9th Grade Reading Comprehension Pretest

Willems walked on homeward weaving the splendid web of his future. The road to greatness lay plainly before his eyes, straight and shining, without any obstacle that he could see. He had stepped off the path of honesty, as he understood it, but he would soon regain it, never to leave it any more! It was a very small matter. He would soon put it right again. Meantime his duty was not to be found out, and he trusted in his skill, in his luck, in his well-established reputation that would disarm suspicion if anybody dared to suspect. But nobody would dare!

He was _____ .

The pupfish that live in Death Valley National Park are called Devils Hole pupfish. They are 1-1/2 inches to 2-1/2 inches (4 to 6 centimeters) long and can survive in water up to 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44 degrees Celsius). The females are brown and white colored; the males are blue and purple colored. Pupfish can flip from one small pool to another, and some are able to hibernate in mud during the winter.

Pupfish are _____ .

I was beginning to learn about the farmers and what I found I liked. They had a toughness and a philosophical attitude which was new to me. Misfortunes which would make the city dweller want to bang his head against a wall were shrugged off with "Aye, well, these things happen."

They were _____ people.

He often bought big sheets of white paper for a penny and gave them to the children to draw on, for he liked to see them drawing. The boys drew steam engines and animals, but Anna Mary was not satisfied with that. She thought she could do better. She wanted to do whole scenes. And she wanted to do them in color. Lacking paints, she used grape juice and crushed berries for color. Sometimes she used a stub of red or blue carpenter's chalk or the red dye that her father used to mark sheep—anything she could get her hands on that would make her pictures bright and cheerful.

She was _____

She was whistling always. She whistled like a bird whistling a tune, clear and soft, clear and sweet, trilling, chirping, or dropping notes one by one as a meadow lark drops them from the sky. I was pleased to hear her whistling again.

She was _____ .

From the tower, he could see the highway and the city as far as the mesa beyond. He focused the binoculars on the mesa and watched the radar installation for a time, but nothing unusual appeared to be happening there. He lowered the glasses slightly to watch the new Green Star encampment down at the roadside park. The area of the park had been roped off. Tents were being pitched. Utility crews worked at tapping the gas and power lines. Several men were engaged in hoisting a sign at the entrance to the park, but they held it edgewise to his gaze and he could not read it. Somehow the boiling activity reminded him of a nomad "carnival" coming to town.

He _____ the area.

Rothenburger had every reason to be confident as she glided to the starting line. She was the defending Olympic champion and had broken Bonnie's world record in a pre-Olympic meet at the Calgary rink. Now, when it counted the most, Rothenburger roared off the starting line. She passed the first 100 meters and the announcer called out her time of 10.57 seconds.

She was

Boston was a bustling, crowded, flourishing town. A great port, its wealth was in its ships. From the West Indies, the ships brought molasses and sugar, raisins, limes, and oranges. From England, they brought paper and glass, thread, fish-hooks, metal tools, and tea, coffee, silk, and spice that English ships had brought to London from the Far East.

Boston was _____ .

Farmers made up 80 percent of Japan's nineteenth-century population of thirty million. Each farmer's rank was determined by the amount of rice he grew. A harvest of 500 bushels, for example, entitled him to have a large home provided it had no parlor and the roof was not tile. A 100-bushel harvest meant a tiny hut with no floor mats.

A farmer's rank depended on his _____ .

The tin Yuki liked most to deliver was the one for Mrs. Jamieson. Her house was warm and cozy and full of wonderful scents of dried rose petals and spices. She usually made a cup of hot cocoa for Yuki whenever she came to visit and then got out something from her bulging closet to show her. Sometimes it was her husband's stamp or shell collection. He had been the captain of a freighter and had collected stamps and shells from all over the world. Sometimes Mrs. Jamieson brought out her jewelry box full of precious stones and rings and bracelets and brooches that the captain had bought for her in Algiers or Istanbul or Lisbon. Yuki loved the jewelry box best.

Mrs. Jamieson was _____ .

The sight and sound of huge bubbles rising in glass columns set the underwater mood in the lobby of the National Aquarium. In central space, daylight fades, giving the feeling of a descent into the ocean depths. The lighted exhibits glow in the darkness. The recorded sounds of ocean waves, seagulls, and distant foghorns can be heard as beluga whales swim in the open pool.

The aquarium provides a _____ atmosphere.

You'll often see a warning sign on the bottle cap that states "Safety Button—Button pops up when original seal is broken." Manufacturers of these bottles seal the top onto the jar or bottle for one of two reasons. In some cases it is done so that air won't oxidize the contents and/or allow bacteria to grow. This gives the bottle a longer shelf life. The seal is also used to let consumers know that no one has tampered with the contents.

Safety seals are _____ .

Peter was handed over to Mr. Treaser for his initial training in the trade of cooper. The little foreman, so grey of complexion and hair that he seemed perpetually covered with a light hoar frost, operated on the assumption that all boys knew nothing. He regarded himself as the only complete repository of knowledge in the art of woodworking. And he was in no hurry to share this knowledge with his apprentices. Mr. Treaser was _____ .

If you're interested in playing hockey, it may be a long time before you actually join a team. You need time to learn how to skate, practice the basics, get in shape, and figure out what your skills are and what position you want to play. Each position in hockey gives equally to the success of the team. You need to _____ .

Both companies wanted to cover as much territory as possible, because they were being paid by the mile. According to the Pacific Railroad Act these contestants for American dollars were to meet head-on and link rails. The Big Four hoped to sprint ahead so that the eventual meeting place would be as far east as possible. It would mean more territory and more money for them. Officials of the Union Pacific were formidable opponents pushing towards the West Coast, intent upon stretching their track as fast and as far as they could. Both companies were engaged in a race with no set finish line. The companies were _____ .

Matt found work at a restaurant, sleeping there at night. One customer, a sailor, told the young boy tales of life aboard a sailing ship, and Matt wanted to try it, too. He left the security of his restaurant job and walked 40 miles (64 km) to the port at Baltimore, Maryland. The sailor _____ Matt.

It was his all-time favorite book and he read it—studied it—often. The cover had a floppy, draped white glove inside an upside-down top hat filled with cards and dice. There was a coiled rope and a handkerchief and a coin beneath a cup. It was a beautiful cover—the first thing that had attracted Jamie to it at the Littleton bookstore. Van had bought it for him, the first time the three of them—Jamie, Van, and Patty—had spent time together and Van was the nicest he would ever be to Jamie. He _____ the book.

Captain Childs had books on geography, history, mathematics, and literature—especially Dickens and Shakespeare. Matt had gone to school in Washington, D.C., but only through the sixth grade, and this wasn't enough for him. So he studied in the captain's library, with Captain Childs as his teacher. The captain taught Matt about people and places and dates, he taught Matt to respect himself and others, and he taught him to be a man who proved his worth by his work. Matt _____ his education.

It was always a pleasure to me to see Willie Winter at a banquet. During a matter of twenty years I was seldom at a banquet where Willie Winter was not also present, and where he did not read a charming poem written for the occasion. He did it this time, and it was up to standard: dainty, happy, choicely phrased, and as good to listen to as music, and sounding exactly as if it was pouring unprepared out of heart and brain. Willie Winter was a(n) _____ poet.