Quiz & test questions Grade 8 English Language Arts
Why the Fernsby Water Bill Looked Seven Times Bigger
A 30-point grade 8 ELA assessment on a fictional feature about a utility that switched its bills from cubic feet to gallons, with ten items and a full answer key.
Objectives
- Students will determine the central idea of an informational feature and support it with evidence.
- Students will infer why a utility kept two labels on the same bill for a year.
- Students will write an explanatory paragraph for a stated audience using details from the text.
Vocabulary
- Rate structure
- The plan a water utility uses to decide how much each customer pays. It usually combines a set monthly amount with a price for each gallon of water used.
Also: cubic foot, register, conversion, billing period
Teacher overview
This assessment is worth 30 points and runs about 40 minutes. Students read one fictional feature article and answer four multiple-choice items worth 2 points each, five short-answer items worth 3 points each, and one explanatory paragraph worth 7 points. The article turns on a distinction eighth graders routinely collapse, which is the difference between a quantity and the unit used to report it. Several items reward students who notice that the water, the meter, and the price all stayed the same while only the label changed.
Assessment
Read the fictional feature below, then answer every item. Fernsby and its water department were invented for this test.
The Bill That Looked Seven Times Bigger
For as long as anyone in Fernsby could remember, the water bill reported cubic feet. A typical household bill read, "Water used this period: 900 cubic feet." The number was accurate, yet it meant very little to most of the people who received it.
Water meters in Fernsby register volume in cubic feet, so the department had simply printed what the meter showed. The trouble was that almost nobody could picture a cubic foot of water. Customers could not tell whether a higher number meant a leaking toilet or a hot August. They could not compare one month against the next in any way that meant something, and they could not compare their household against anyone else's.
In 2025 the department decided to change the label rather than the meter. The arithmetic is straightforward. One cubic foot of water holds 7.48 gallons. A bill for 900 cubic feet therefore covers 6,732 gallons of water. Beginning that spring, the bills reported gallons.
The phones rang for a week. Residents who had spent years looking at a three-digit number now saw a four-digit one. Several callers were certain the department had raised their rates. It had not. The billing office had adjusted the price per gallon so that the same water cost the same money. A household paying about $46 in March paid about $46 in April.
The department had expected the calls, which is why it printed both numbers side by side for the first full year. The gallon figure appeared in large type, and the cubic-foot figure appeared beneath it in small type, with a line showing the conversion. Anyone who wanted to check the arithmetic could do it on the bill itself.
The change also gave customers something they had never had, which was a number they could compare. Published figures put average household use in the United States at about 300 gallons a day. A Fernsby customer looking at 6,732 gallons for a month could now see roughly where the household stood. A customer whose bill jumped by two thousand gallons in a month with no visitors and no new lawn had a reason to check the toilets.
The department's billing supervisor put the point plainly in a note to the council. The meter had always told the truth, she wrote, but a bill is not only a record. It is the one page about water that most residents actually read, and it should be written for them.
- (2 points) The central idea of this feature is that
A. Fernsby raised its water rates and blamed the meters.
B. changing the unit on a bill changed what customers could learn from it.
C. cubic feet are a more accurate way to measure water than gallons.
D. water meters in Fernsby needed to be replaced. - (2 points) Which sentence most strongly supports the claim that customers were paying the same
amount for the same water?
A. "The phones rang for a week."
B. "Water meters in Fernsby register volume in cubic feet."
C. "The billing office had adjusted the price per gallon so that the same water cost the same money."
D. "Beginning that spring, the bills reported gallons." - (2 points) In this feature, "register" most nearly means
A. to sign up for a service.
B. to record a measurement.
C. to complain formally.
D. to store water for later. - (2 points) The feature is organized mainly by
A. comparing two towns' water systems.
B. listing objections in order of importance.
C. presenting a problem, the change made, and the results of that change.
D. describing a year in the life of a meter technician. - (3 points) Explain how 900 cubic feet and 6,732 gallons can describe the same amount of water. Use details from the feature.
- (3 points) Why did the department print both the gallon figure and the cubic-foot figure on the bill for a full year? Answer in one or two sentences using the text.
- (3 points) Customers called to complain even though their bills had not gone up. Using evidence from the feature, explain why.
- (3 points) Copy the sentence that most strongly supports the claim that the department made this change for customers rather than for its own convenience. Then explain in one or two sentences why that sentence supports the claim better than the others.
- (3 points) Compare how useful each label, cubic feet and gallons, is to a customer who suspects a leak. Use at least one detail from the feature in your comparison.
- (7 points) Write an explanatory paragraph of five to seven sentences for the department's website, telling a new resident why the bill reports gallons. Use at least three details from the feature.
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: B. The feature traces one change in the printed unit and what it let customers see, not a rate increase, a claim about accuracy, or a meter replacement.
- Answer: C. That sentence states directly that the price per gallon was adjusted so the same water cost the same money. The other choices report reactions, describe the meter, or announce the change without addressing cost.
- Answer: B. The sentence says the meters register volume in cubic feet and that the department printed what the meter showed, so the word describes recording a measurement.
- Answer: C. The opening paragraphs establish the problem with cubic feet, the middle paragraphs describe the change and the reaction, and the closing paragraphs give the results.
- Answer: They are the same volume of water reported in two different units. The feature states that one cubic foot holds 7.48 gallons, so a bill covering 900 cubic feet covers 6,732 gallons of the same water, measured by the same meter.
- Answer: So customers could check the arithmetic themselves. The feature says the gallon figure appeared in large type with the cubic-foot figure beneath it and a line showing the conversion, which let anyone confirm that the amount had not changed.
- Answer: Because the number on the page grew from three digits to four, and several callers assumed a larger number meant a larger charge. The feature says residents who had spent years reading a three-digit figure now saw a four-digit one, and that several were certain rates had been raised.
- Answer: "It is the one page about water that most residents actually read, and it should be written for them." Award full credit for that sentence with an explanation that it states the department's reason as serving readers. The billing supervisor's sentence names the audience directly, while sentences about the meter or the conversion describe the mechanics without giving a reason.
- Answer: Gallons are more useful for spotting a leak. The feature notes that a customer could compare a monthly figure against published average household use of about 300 gallons a day, and that a jump of two thousand gallons with no visitors and no new lawn is a reason to check the toilets. Cubic feet are equally accurate, but the feature says almost nobody could picture a cubic foot, so the same jump would carry no meaning.
- Answer: Accept any paragraph of five to seven sentences that is accurate, addresses a new resident, and uses at least three details from the feature. A full-credit response explains that meters record cubic feet, that one cubic foot holds 7.48 gallons, that the department began printing gallons in 2025 so customers could understand and compare their use, and that the price per gallon was set so the change did not raise bills. Deduct for statements the feature contradicts, such as claiming the meters were replaced or the rates were raised.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the feature with its four stages labeled in the margin as problem, change, reaction, and result, and provide a two-column chart headed "what changed" and "what stayed the same" to complete before answering. Reduce item 10 to four sentences and supply a paragraph frame that opens with the meter and closes with the reason.
Extension
Ask students to write the two-paragraph reply the billing supervisor would send to a customer who still believes the rates went up, quoting the feature once and explaining the arithmetic without using the word "conversion."
ELL supports
Pre-teach "cubic foot," "register," "conversion," and "billing period" with a drawing of a one-foot cube beside a labeled gallon jug. Allow items 5 through 9 to be answered in two sentences each, and permit item 10 to be spoken to a partner and then written.
Extensions
Students redesign the fictional bill on paper, deciding what belongs in large type and what belongs in small type, then write three sentences defending one choice they made that a customer might disagree with.