Paired passage

Max’s Find

1 Max tossed another shovelful of dirt over his shoulder and wiped

the sweat from his brow. It felt like he had been digging for hours,

but he still had a long way to go. Yesterday Grandpa had called Max’s

family to say he had bought a young apple tree that he wanted to

plant in his yard. Max’s father had volunteered Max to dig the deep,

wide hole.

2 “There are plenty of trees in Grandpa’s yard already,” Max

thought bleakly. “Why does he need another one?”

3 As Max sank the shovel deep into the earth, he heard it clink

against something. “Another rock,” he thought. A bit more digging,

however, revealed that the object was a large metal coffee can.

4 Max pried the can out of the

soil with difficulty. He felt a

shiver of excitement. “Why is

there a coffee can in Grandpa’s

yard?” Max pulled off the plastic

lid. A slip of paper sat at the top

of the can. Max unfolded it and

read, “This is the time capsule of

Leroy Scuro, age 10.”

5 Leroy Scuro was Max’s

father. Still somewhat mystified,

Max hurried into the house with

the can. “Hey, look what I

found!”

6 His father and grandfather examined the can. “My goodness!”

Dad exclaimed. “You found my time capsule. I had forgotten all about

it.” Seeing Max’s blank look, he explained, “I wanted someone in the

future to find the things I buried. Let’s see how everything looks

now.”

7 The first things Max pulled out of the can were some coins and

bills. Most he recognized, but one quarter-size coin had a woman’s

face on it.

8 “That’s a Susan B. Anthony dollar,” his father explained. “They

stopped making them many years ago.”

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9 Next Max pulled out a key chain with a colorful, puzzle-like cube

attached.

10 “A Rubik’s Cube. It was a popular toy in the 1980s,” Dad said.

The can also contained some shells, a small toy rocket, a cassette

tape labeled “Great Songs of the 1980s,” and several photos.

11 “Wow!” Dad said as he picked up one of the old photographs.

“Look at that crazy hairstyle.”

12 “I never knew you looked like that, Dad. It’s really awesome to

see pictures of you and some of the things you enjoyed when you

were my age,” Max said. “I wonder if people in the future will think

I’m as interesting.”

13 “Well, there’s an empty coffee can in my kitchen,” Grandpa said.

Evaluate responses using AI:

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What effect does Max working in Grandpa’s yard have on the plot of the story?

• It makes Dad proud of Max.

• It causes Max to become tired and grumpy.

• It leads Max to a surprise discovery.

• It proves to Grandpa that Max is a good helper.

When Max shows his father the time capsule he dug up, Max’s father most likely feels —

• amazed that Max found it when he could not

• pleased to see things that were once meaningful to him

• upset that Max is no longer helping Grandpa plant a tree

• concerned about what Max will think when he sees what is in the can

Which point of view does the author use in this story?

• First-person from Max’s perspective

• First-person from Dad’s perspective

• Third-person from the perspective of Max’s grandfather

• Third-person from the perspective of an unknown observer

In paragraph 1, the author uses the phrases “wiped the sweat from his brow” and “felt like he had been digging for hours” to suggest that Max —

• expects to discover a special surprise

• is struggling with a difficult job

• dislikes spending time outdoors

• is determined to help plant trees

Messages in Bottles 1 Imagine you are walking along the beach. Suddenly you see something shiny in the sand. Your inquiring mind makes you move in for a closer look. It is a glass bottle, and inside is a rolled-up piece of paper. This message in a bottle may have traveled halfway around the world before landing on this beach. What would you do if you found a message in a bottle? Strange as it may seem, people really do write notes, put them in bottles, and hurl the bottles into the ocean. They do so for different reasons. Most often it is simply for fun. All the world’s oceans are connected, and tides can carry the bottles in many different directions. There is no telling where a bottle may end up or how far it may drift. For example, an elementary school student near Seattle, Washington, released a bottle that traveled more than 1,700 miles before being found in Alaska 21 years later. Similarly, a man tossed a bottle into the ocean near his New Hampshire motel. His note told the finder to return the bottle to his wife Tina for a reward. More than 50 years later, the bottle was found washed up on a Caribbean island nearly 2,000 miles away. Reading Page 18 A boy throws a message in a bottle into the vast sea. In 2007, students at a school in Hawaii participated in a science experiment called Message in a Bottle. As part of the experiment, about 25 bottles were released into the ocean to drift. Each bottle contained a message from a student, and the top was sealed with wax. Six months later a 13-year-old girl in Papua New Guinea found one. She and the sender became pen pals. Over time people found other bottles the students had released. 4 Occasionally someone tries to use a message in a bottle to contact a particular person. In 1914 a British soldier fighting in World War I wrote a letter to his wife. Eighty-five years after the soldier tossed his bottle into the sea, a fisherman found it in his fishing net. The fisherman delivered the letter to the soldier’s daughter, who was an adult by then. She was thrilled to receive the letter and learn more about her father. 5 Tossing a bottle in the ocean is not a very reliable way to deliver a message. However, when a message is found, it is certainly a memorable event.

Evaluate responses using AI:

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In paragraph 3, the suffix –er in the word sender helps the reader understand that the word refers to —

• a person who sends

• an object that is sent

• the sending of something again

• the method used to send things

What happened as a result of someone finding a bottle that had been released by students in Hawaii in 2007?

• The bottle experiment quickly spread to other schools.

• People around the world were encouraged to find pen pals.

• Students tried to send messages in bottles to their classmates.

• Two people living in different parts of the world became friends.

The author wrote this selection most likely to —

• persuade the reader to try sending a message in a bottle

• tell the reader how to start a floating bottle experiment at school

• describe some examples of messages sent in bottles and tell what happened to them

• explain some of the challenges of trying to communicate with people who live across the ocean

Paragraphs 2 and 3 are mainly about —

• rewards people have received for returning bottles that were found

• what keeps bottles with messages in them from sinking in the ocean

• bottles that have drifted in the sea and then been found

• what people write on the notes that are placed inside bottles