Magnificent Minerals

1. What are minerals?

• a. chemicals used in toothpaste

• b. solid substances found in earth

• c. dye for fabric and paint

• d. hard tools such as drills and saws

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS3-1

2. What does the author list in this text?

• a. types of electronics

• b. types of chemicals

• c. types of jewelry

• d. types of minerals

3. Halite is a soft mineral, fluorite is a medium-hard mineral, and quartz is a hard mineral. Based on this evidence, what conclusion can be drawn about minerals?

• a. all minerals can be used to make jewelry.

• b. different minerals can have different characteristics

• c. different minerals are different shades of green

• d. all minerals smell unpleasant when mixed with water

4. Azurite is used to make dye for fabric and paint. What characteristic of azurite might make it a good mineral for making dye?

• a. its color

• b. its shape

• c. its hardness

• d. its texture

5. What is this passage mostly about?

• a. which fabrics and paints are dyed with azurite

• b. why sulfur smells unpleasant when it is mixed with water

• c. what minerals are and the different characteristics of different minerals

• d. how diamonds are used to make hard tools such as drills and saws

6. Read these sentences from the text.

"Different minerals have different characteristics. Scientists classify minerals based on their shape, color, and hardness."

Why might the author have mentioned shape, color and hardness?

• a. to give some examples of the different characteristics of minerals

• b. to persuade readers to classify minerals in the same way that scientist do

• c. to compare the characteristics of minerals to the characteristics of scientists

• d. to show the order in which scientists classify minerals

7. Read the sentence from the text.

"Scientists classify minerals based on their shape, color and hardness."

Who or what does the pronoun "their" refer to in this sentence?

• a. scientists

• b. minerals

• c. shapes

• d. colors

8. What is the hardest mineral?

9. Diamond can be used in jewelry.

What are two other things that diamond can be used for?

Support your answer with evidence from the text.

10. The way a mineral is used has to do with its characteristics.

What evidence from the text supports this statement?