Reading passage Grade 6 English Language Arts
Rill Creek Pump Station: A Grade 6 Reading Passage
A grade 6 informational passage explaining how a fictional pump station lifts water to higher ground and how operators keep it running, with questions.
Objectives
- Students will identify why pumps are needed to move water to higher ground.
- Students will infer why a pump station needs operators and backup power.
Vocabulary
- Pump
- A pump is a machine that adds energy to water to move it or push it uphill, doing the job gravity cannot do on its own. Water systems use many different kinds of pumps to move water from wells, through treatment, and out to customers.
- Reservoir
- A human-made lake, usually created by a dam, that stores water for later. Reservoirs supply cities and farms and help control floods.
Also: pressure, intake, backup power
Teacher overview
Pump stations do essential work that is easy to overlook. This passage explains what a pump station does, using the fictional Rill Creek station as its example, and follows the water uphill from a low reservoir to homes on a ridge. It gives students a clear, realistic system to read about and asks them to connect the machines to the people who run them. The questions mix locating stated facts with inferring why the station is built the way it is.
Passage
Water does not always sit above the homes it serves. Sometimes it starts in a low place, like a reservoir in a valley. From there, it must reach homes on higher ground. Gravity pulls water down, not up. So something else has to lift it. That job belongs to a pump station.
The fictional Rill Creek Pump Station sits beside a low reservoir. Water enters the station through a screen called an intake. The screen keeps out fish, leaves, and trash. Inside the station, large pumps do the heavy work. Each pump is spun by a strong electric motor. As the pump spins, it pushes water forward and gives it pressure. That pressure moves the water through pipes and up the hill.
Pressure is the force that pushes water along. Without enough pressure, water in a tall building or on a high street would slow to a trickle. Most homes get water at a pressure between 40 and 80 psi. Operators at Rill Creek watch the pressure closely. They also watch how much water is flowing. If pressure drops too low, a pump may need to run faster, or another pump may need to switch on.
The station never really closes. Operators take turns being on call. During a storm, the power can fail. If the pumps stop, homes on the ridge could lose water within hours. For that reason, the station keeps a backup generator. When the main power fails, the generator starts, and the pumps keep running. Operators test the generator on a schedule so they know it will work when it is needed.
Rill Creek also has a partner nearby: a water tower on the ridge. The pumps fill the tower during the night, when fewer people use water. During the day, the full tower helps hold pressure steady. It also lets the pumps rest instead of running every minute. The tower and the pumps work as a team. The pumps lift the water, and the tower stores it.
A pump station is easy to walk past. It may look like a plain brick building with a low hum inside. Yet without it, a whole neighborhood on high ground would have weak water or none at all. The station depends on its machines and on the operators who keep them running.
Questions
- According to the passage, why must a pump station lift water instead of letting gravity do the work?
- What is the job of a pump inside the Rill Creek station?
- What two things do operators at Rill Creek watch closely?
- Why does the station keep a backup generator? Use the passage.
- How does the water tower help the pumps? Use details from the passage.
- The passage says most homes get water between 40 and 80 psi. Why would low pressure be a problem for a family on a high street?
- Explain why a pump station can be easy to overlook, and give two reasons the passage shows it is important.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: Because the reservoir sits in a low place and gravity pulls water down, not up, so pumps are needed to lift water to homes on higher ground.
- Answer: A pump pushes water forward and gives it pressure, which moves the water through the pipes and up the hill.
- Answer: Operators watch the water pressure and how much water is flowing.
- Answer: Because power can fail during a storm, and if the pumps stop, homes on the ridge could lose water, so the generator keeps the pumps running.
- Answer: The pumps fill the tower at night, and during the day the full tower holds pressure steady and lets the pumps rest instead of running every minute.
- Answer: Answers will vary but should explain that low pressure would make water slow to a trickle, so a family on a high street might get little or no water at the tap.
- Answer: Answers will vary. Students should note it looks like a plain, quiet building, then give two reasons it matters, such as lifting water to high ground and keeping steady pressure so homes on the ridge have water.
Differentiation
Support
Provide a simple left-to-right diagram (reservoir, intake screen, pump, hill, homes) for students to label from the passage before answering items 1 and 2.
Extension
Ask students to explain, using the passage, what might happen on a hot summer afternoon if the water tower were empty and one pump broke down, and to justify their reasoning with two details.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "reservoir," "intake," "pressure," and "generator" with a picture for each, and allow students to answer items 1 through 4 with short phrases or by pointing to the labeled diagram.