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Quiz & test questions Grade 10 English Language Arts

The Haldene River Baseflow Explainer: A Structure Quiz

A grade 10 quiz on controlling idea, organizational pattern, objective summary, and precision, using a short fictional explainer about summer river flow.

Objectives

  1. Students will state the controlling idea of an explanatory passage in one sentence.
  2. Students will choose the most accurate objective summary and explain why two others fail.
  3. Students will revise an imprecise sentence using details supplied by the passage.
  4. Students will write an explanatory paragraph for a stated younger audience.

Vocabulary

Baseflow
Baseflow is the water that keeps a stream flowing even when it has not rained for a while. It comes from groundwater slowly seeping into the streambed.
Saturated zone
The saturated zone is the underground layer where every space between soil grains and rocks is completely filled with water. Groundwater lives in the saturated zone.

Also: controlling idea, objective summary, precision, organizational pattern

Teacher overview

This 40-minute quiz is worth 33 points and tests how well students read an explanatory text for its structure rather than its topic. It mixes two multiple-choice items, nine short-answer items, and one extended paragraph written for a younger audience. Two misconceptions are worth naming before students begin. In reading, students treat the most vivid sentence as the main idea and accept any restatement as an objective summary even when a judgment has been slipped into it. In content, students assume a river between storms is running on leftover surface runoff from upstream, and that groundwater sits in underground lakes rather than in the spaces between grains of soil and rock.

The Haldene River Baseflow Explainer: A Structure Quiz — Grade 10 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Assessment

The town of Norbridge, the Haldene River, and the passage below are fictional. Read the passage, then answer questions 1 through 12.

Why the Haldene River Still Flows in August

Rain in the Norbridge basin falls mostly between November and April. By August, six weeks can pass without a storm, and the Haldene River still runs past the Norbridge boat landing. The reason is baseflow, which is the part of a river's flow that comes from groundwater seeping into the channel rather than from recent rain running over the surface.

Water that soaks into the soil does not stop moving. It travels downward until it reaches the saturated zone, then moves slowly sideways toward the lowest point in the landscape. In the Norbridge basin that low point is the Haldene channel. The river gets water from underground. The travel is slow, measured in weeks to years rather than hours, so rain that fell in February can still be reaching the river in August.

However, baseflow is not endless. The rate at which groundwater enters the channel depends on how much water is stored in the saturated zone and on how steeply that stored water slopes toward the river. Two dry winters in a row lower both, and the August flow drops even when the summer weather is unchanged. Gauge records at the Norbridge landing show the lowest August flows following the driest winters rather than the hottest summers.

For the town, the practical result is that the August water supply is settled months earlier. Norbridge draws part of its drinking water from the Haldene at the landing intake. A dry winter therefore shows up in the town's summer supply, which is why the water utility watches winter precipitation and groundwater levels instead of waiting for the river to fall.

Questions

  1. (2 points) State the controlling idea of the passage in one sentence.
  2. (2 points) Quote the sentence in which the writer first states that idea.
  3. (2 points) Which pattern best describes how the passage is organized?
    • A) A story told in the order events happened
    • B) A question raised and then explained
    • C) A comparison of two river basins
    • D) A problem followed by a proposed solution
  4. (3 points) Which of these is the most accurate objective summary of the passage?
    • A) Rain in the Norbridge basin falls mostly in winter, and by August the river can go six weeks without a storm.
    • B) The Haldene keeps flowing in August because groundwater that soaked in during winter seeps slowly into the channel, and how much is available depends on the previous winter, which is why the town's summer supply is settled months earlier.
    • C) The Haldene keeps flowing in August because of groundwater, so the town's habit of watching the river instead of the winter is a careless way to manage a water supply.
    • D) Groundwater moves downward through soil until it reaches the saturated zone, then travels sideways for weeks or years.
  5. (3 points) Choice C in item 4 adds a judgment the passage does not make. Quote the words that carry that judgment.
  6. (3 points) Choice A in item 4 is accurate but incomplete. Name what it leaves out.
  7. (2 points) The passage uses "However" once. Explain what contrast that word marks.
  8. (3 points) One sentence in the second paragraph is imprecise: "The river gets water from underground." Rewrite it using two details from the passage so that a reader learns where the water comes from and how it reaches the river.
  9. (2 points) Name the job the last paragraph does in the passage.
  10. (2 points) The first paragraph defines baseflow by setting it against another source of river flow. Name that other source.
  11. (3 points) Explain why placing the definition of baseflow in the first paragraph helps the reader more than placing it at the end would.
  12. (6 points) Write a paragraph of six to eight sentences explaining to a seventh-grade reader why the Haldene still flows in August. Use three details from the passage, define one technical term in your own words, and end with a sentence stating why the answer matters to Norbridge.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: The Haldene River keeps flowing through a dry August because groundwater stored from winter rain seeps slowly into the channel. Accept any sentence that names both the outcome and the groundwater cause.
  2. Answer: "The reason is baseflow, which is the part of a river's flow that comes from groundwater seeping into the channel rather than from recent rain running over the surface."
  3. Answer: B) A question raised and then explained. The title poses the question, the first paragraph names the answer, and the following paragraphs explain the mechanism and its limits.
  4. Answer: B. It states the outcome, the cause, the condition the cause depends on, and the consequence for the town, without adding anything the passage does not say.
  5. Answer: "a careless way to manage a water supply." Students may also note that the judgment is doubly wrong, since the passage says the utility already watches winter rather than the river.
  6. Answer: It leaves out the explanation, which is the whole point of the passage. Choice A reports the seasonal rain pattern and the dry August but never mentions baseflow, groundwater, or why the river keeps running.
  7. Answer: It marks the turn from the picture of a steady underground supply to the limits on that supply. The paragraphs before it explain that groundwater keeps the river running, and the sentence after it says that the amount of groundwater is finite and varies with winter storage.
  8. Answer: Accept any rewrite that names the source and the path, such as: "Groundwater in the saturated zone moves sideways toward the Haldene channel and seeps into the riverbed." Full credit requires two details drawn from the passage, not one.
  9. Answer: It states the consequence for Norbridge and connects the explanation to the reader's stake, naming the landing intake and the reason the utility tracks winter conditions.
  10. Answer: Recent rain running over the surface. Accept "surface runoff" or any wording that names rain flowing over the ground into the river, as opposed to groundwater.
  11. Answer: The word "baseflow" is the answer to the question in the title, so defining it early lets every later paragraph refer to it without restating the idea. A definition placed at the end would leave a reader guessing through the paragraphs on travel time and winter storage, which only make sense once the term is understood.
  12. Answer: Accept any paragraph of six to eight sentences that uses three details from the passage, defines a term such as baseflow or saturated zone in plain words, and closes on the consequence for the town. A proficient response uses the winter rain pattern, the slow sideways travel, and the dependence on winter storage, then ends with the landing intake. Do not credit paragraphs that copy the passage's sentences without simplifying them for a younger reader, and do not credit responses that add causes the passage never states, such as melting snow on the day of the reading.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a copy with the four paragraphs labeled and a one-line prompt beside each, naming what that paragraph does. Provide a two-column chart headed Choice and Why it fails for items 5 and 6, and supply the frame "The river still flows because ___, and this matters to Norbridge because ___" for item 12.

Extension

Ask these students to write the paragraph the passage does not include: an explanation of what would happen to the August flow if the town doubled the amount of water it pumped from wells in the same basin during June and July. The paragraph must stay inside the mechanism the passage describes and must state one thing the passage does not give enough information to settle.

ELL supports

Pre-teach seep, saturated zone, storage, gauge, and intake using a labeled cross-section sketch of soil, water table, and river channel. Provide a bilingual glossary, allow items 5 through 9 to be answered as short phrases before being written as sentences, and give item 12 as a numbered outline with one line reserved for each required detail.

Extensions

Have students find the streamflow record for a gauged river near their school and compare a summer month following a wet winter with the same month following a dry one. Ask them to write one paragraph explaining what the comparison shows and one sentence naming a factor besides winter precipitation that could account for part of the difference.