Grade Practice Test | Lumos Learning

The blue whale is quite an extraordinary creature. To begin with, it is a mammal that lives its entire life in the ocean. The size of its body is amazing. This whale can grow up to 98 feet long and weigh as much as 200 tons, making it the largest known animal to have ever existed. Its body is long and elegantly tapered, unlike other whales which have a rounder, stockier build. Their build, along with their extreme size, gives them a unique appearance and the ability to move more gracefully and at greater speeds than one might imagine. They can reach speeds up to 31 mph for short periods of time. Their normal traveling speed is around 12 mph, but they slow to 3.1 mph when feeding. Although they are extremely large animals, they eat small shrimp-like creatures called krill. Since the krill are so small, the blue whale eats about four tons daily as they swim deep in the ocean.

Unlike other whales that live in small, close-knit groups called pods, blue whales live and travel alone or with one other whale. While traveling through the ocean, they surface to breathe air into their lungs through blowholes. They emerge from the ocean, spewing water out of their blowhole, roll, and reenter the water with a grand splash of their large tail. They make loud, deep, and rumbling low frequency sounds that travel great distances, which allow them to communicate with other whales as far as 100 miles away. Their cries can be felt as much as heard. Their resonating call makes them the loudest animal on Earth. If you ever have the opportunity to see or hear a blue whale, it will be an experience you will not soon forget.

Which statement from the passage above could be used when writing a report that compares and contrasts blue whales to other whales?

The blue whale is quite an extraordinary creature. To begin with, it is a mammal that lives its entire life in the ocean. The size of its body is amazing. This whale can grow up to 98 feet long and weigh as much as 200 tons, making it the largest known animal to have ever existed. Its body is long and elegantly tapered, unlike other whales which have a rounder, stockier build. Their build, along with their extreme size, gives them a unique appearance and the ability to move more gracefully and at greater speeds than one might imagine. They can reach speeds up to 31 mph for short periods of time. Their normal traveling speed is around 12 mph, but they slow to 3.1 mph when feeding. Although they are extremely large animals, they eat small shrimp-like creatures called krill. Since the krill are so small, the blue whale eats about four tons daily as they swim deep in the ocean.

Unlike other whales that live in small, close-knit groups called pods, blue whales live and travel alone or with one other whale. While traveling through the ocean, they surface to breathe air into their lungs through blowholes. They emerge from the ocean, spewing water out of their blowhole, roll, and reenter the water with a grand splash of their large tail. They make loud, deep, and rumbling low frequency sounds that travel great distances, which allow them to communicate with other whales as far as 100 miles away. Their cries can be felt as much as heard. Their resonating call makes them the loudest animal on Earth. If you ever have the opportunity to see or hear a blue whale, it will be an experience you will not soon forget.

Which statement from the first paragraph could be used to complete a Venn diagram that compares the blue whale to other whales?

Fred had never been to the dentist. All of his life he had heard horror stories about the buzzing drills, the huge needles, and the scary tools that the dentist used to torture his patients. Since none of his teeth were hurting, Fred just couldn’t understand why his mom was insisting on taking him to the dentist. She told him that it was important to visit the dentist each year to have his teeth checked and cleaned. This seemed silly to Fred because he cleaned his teeth every day by brushing and flossing them, but nothing would change his mother’s mind. He found it hard to believe that she would think it was a good idea to take him somewhere to be tortured. However, he had no choice but to go.
On the way to the dentist, Fred’s imagination went wild. He pictured walking into a room with a huge chair that the dentist would strap him to. He could just see the dentist pulling out a huge drill and drilling his tooth while his mother and several others held him in the chair. By the time he got to the dentist’s office, he was shaking all over.
Surprisingly, the office was nothing like he expected. The dentist was friendly, and the chair was comfortable. It didn’t have any straps. He looked around the room and didn’t see any huge drills or torture devices. He was relieved when all the dentist did was look in his mouth, show him how to properly brush and floss his teeth, and give him a balloon. His mom made another appointment to have his teeth cleaned in six months. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as he had thought it would be.

Compare the way Fred felt about going to the dentist before his visit to the way he felt after his first visit.

Reading: Literature (RL.4.9)