Idioms
After Michael missed three shots in a row and passed the ball to a player on the other team, the boys were only up by two and they suspected that Michael would be the Achilles' heel of the team.
a. A person who performs well under pressure
b. A valuable contributor to a cause shared by many
c. A weakness in an otherwise strong entity
d. A person who inspires others to succeed
c. A weakness in an otherwise strong entity
She is as innocent as an angel.
a. Simile
b. Metaphor
c. Onomatopoeia
d. Hyperbole
a. Simile
It is hard to catch a football that has been fumbled because the oblong shape of the ball makes it difficult to predict where it will bounce
a. Triangular
b. Oval shaped
c. Long
d. Flat
b. Oval shaped
Barry liked playing board games, but he hated losing. He hated losing so much that he would do whatever it took to win, even bending or breaking the rules. He'd steal money from the bank and hide it under the couch cushions. He'd skip spaces while he was moving around the board. He'd shortchange others money that they were owed and argue with them about it. Barry's techniques were effective. He did win most of the games that he played, but the people whom he played with were his friends and family, and it didn't take too long until they caught on to Barry's tricks. They tried to tell Barry to stop cheating. They said that the game wasn't any fun when he cheated, but he didn't listen. He continued with his treacherous style of game.
a. Cheating can make you happy.
b. Do whatever it takes to win.
c. Never give up
d. Cheaters never win.
d. Cheaters never win.
Where can you find the main idea?
a. At the end of a passage
b. In a caption
c. In the title and the first sentence of a paragraph
d. In a diagram
c. In the title and the first sentence of a paragraph
Janet gushed over the sculpture in the antique shop, but Kevin thought that the craftsmanship was merely run of the mill.
a. Something this is of exceptionally high quality
b. Something marked by creativity or originality
c. Something that is too expensive for the average person too afford
d. Something that is low quality, common or ordinary
d. Something that is low quality, common or ordinary
Her tears were a river flowing down her cheeks.
a. Alliteration
b. Hyperbole
c. Personification
d. Metaphor
Some people think that my little brother is annoying because he asks so many questions, but I think that he just has an inquisitive nature.
a. Obnoxious
b. Smart
c. Curious
d. Intelligent
c. Curious
It was Sean's first day at a new high school. Most of the students had been nice to him, until he got into gym class. The coach had assigned two captains, Mike and Malik, and they were picking teams from the boys in Sean's class. As Mike and Malik made their picks, it became pretty clear to Sean who was popular and who was not. Since Sean was short for his age, Mike and Malik just assumed that Sean could not play basketball. As Mike and Malik's choices dwindled, Sean still remained amongst an ever-slimming pool of struggling athletes. Now there were only two students left: Sean and another kid who seemed nice but was reading a book. Mike and Malik joked about who was going to get stuck with whom, and then Mike made his last pick. It was not Sean. Sean sighed and reluctantly joined Malik's team. As soon as the game began, Mike became aware of the error that he had made. Sean quickly stole the ball from him and ran it back for a layup. "The new kid got lucky," Mike remarked, but it soon became clear that Sean had more going for him than luck. What Sean lacked in height, he made up for in speed, and he continued to dominate the action on the court for the remainder of the game. With Sean's blazing speed and crazy crossovers,
a. Don’t judge a book by its cover.
b. Put first things first.
c. Always choose people based on their height.
d. Short people are good at basketball.
a. Don’t judge a book by its cover.
Fireflies are not actually flies, they are beetles! They are found mostly in warm, humid areas of the world, like tropical Asia and Central and South America. You can usually find fireflies hanging around ponds, streams, marshes, and other little areas filled with water. Have you ever wondered how fireflies glow? The light a firefly gives off is caused by a chemical reaction. Inside the firefly’s stomach are five chemicals. When oxygen enters its body, the five chemicals mix together, making light. A few seconds later, another chemical combines with the others and the light goes off. Why do fireflies flash their light? It is used as a mating signal. The male firefly flies around at night, flashing his light. The female, waiting in the grass, sees the signal and answers by flashing her light.
a. Where fireflies live
b. Different species of fireflies
c. How fireflies give off light
d. Fireflies
c. How fireflies give off light
Lyle chose Marco for his partner, thinking that it would be fun to work with his best friend, but now that the project was due tomorrow and the boys had nothing done, Lyle realized that he should have hitched his horse to a different wagon.
a. When one wishes to have chosen different company than one is presently keeping
b. When one accepts responsibility for one's own involvement in an unfortunate event
c. When one understands that the only way to solve a problem is through hard work
d. When one determines that the best course of action is to tell the truth
a. When one wishes to have chosen different company than one is presently keeping
The ocean heaved a sigh as it crashed against the shore.
a. Personification
b. Alliteration
c. Onomatopoeia
d. Hyperbole
A. Personification
After seeing a third teenager walk by with a mullet, Clint reasoned that it must be one of the more prevalent hairstyles of the day.
a. Popular
b. Weird
c. Strange
d. Cute
a. Popular
Blaine opened up the present and began pouting. He screamed in a high-pitched voice, "This is Captain Thunder! I wanted Captain Lightning!" His mother looked at him with dismay and handed him another present, which he greedily opened. "Why did you get me a red hat? You know I like blue more," Blaine whined as he threw the hat across the room. His mother straightened her expression and squinted at him. Earlier she had hoped to take some pictures of this moment, but by now she had put away her camera. She sighed and handed him one more present in hopes that this year wouldn't be a total bust. Blaine huffed and opened it. "A Game Box 4000… wow. Where's the Game Box 5000 that I asked for?" His mother could bear his ingratitude no longer. The next time that Blaine returned from his father's house, he was shocked to find that all of these toys and gifts, along with many other of his things, had been generously donated to needy children.
a. Parents can be mean.
b. Work before you play.
c. Keep your real feelings inside your head.
d. Be grateful for what you have.
d. Be grateful for what you have.
What happens in the body when you get those annoying hiccups? Hiccups are spasms, or sudden muscle contractions, that you can’t control, of the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a large, strong sheet of muscle between the chest and abdomen. When you are breathing normally, the diaphragm tightens and relaxes to help pull air in and push it out. But when organs near your diaphragm are irritated, they cause the diaphragm to contract suddenly as air comes in. As you are breathing in, a little flap of tissue called the epiglottis is doing its job of closing off the air passage to your lungs. So when the air hits this closed passage, you make that “hiccup” sound. When you have the hiccups, they may happen two or three times a minute, or even two or three times a second! They will usually go away if you breathe deeply, hold your breath, or even breathe into a paper bag.
a. The parts of the respiratory system
b. What happens in the body when you have the hiccups
c. How to stop hiccups
d. Hiccups
b. What happens in the body when you have the hiccups
The prosecutor knew that the councilman had stolen public funds, but she wanted to get all of her ducks in a row before she charged him with a crime.
a. She wanted to catch the councilman in the act
b. She wanted to take the time to properly prepare her case
c. She had other business to take care of before going after the councilman
d. She had to finish eating lunch before she went back to work
b. She wanted to take the time to properly prepare her case
I have a million things to do today.
a. Simile
b. Hyperbole
c. Metaphor
d. Personification
B. Hyperbole
After being bitten by snake, the cowboy writhed in pain on the ground.
a. Yelled
b. Wrote
c. Rolled around
d. Cried
c. Rolled around
Genevieve was obsessed with details. She felt that everything that she submitted to her teacher had to be perfect. For the final project in reading class, students were given one week to use their art skills to bring a scene from a novel to life. Genevieve decided that she would build a shoebox diorama. She spent the first two nights creating an intricately detailed scene far superior to anything that her classmates would produce, but she ended up throwing it away because she didn't like how tape was visible at the bottom of the diorama. The next two nights she worked on a similar diorama, but this time she used glue. Again, Genevieve produced a beautiful product, but she was troubled by how the glue looked when it dried, so she discarded her work again. Over the weekend and into the next week, Genevieve recreated the project a third time. This time she used a special adhesive putty to construct the diorama and was completely satisfied with the appearance. Unfortunately, her project was now several days late and her grade on the assignment was lowered to a C.
a. Hard work pays off.
b. Perfection is not everything.
c. Work hard.
d. Never give up.
b. Perfection is not everything.
Earthquakes start deep beneath the Earth’s surface. The outer layer of the Earth is called the crust. It is made up of plates that are always slowly moving past one another, side to side and up and down. This causes the Earth’s rocks to rub against and slide past each other, which creates a break in the crust called a fault. Faults can be deep below the earth’s surface, or they can be seen at the top. Some are short and others are very long. The San Andreas Fault, which caused a huge earthquake in San Francisco in 1906, is 600 miles long! As the movement of the plates travel away from the fault, they cause the rocks in the Earth to vibrate for many miles around. These vibrations make the ground split open, and this is what we call an earthquake. Some earthquakes are so small that we don’t even feel them. Others are very powerful and can cause a lot of destruction.
a. How to prepare for an earthquake
b. The different layers of the Earth
c. How earthquakes start
d. Earthquakes
c. How earthquakes start
Vince knew that if he wanted to get into college, he'd have to keep his nose to the grindstone all senior year.
a. Vince would have to apply for college.
b. Vince would have to work hard for a whole year.
c. Vince would have to wait patiently for an opportunity.
d. Vince would have to stay out of trouble for a whole year.
b. Vince would have to work hard for a whole year.
The water plops into the sink.
a. Hyperbole
b. Alliteration
c. Onomatopoeia
d. Simile
C. Onomatopoeia
General Kang was more than a brave commander. He was a good man, for he knew better than to rush into battle when there was still time for diplomacy.
a. Working things out
b. Fighting
c. Arguing
d. Running away
a. Working things out
Chuck really wanted to get the new Game Box 9000, but the system cost $400 and he didn't have any money at all. So Chuck did what any motivated youngster would do to earn money: lots and lots of work. He mowed lawns and raked leaves. He did extra chores and dug in the couch cushions for change. He collected and returned cans and bottles. After about a month of working and scrounging harder than he ever had, Chuck earned a little over $200, but the money was not coming quickly enough. Chuck was discussing his problem with one of his friends on the bus when an older kid named Jim overheard him. "Hey, Chucky," Jim said, "my uncle works at the video game store and he can get any video game system for half off. I can help you get your Gamebox." Chuck was so excited about getting the new Gamebox that he didn't think twice. "Wow, half off? Then I can afford it!" Chuck was ecstatic. He gave Jim his money the next day. The following day he hoped to receive the Gamebox, but Jim didn't bring it. "Yeah, I'm not going to see him until this weekend," Jim replied. Chuck remembered Jim promising him something else, but he was so happy to get such a great deal on the game console that he didn't want to push him. "Ok, great. Next week then." The week passed by very slowly for Chuck, but it passed. He was so happy to see Jim the next week. He ran up to him with a big smile, but Jim didn't look happy. "Did you get it?" Chuck asked. Jim replied woodenly, "Uh, yeah, I was going to get it, but I got robbed. So, you're money's gone. I'm sorry." Chuck couldn't believe it. A whole month down the drain. The tears ran down his cheeks.
a. Sharing is caring
b. Put first things first
c. Be careful who you trust.
d. Never give up
c. Be careful who you trust.
In 1996, the tallest living tree was declared to be a coast redwood tree called the Mendocino Tree. It is found at Montgomery State Reserve near Ukiah, California, in the United States. This amazing giant of a tree stands 367 feet, 6 inches tall. That’s five stories higher than the Statue of Liberty! This tree is thought to be over 1,000 years old. When the tree was last measured in September 1998, it was found to have a diameter of 10 feet, 4 inches. If you were to stand under this redwood, you would get soaked! A lot of moisture from the fog that surrounds redwood trees settles on its needles, branches, and trunk. The water drips down, watering the tree and all the plays around it. Red woods really help to keep the land around them healthy. They can gather as much as half of the amount of water a forest needs each year. Just one tree can drop four inches of water in one night!
a. Redwood trees are good for the environment
b. The tallest tree is 367 feet, 6 inches tall
c. The tallest living tree is the Mendocino Tree in California
d. Trees.
c. The tallest living tree is the Mendocino Tree in California