Grade 9 Reading comprehension worksheet

What is on the worksheet

1. The survey at the cycle rack A transport committee wanted to know how pupils travelled to school. Volunteers surveyed people standing near the cycle racks and found that 68% of respondents cycled. The result looked precise, but the location made cyclists easier to reach than pupils arriving by bus or on foot. A later survey used randomly selected registration groups and recorded nonresponses. Its result differed. The committee did not call the first volunteers dishonest; they had collected real answers from a sample that did not match the question about the whole school. Why did the first location create a sampling problem?

2. The survey at the cycle rack A transport committee wanted to know how pupils travelled to school. Volunteers surveyed people standing near the cycle racks and found that 68% of respondents cycled. The result looked precise, but the location made cyclists easier to reach than pupils arriving by bus or on foot. A later survey used randomly selected registration groups and recorded nonresponses. Its result differed. The committee did not call the first volunteers dishonest; they had collected real answers from a sample that did not match the question about the whole school. State one remaining limitation to check in the later survey.

3. A rate rises from 2% to 3%. The relative percentage increase is

   1. 100%
   2. 50%
   3. 3%
   4. 1%

4. Reading and literary analysis: which term fits this description? Descriptive language that evokes sensory experience.

   1. Symbol
   2. Summary
   3. Imagery
   4. Foreshadowing

5. Voices in an archive Two accounts described the opening of a factory. An owner called it a source of progress; a worker described long hours and uncertain pay. Neither account represented every person in the town. A historian treated the disagreement as evidence about different experiences and interests, then sought wage records, council minutes and later testimony. Write a defensible research question prompted by the two accounts.

6. An old map at the shoreline An old map placed a footpath farther inland than a current map did. A student concluded that the shoreline had moved toward the path. Her partner noticed that the old map used a coarser scale and a different reference grid. They aligned several stable landmarks and checked the maps' dates and stated accuracy before comparing the coast. Some difference remained, but it was smaller than the initial overlay suggested. Their report distinguished possible landscape change from differences caused by mapping methods. Why align stable landmarks?

   1. to guarantee the same shoreline
   2. to change historical dates
   3. to erase every coastal feature
   4. to make the spatial comparison more consistent

7. The cheaper proposal A headline said that Proposal B would cost 20% less than Proposal A. The detailed table showed that A included equipment, installation and five years of maintenance, while B listed equipment and installation only. Both arithmetic totals were correctly added, but they covered different things. The review group requested a common five-year cost comparison and kept uncertain maintenance estimates visible. After the missing category was included, B still appeared cheaper, though by a much smaller margin. The headline had been numerically neat but incomplete. Rewrite the headline's claim more cautiously without inventing a new percentage.

8. The survey headline An optional survey on a study app finds that 82% of respondents prefer digital notes. The headline reads Students reject paper. Only current app users saw the survey, and fewer than one in ten invited users responded. The result describes the respondents’ stated preferences, but it does not establish the preferences of all students or whether digital notes improve learning outcomes. Name a stronger design for estimating student preferences broadly.

9. The empty folder A local archive contained detailed records from the town's large workshops but almost none from people who worked at home. A student initially wrote that home-based work had been rare. The archivist explained that workshops often had offices that stored documents, while private papers were more easily scattered or discarded. The empty folder showed a gap in preserved evidence, not a reliable count of workers. The student looked for indirect traces in household accounts and advertisements, keeping a note of what each source could and could not reveal. Name two kinds of indirect evidence the student investigated.

10. Voices in an archive Two accounts described the opening of a factory. An owner called it a source of progress; a worker described long hours and uncertain pay. Neither account represented every person in the town. A historian treated the disagreement as evidence about different experiences and interests, then sought wage records, council minutes and later testimony. Why is it unhelpful to choose one account as the entire truth?

11. The bus-route pilot A town tests a later bus service on Fridays for six weeks. Average ridership is 26 per trip, but the first and last weeks include festivals. The transport team publishes both the average and each week’s count. It also reports costs and interviews workers who finish late. The team recommends a longer pilot before deciding whether to run the service every evening. Why is a recommendation for every evening premature?

12. The cheaper proposal A headline said that Proposal B would cost 20% less than Proposal A. The detailed table showed that A included equipment, installation and five years of maintenance, while B listed equipment and installation only. Both arithmetic totals were correctly added, but they covered different things. The review group requested a common five-year cost comparison and kept uncertain maintenance estimates visible. After the missing category was included, B still appeared cheaper, though by a much smaller margin. The headline had been numerically neat but incomplete. What happened after the missing category was included?

    1. B still appeared cheaper, but by less.
    2. No comparison could ever be made.
    3. B was guaranteed to be free.
    4. A became identical to B in every respect.

13. The empty folder A local archive contained detailed records from the town's large workshops but almost none from people who worked at home. A student initially wrote that home-based work had been rare. The archivist explained that workshops often had offices that stored documents, while private papers were more easily scattered or discarded. The empty folder showed a gap in preserved evidence, not a reliable count of workers. The student looked for indirect traces in household accounts and advertisements, keeping a note of what each source could and could not reveal. What did the empty folder directly show?

    1. the wages of all residents
    2. proof that nobody worked at home
    3. the exact number of home workers
    4. a gap in preserved evidence

14. The translator's note A class compared two translations of a short historical speech. One used the word duty, while the other used obligation. The surrounding sentences were similar, but the class noticed different tones. Their teacher explained that a word in the original language could cover meanings that did not map neatly onto a single modern English term. Instead of deciding that one translator must be careless, the pupils examined context and read the translators' notes. Their analysis described how the choices shaped interpretation and identified points that remained uncertain without deeper knowledge of the original. Which difference prompted the class discussion?

    1. the colour of the paper
    2. the choice between duty and obligation
    3. the date of the lesson
    4. the number of desks

15. Which evidence would best support an interpretation of a poem's mood?

    1. Its word choices, images and sound patterns
    2. Only the number of copies sold
    3. Only the cover price
    4. Only the printer's city

16. The efficient machine A prototype receives 500 J of energy and transfers 350 J to the intended lifting task. A presenter calls the remaining 150 J lost. A reviewer clarifies that the energy has not disappeared; it is transferred into less useful forms for the task, such as thermal energy and sound. The stated efficiency measures useful output divided by input for this defined task. Why must the intended task be defined when discussing useful energy?

17. Why should a graph include the time interval rather than only a trend arrow?

18. The tree proposal An editorial argued that the school should plant shade trees beside the sports field. It described uncomfortable summer lunches and included measurements of surface temperatures in shade and sun. A later paragraph acknowledged that young trees would take years to provide substantial shade and suggested temporary shelters in the meantime. How does the acknowledgement affect the argument?

19. A stanza is

    1. always exactly two words
    2. the publisher's address
    3. the title of every poem
    4. a grouped set of lines in a poem

20. The translator's note A class compared two translations of a short historical speech. One used the word duty, while the other used obligation. The surrounding sentences were similar, but the class noticed different tones. Their teacher explained that a word in the original language could cover meanings that did not map neatly onto a single modern English term. Instead of deciding that one translator must be careless, the pupils examined context and read the translators' notes. Their analysis described how the choices shaped interpretation and identified points that remained uncertain without deeper knowledge of the original. Suggest a useful further question about the original speech.