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Quiz & test questions Grade 7 English Language Arts

Unit Quiz: Why the Ebbsworth River Runs Low in August

A 30-point grade 7 reading quiz on a fictional river's summer low flow, mixing multiple choice, evidence questions, and one explanatory paragraph.

Objectives

  1. Students will cite several details that support a claim about a river's yearly pattern.
  2. Students will explain in writing how groundwater keeps a river flowing between storms.
  3. Students will identify what a passage does not tell a reader who needs to judge a claim.

Vocabulary

Water table
The water table is the underground level below which the ground is completely soaked with water. Dig a hole deeper than the water table and it will start filling with water.
Watershed
A watershed is all the land where rain that falls will drain to the same stream, river, or lake. Everyone lives in a watershed, no matter how far from the water they live.

Also: base flow, stormflow, gauge

Teacher overview

This quiz is worth 30 points and covers one informational passage about a fictional river whose flow drops every summer. Items run from two multiple-choice questions through evidence and inference items to a five-point explanatory paragraph, so one passage carries recall, analysis, and writing. The misconception the passage is built to correct is that a river is fed only by rain, and that a low river in August therefore proves a drought. Seventh graders who hold that idea read the flow table as alarming rather than as ordinary. Allow 45 minutes, or stop after item 11 for a shorter session and assign the paragraph separately.

Unit Quiz: Why the Ebbsworth River Runs Low in August — Grade 7 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Assessment

Read the passage and the table. Then answer items 1 through 12. The Ebbsworth River, the town of Ebbsworth, and the figures below are fictional and were written for this quiz.

Why the Ebbsworth Runs Low in August

Two ways water reaches the river. The Ebbsworth River drains a watershed of about ninety square miles in the Tarrow Hills. Water reaches the river in two ways. The first is stormflow, which is rain that runs across the ground and into the channel within hours of a storm. Stormflow rises fast and falls fast. The second is base flow, which is groundwater seeping into the riverbed and banks from below. Base flow does not depend on today's weather. It depends on the water table, the level below which the soil and rock are saturated. When the water table stands high, the river gains water along its whole length. When the water table falls, the river gains less.

Why the pattern repeats. Between March and May, rain and melting snow soak into the hills, and the water table rises. Both kinds of flow are high. By late June the trees and crops in the watershed have leafed out, and they pull large amounts of water out of the soil and release it to the air. Much of the rain that falls in July never reaches the water table, because plants take it first. The water table drops through the summer, and base flow drops with it. August is usually the lowest month of the year on the Ebbsworth. The gauge below the Milton Road bridge has recorded that pattern in most years since it was installed.

Low water in August is not by itself a sign of drought. It becomes a concern when the low period starts earlier, lasts longer, or falls well below the usual August range. Town wells add one more question. The Ebbsworth well field draws from the same shallow aquifer that feeds the river, so heavy pumping in a dry August can lower the water table near the channel and take some water the river would otherwise have received.

Average monthly flow, Ebbsworth River at Milton Road, cubic feet per second

Month April May June July August September
Average flow 210 165 96 54 31 44
  1. In this passage, base flow means: (2 points)
    • A. rain that runs across the ground into the river during a storm
    • B. groundwater that seeps into the river from below
    • C. water released from a dam upstream
    • D. water the town pumps back into the river
  2. According to the table, which month has the lowest average flow? (1 point)
  3. A reader claims that low water on the Ebbsworth in August is normal. Cite two details from the passage that support this claim. (3 points)
  4. The passage says that trees and crops pull water out of the soil in summer. Explain how that affects the river. (3 points)
  5. September's average flow is higher than August's. Which idea in the passage best explains a rise like that, and why? (2 points)
  6. A resident writes, "The Ebbsworth is drying up because the town uses too much water." Does the passage support that claim? Answer yes, no, or partly, and cite one detail for your answer. (3 points)
  7. Using the passage, explain what the water table is in your own words. (2 points)
  8. Which of these is an example of stormflow rather than base flow? (2 points)
    • A. the river running steadily through a week with no rain
    • B. the river rising within three hours of a thunderstorm
    • C. a spring seeping into the bank in February
    • D. the water table standing high in April
  9. Explain why one day's reading at the gauge would be a poor way to judge whether the river is in trouble. (2 points)
  10. The passage is divided by two headings. State what each section does for the reader. (3 points)
  11. Name one thing the passage does not tell you that you would need in order to decide whether this August was unusual on the Ebbsworth. (2 points)
  12. Write an explanatory paragraph of five or more sentences that tells a reader why the Ebbsworth runs low in August. Use the terms stormflow, water table, and base flow, and connect your sentences with transitions rather than listing. (5 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. The passage defines base flow as groundwater seeping into the riverbed and banks from below, and it separates that from rain running across the ground. Choice A restates stormflow, which is the distractor most students take.
  2. Answer: August. Its average flow of 31 is the lowest figure in the table.
  3. Answer: Any two of these. The passage states that August is usually the lowest month of the year on the Ebbsworth. It states that the gauge has recorded the same pattern in most years since it was installed. It states plainly that low water in August is not by itself a sign of drought. Full credit requires two separate details, since one alone does not establish a pattern.
  4. Answer: Plants take rain out of the soil before it can soak down to the water table, so the water table falls through the summer. Because base flow depends on the water table, the river gains less groundwater and its flow drops. Full credit requires both the soil step and the river step.
  5. Answer: Storms in September add stormflow, and cooler weather means plants take less water, so more rain can reach the water table. Accept either half of that reasoning for full credit if it is tied to a specific idea in the passage.
  6. Answer: Partly. The passage states that heavy pumping from the Ebbsworth well field in a dry August can lower the water table near the channel and take water the river would have received, yet it also states that low August water happens in most years and is not by itself a sign of drought. Accept "no" with the second detail cited, and withhold credit for a bare yes.
  7. Answer: The water table is the level underground below which the soil and rock are full of water. Accept any accurate restatement that avoids copying the passage word for word.
  8. Answer: B. Stormflow arrives within hours of a storm and falls off quickly, while the other three choices describe water arriving steadily from underground.
  9. Answer: A single reading shows one moment and cannot show whether the low period began early, lasted long, or fell below the usual August range, which are the three comparisons the passage names. Accept any answer that names the need for comparison over time.
  10. Answer: The first section defines the two ways water reaches the river, and the second explains why the yearly pattern repeats and when it should worry someone. Full credit requires a purpose for each section rather than a summary of its content.
  11. Answer: Accept any real gap, such as the usual range of August flows in past years, the rainfall this summer, how much the well field pumped this August, or how far the river fell below its normal August level. Withhold credit if the named item appears in the passage.
  12. Answer: Accept any explanatory paragraph of five or more sentences that uses all three terms correctly and joins them with transitions. A strong response explains that stormflow rises and falls with storms, that base flow comes from groundwater and depends on the water table, that summer plants keep rain from reaching the water table, and that base flow therefore falls through the summer until August. Withhold full credit if the paragraph treats rain as the river's only source or presents the terms as an unconnected list.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the passage with the two definitions boxed and the table reprinted beside item 2, so no item requires holding two pages at once. Reduce item 3 to one cited detail and item 12 to three sentences with the first one supplied. Read the passage aloud once before the quiz begins.

Extension

Ask these students to write the two sentences the passage would need in order to answer item 11, then to say where in the passage those sentences belong and why. A second option is to write a short paragraph explaining what the table would look like in a genuine drought year and which figures they would expect to change most.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "watershed," "seep," "saturated," "gauge," and "channel" with a labeled cross-section showing rain running over the surface and groundwater entering the river from below. Provide a two-column chart headed "stormflow" and "base flow" with one example already placed in each column for item 8. Allow items 4, 7, and 9 to be answered with a labeled drawing plus one sentence.

Extensions

Have students find a real stream gauge record online and describe the shape of one year of flow in three sentences, naming the highest and lowest months. Then have them write one sentence about whether that river's pattern matches the Ebbsworth's, which is the comparison a reader has to make before calling any low reading unusual.