Excerpt from Snowflake Bentley - 2019 NYS ELA

Read this sentence from paragraph 1 of the article.

"In the days when farmers worked with ox and sled and cut the dark with lantern light, there lived a boy who loved snow more than anything in the world."

How does the author’s word choice in the sentence affect the meaning of the passage?

• by suggesting that the ideas in the passage are made up

• by showing that the subject of the passage became famous

• by suggesting that the topic of the passage is familiar

• by showing that the events in the passage happened long ago

What is the meaning of the word “pelted” as it is used in paragraph 3?

• created

• found

• saved

• threw

Which quotation best supports a main idea of the article?

• “He expected to find whole flakes that were the same . . .” (paragraph 4)

• “ ‘Fussing with snow is just foolishness,’ his father said.” (paragraph 6)

• “Even so his first pictures were failures . . .” (paragraph 7)

• “ ‘Now everyone can see the great beauty in a tiny crystal,’ he said.” (paragraph 7)

What does the information in paragraph 9 suggest about the author’s point of view?

• The author believes that Bentley could have been more careful.

• The author respects Bentley’s many different interests.

• The author admires Bentley’s dedication.

• The author questions the methods Bentley used.

Which statement is true based on the information in paragraphs 6 and 11?

• Bentley’s work with snow required expensive equipment that he was willing to spend all his money on.

• Bentley was thought to be foolish throughout his life because of his interest in snow

• Bentley’s parents thought he should do something with his life other than taking pictures of snow.

• Bentley became less interested in studying snow than in publishing pictures and giving speeches.

What does the reader learn about Bentley from paragraphs 10 and 11?

• He was more interested in sharing his work than in making money from it.

• He worked hard to develop a way of making photographs of snowflakes.

• He wanted to find out if all snowflakes were different from each other.

• He was able to follow his interests because of the help he got from his family.

Which sentence best describes how the article is organized?

• The reasons for Willie Bentley’s experiments with snow are presented, followed by their eventual conclusions.

• The events of Willie Bentley’s life and his study of snow are described as they happened over time.

• The different problems of photographing snow are explained and then Willie Bentley’s solutions are described.

• The important ideas about snow in Willie Bentley’s discoveries are presented, followed by details and examples.