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Quiz & test questions Grade 5 English Language Arts

Where Wrenholt's Tap Water Comes From: A Grade 5 Quiz

A 25-point grade 5 quiz on a passage about a fictional town's well field, mixing multiple choice, short answer, exact quotation, and one written explanation.

Objectives

  1. Students will identify stated facts about a town's groundwater supply.
  2. Students will quote the passage accurately to support an explanation.
  3. Students will write an explanatory paragraph using facts and domain vocabulary from the passage.

Vocabulary

Aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of rock, sand, or gravel that holds water in the tiny spaces between its grains. Wells reach down into aquifers to bring water up to the surface.
Recharge
Recharge is water soaking down through the ground to refill an aquifer, the way rain refills an underground sponge. Aquifers stay healthy only if recharge keeps up with pumping.
Monitoring well
A monitoring well is a well drilled specifically to check on groundwater, not to supply drinking water. Scientists use monitoring wells to measure how high the water table is and to test for pollution before it can spread.

Also: well field, hard water

Teacher overview

This quiz covers one passage about the well field of a fictional town and is worth 25 points. It mixes six multiple-choice items worth one point each, four short-answer items worth two points each, one exact-quotation item worth three points, and one written explanation worth eight points. Item 2 targets a common misconception about groundwater, the idea that it sits in an underground lake or river rather than in the spaces between grains of sand and gravel. Allow forty minutes, and read the passage aloud once for the whole class before students begin.

Where Wrenholt's Tap Water Comes From: A Grade 5 Quiz — Grade 5 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Assessment

Passage: the well field at Wrenholt

Wrenholt is a town in this story. Its water does not come from a river or a lake. It comes from four wells drilled on the north edge of town, in a fenced field beside the old fairgrounds. Together those wells are called the well field.

Each well reaches about 120 feet down into a layer of sand and gravel called the Ellenbrook aquifer. An aquifer is not an underground lake. The water sits in the narrow spaces between the grains of sand and gravel, the way water sits in a bucket of marbles. Pumps pull the water out of those spaces and send it to the treatment building.

The aquifer fills again from above. Rain and melting snow soak down through the soil and add to the water in the sand. Workers call that refilling recharge. Recharge is slow. Some of the water a Wrenholt family drinks today soaked into the ground before that family moved to town.

Because rain carries down whatever it passes through, the town controls what happens on the land above the aquifer. Signs at the edge of the fenced field read "Wellhead Protection Area." No fuel tanks or car repair yards are allowed inside that boundary.

A fifth well at the well field is never pumped. It is a monitoring well, and its only job is to hold a measuring tape. Twice a year an operator lowers the tape and writes down how far it drops before it touches water. In dry years, the tape has to go farther down.

Water from the Ellenbrook aquifer is hard, which means it carries minerals it picked up from the sand and gravel. Hard water leaves a white crust in a kettle. The treatment building softens the water and adds a small amount of chlorine before the water goes out to the town's pipes.

Multiple choice. Circle the best answer.

  1. Where does Wrenholt's water come from? (1 point)
    a) a river north of town
    b) four wells in a fenced field
    c) a reservoir behind a dam
    d) a lake beside the fairgrounds
  2. Which best describes where the water in the Ellenbrook aquifer is stored? (1 point)
    a) in an underground lake
    b) in an underground river
    c) in the spaces between grains of sand and gravel
    d) in a buried tank
  3. What does "recharge" mean in this passage? (1 point)
    a) pumping water out of a well
    b) rain and snowmelt soaking down to refill the aquifer
    c) adding chlorine to the water
    d) paying the town water bill
  4. What is the job of the fifth well? (1 point)
    a) to pump extra water in summer
    b) to hold a measuring tape so workers can check the water level
    c) to send water to the fairgrounds
    d) to soften hard water
  5. Why does the town forbid fuel tanks inside the wellhead protection area? (1 point)
    a) fuel tanks take up too much space
    b) rain could carry spilled fuel down into the aquifer
    c) the tanks would block the pumps
    d) the fenced field is used for parking
  6. What does hard water leave in a kettle? (1 point)
    a) a white crust
    b) a rust stain
    c) a layer of sand
    d) nothing at all

Short answer. Answer in one or two complete sentences.

  1. How deep are the wells at the Wrenholt well field? (2 points)
  2. The passage compares the aquifer to a bucket of marbles. Explain what that comparison shows a reader. (2 points)
  3. In a dry year, the measuring tape in the monitoring well has to go farther down. What does that tell you about the water in the aquifer that year? (2 points)
  4. Why would the town want to know the water level twice every year instead of once? (2 points)
  5. Copy the exact sentence from the passage that shows how slowly recharge happens. (3 points)

Written explanation.

  1. A family has just moved to Wrenholt and asks where the water in their kitchen faucet comes from. Write a paragraph of at least four sentences that explains it to them. Use at least three facts from the passage and at least one of these words: aquifer, recharge, well field. (8 points)

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: b) four wells in a fenced field. The first paragraph states the water comes from four wells on the north edge of town, not from a river or lake.
  2. Answer: c) in the spaces between grains of sand and gravel. Choices a and b are the common picture of groundwater that the passage corrects directly.
  3. Answer: b) rain and snowmelt soaking down to refill the aquifer. The passage names that refilling as recharge.
  4. Answer: b) to hold a measuring tape so workers can check the water level. The passage says the fifth well is never pumped.
  5. Answer: b) rain could carry spilled fuel down into the aquifer. The passage says rain carries down whatever it passes through, which is why the town controls the land above the aquifer.
  6. Answer: a) a white crust. The passage names that as a sign of hard water.
  7. Answer: About 120 feet deep. Accept "about 120 feet" or "120 feet into the sand and gravel."
  8. Answer: It shows that water fills the small gaps between solid pieces rather than sitting in one open space. Accept any answer that names the spaces between the grains.
  9. Answer: The water level in the aquifer is lower that year, because less rain and snow soaked down to recharge it. Accept either half of that reasoning for full credit.
  10. Answer: Two readings let the town compare the level across seasons and years, so they can tell whether the level is dropping over time rather than just changing once. Accept any answer that names comparison or tracking a change.
  11. Answer: "Some of the water a Wrenholt family drinks today soaked into the ground before that family moved to town." Award full credit only for an exact copy; award two points for a close paraphrase.
  12. Answer: Accept any paragraph of four or more sentences that uses at least one of the three words correctly and includes three facts from the passage, such as the four wells in the fenced field, the depth of about 120 feet, the sand and gravel of the Ellenbrook aquifer, recharge from rain and snow, the protection area rules, the monitoring well, or the softening and chlorine step. A sample response: "Your water comes from four wells in a fenced field on the north edge of Wrenholt. The wells reach about 120 feet down into a layer of sand and gravel called the Ellenbrook aquifer. Rain and melting snow soak down through the soil and refill it, which workers call recharge. Before the water reaches your faucet, the treatment building softens it and adds a little chlorine." Award up to two points for facts, two for correct word use, two for order and linking words, and two for complete, correctly punctuated sentences.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the passage with the answer to each multiple-choice item marked by paragraph number in the margin, and reduce item 12 to three sentences with a provided opening sentence. Allow them to answer items 7 through 10 orally to an adult who records the response.

Extension

Ask these students to add a fifth sentence to item 12 explaining why the town does not simply drill a deeper well when the tape drops farther in a dry year, and to mark that sentence as reasoning beyond the passage.

ELL supports

Preview "well," "aquifer," "recharge," and "hard water" with a labeled cross-section drawing before the quiz and leave the drawing posted. Allow a bilingual glossary for the listed vocabulary words and extra time on item 12. Accept a labeled diagram with three sentences for item 12 if writing volume is the barrier rather than comprehension.