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Worksheet Grade 10 English Language Arts

Two Statements on the Peat Hollow Taste-and-Odor Event

A grade 10 worksheet comparing a utility statement and a lake association statement about an earthy taste in tap water, with twelve items on hedging and word choice.

Objectives

  1. Students will identify hedging language and explain how it changes a reader's sense of certainty.
  2. Students will rewrite a passive sentence in the active voice and name the actor it had hidden.
  3. Students will support a claim about two texts with quoted evidence and explanation.

Vocabulary

Key words: hedging, passive voice, connotation, denotation, algae bloom, claim

Teacher overview

An earthy taste in tap water is usually harmless, yet it worries the households that notice it, which makes it a useful subject for studying how organizations write under pressure. This worksheet pairs a fictional utility statement with a fictional lake association statement about the same August taste event. Students look at hedging, passive constructions, and loaded verbs, then take a position on which statement serves a household better. The point is not that plain language is always honest; the lake association writes plainly and still overstates what it knows.

Two Statements on the Peat Hollow Taste-and-Odor Event — Grade 10 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

The reservoir, the district, the association, and both statements below are fictional. Read them, then answer questions 1 through 12.

Statement 1: Peat Hollow Water Works, customer notice, August 14

Some customers may notice a change in the taste and smell of their tap water this week. The change has been described as earthy or musty. Testing indicates that the water continues to meet all state and federal drinking water standards. The taste is believed to be caused by a seasonal algae bloom in Peat Hollow Reservoir, which can release compounds that people detect at very low levels. These compounds are not known to be harmful. Adjustments to the treatment process have been made, and the situation is being monitored closely. Customers with questions are encouraged to contact the district office during business hours.

Statement 2: Peat Hollow Lake Association, newsletter item, August 15

For the ninth August in a row, our tap water tastes like pond scum. The reason is not a mystery. Fertilizer from the fields above the reservoir gets dumped into the water every spring, the algae feed on it all summer, and by August the whole lake turns green. The district knows this. It has known it for years. Yet the district refuses to deal with the source and keeps adding chemicals at the plant instead. Members should call the board and demand a real plan before next spring. Bottled water is not a plan.

Questions

  1. In one sentence, name the event that both statements describe.
  2. Quote the sentence from Statement 1 that tells readers whether the water is safe to drink.
  3. Quote one sentence from Statement 1 that is written in the passive voice.
  4. Rewrite the sentence you quoted in question 3 in the active voice. Name who acts.
  5. Statement 1 opens with "Some customers may notice." What does that phrase suggest about how many households are affected?
  6. Statement 2 says fertilizer "gets dumped" into the water. Write a neutral word or phrase that describes the same event.
  7. Explain in one or two sentences what your neutral wording from question 6 leaves out that "dumped" carries.
  8. One statement presents a cause as certain. Name that statement and quote the words that make the cause sound settled.
  9. Statement 1 says the taste "is believed to be" caused by an algae bloom. Explain what that phrase does that "is caused by" would not do.
  10. Statement 2 says the district "refuses" to deal with the source. What evidence does the statement offer for the word "refuses"?
  11. Which statement tells a reader what to do about the taste in their own kitchen? Quote the sentence, or write "neither."
  12. Write a paragraph of five to eight sentences making a claim about which statement better informs a Peat Hollow household. Quote at least two pieces of evidence from the statements and explain how each supports your claim.

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: An earthy or musty taste and smell in the tap water served from Peat Hollow Reservoir in mid-August. Accept any sentence naming the taste event and the reservoir.
  2. Answer: "Testing indicates that the water continues to meet all state and federal drinking water standards." Students may also cite "These compounds are not known to be harmful," which is a weaker version of the same assurance.
  3. Answer: Accept any of these: "The change has been described as earthy or musty," "The taste is believed to be caused by a seasonal algae bloom," "These compounds are not known to be harmful," "Adjustments to the treatment process have been made," "the situation is being monitored closely," or "Customers with questions are encouraged to contact the district office during business hours."
  4. Answer: An active rewrite naming the district as the actor, such as "The district adjusted the treatment process" or "District staff are monitoring the situation closely." Credit any rewrite that supplies an actor and keeps the original meaning.
  5. Answer: It suggests the problem is limited and possibly rare, since "some" is vague and "may" makes the taste sound uncertain rather than widespread. Statement 2 indicates it is a whole-system, annual event, so the hedge understates it.
  6. Answer: Accept "runs off," "washes into," "enters the water," or "drains into." Any wording that reports the movement without assigning intent is correct.
  7. Answer: The neutral wording drops the sense of a deliberate, careless act by a person.
    "Dumped" implies that someone chose to put the fertilizer in the lake, while runoff describes something that happens after fertilizer is applied to a field for a different purpose.
  8. Answer: Statement 2. The words "The reason is not a mystery" and "Fertilizer from the fields above the reservoir gets dumped into the water every spring" present the cause as established fact, with no source or measurement given.
  9. Answer: It marks the cause as an interpretation rather than a finding, which protects the district if a later test points somewhere else. It also leaves the reader without knowing who believes it or how strongly, so the sentence is honest about uncertainty and vague about its source at the same time.
  10. Answer: None. The statement asserts that the district has known for years and keeps treating at the plant, but it offers no record, vote, letter, or study showing that the district was asked to address the source and declined. Students who answer "it says the district keeps adding chemicals" should be pushed to see that treating at the plant is not by itself a refusal.
  11. Answer: Neither. Statement 1 invites questions during business hours and Statement 2 tells members to call the board, but neither tells a household what to do about the taste at the tap, such as chilling water or using a carbon filter pitcher.
  12. Answer: Accept either claim when the paragraph opens with a position, quotes two pieces of evidence, and explains each. A proficient argument for Statement 1 might quote the standards sentence and the hedge "is believed to be" and argue that a household most needs a safety answer and an honest signal of uncertainty. A proficient argument for Statement 2 might quote "For the ninth August in a row" and "keeps adding chemicals at the plant instead" and argue that a household needs to know the problem recurs annually, which Statement 1 hides. Do not credit paragraphs that only summarize both statements or that judge on tone alone.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a copy with the passive sentences in Statement 1 already underlined, so questions 3 and 4 begin with rewriting rather than searching. Provide a two-column chart headed Word and What It Suggests for questions 5 through 7, and a sentence frame for question 12: "Statement ___ better informs a household because ___."

Extension

Ask these students to write a third statement of about 150 words from the county extension office, which knows the algae are fed by nutrients but has no authority over either the farms or the treatment plant. The statement must avoid both the hedging of the first text and the blame of the second while still being useful.

ELL supports

Pre-teach bloom, musty, runoff, hedge, and passive voice with paired example sentences showing an active version beside a passive one. Provide a bilingual glossary and allow questions 5, 7, and 9 to be answered in a short list of phrases before being written as full sentences.

Extensions

Have students read the annual water quality report their own utility publishes and mark every hedge they find, then write a paragraph on whether each hedge protects the reader or the writer. Reports of this kind are prepared by staff who came through chemistry degrees, operator certification, and communications programs alike.