finally unveiled the creature to the public.

4 "A lot of specimens are in museums for a long time before they're studied," said Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland.

Now It's Study Time

5 Sometimes fossils really are forgotten on some neglected shelf. They are tucked away in an unmarked box, stored under a sink, or even mislabeled as another species.

6 But that's not what happened to the Storr Lochs Monster. Researchers just did not have the ability to study her until now.

7 Scientists have known about the creature since her discovery in 1966 on the Isle of Skye. Her bones have been lovingly preserved and cared for.

8 Back then, the fossil was clearly remarkable. Her vertebrae stuck out from the shore like a line of dominoes. It was the most complete marine reptile skeleton of her age ever found in Scotland.

Skeleton Preserved In Rock

9 However, the fossil was too tightly enclosed in stone. The scientists could not safely free her. Instead, she was brought to the museum, fully preserved in the rock.

10 At that time, Scotland did not have a strong community of scientists studying fossils like the Storr Lochs Monster. "I don't think there were any here at the time, actually," Brusatte said.

11 Brusatte moved to Scotland to help strengthen the science community. He said he felt there was not enough research happening in Scotland.

12 It took half a century for the pieces of the puzzle to fit together. Scientists had developed new techniques, or methods, for getting fossils out of rock. There were also many more new researchers who were interested in creatures like the Storr Lochs Monster.

Could It Be A New Species?

13 Brusatte and his team have not studied the ichthyosaur in detail yet. They don't know for sure if it is a new, previously unknown species.

14 Brusatte believes that the sea monster was pretty similar to marine reptiles that have been found elsewhere. The creature would have looked a lot like a dolphin at about the size of a small boat. It had a mouth full of cone-shaped teeth used to chow down on fish. It sat at the top of the underwater food chain.

15 Brusatte still suspects he will be adding a brand-new species to the books.

16 "There's a good chance it's a new species just because it's from a part of the world and a place in time where very few fossils are known," he explained. Very few fossils have been hunted down and studied in Scotland, and in the rest of the world fossils from the Middle Jurassic Period, when this creature lived, are very rare."

17 The Middle Jurassic Period is a period of time where many dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

The Big Ones Emerge

18 "We know that quite a lot was happening then," Brusatte said. "On land, the tyrannosaurs were getting their start, and it's probably when the first birds were flying around, and in the ocean you had this big turnover event when smaller marine animals were replaced by bigger ones."

19 It's frustrating, Brusatte said, because though it seems like an active period where you would find many animal fossils, scientists have found very few.

20 His hope is that an increase in interest in Scottish paleontology could mean that more new species and fossils might be found.

21 "So few people have ever looked for fossils here," he said. "Scotland isn't what you think of when you think of fossils. But there are a lot out there waiting to be found."

What are the important ideas in the section, "The Big Ones Emerge"?

• It shows that scientists are flocking to Scotland to investigate dinosaur fossils.

• It suggests there are no new fossils to find since Scotland is not a popular site for paleontology.

• It illustrates how many dinosaurs were roaming around Earth during the Middle Jurassic Period.

• It explains there is a desire to find new fossils with an emerging interest in paleontology in Scotland.

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