Grade 12 reading comprehension worksheets

Reading Comprehension · Grade 12

Name Date

The Gap Year

Story · 5 questions · 536 words

1 The acceptance letter from the state university had hung on the Bergstroms' refrigerator since March, pinned beneath a magnet shaped like a walleye, and by June its corners had begun to curl in a way that Wyatt found increasingly difficult to ignore. He had rehearsed his argument for a week, so when his father settled at the kitchen table with his Saturday coffee, Wyatt slid a printed page toward him and explained the proposal before his nerve could fail. The engineering program would reserve his place for one year if he paid the deposit and described his plans, and a trail crew in the national forest would pay him fourteen dollars an hour, with housing included, to construct the kind of footbridges he had only ever sketched.

2 Neil Bergstrom read the page twice, because twenty-two years of repairing furnaces across three counties had taught him to read everything twice, contracts most of all. He conceded that Wyatt would return with savings, then asked what else the year would provide, and Wyatt, after a pause, admitted the uncomfortable truth he had been circling for months. "Everyone tells me engineering suits me because I'm good at mathematics, but that isn't a reason; it's a forecast."

3 His father almost smiled, then reconsidered. At eighteen, he explained, he had also taken a single year away, working at the plant to save for tuition, until the plant offered overtime, and he purchased a truck, and the truck required payments. "One year is a remarkably persuasive number," he said, "but nobody plans for the second and third." Wyatt had heard fragments of this story before, always delivered as a joke about the truck, yet he had never heard it told like this, quietly, as though his father were reading it from a bill he still owed.

4 "So that's what this is really about," Wyatt said. "You think I'll turn into you." The accusation landed harder than he had intended, and for a long moment the only sound in the kitchen was the refrigerator's hum while Neil studied the van parked outside, BERGSTROM HEATING painted across its side.

5 "I think you're right that you need a reason," his father said eventually, "and I think I'm right that a plan with no end date is merely a hope wearing work boots." He returned the page and instructed Wyatt to write the letter, but to include a date in it: the day he would be back in this kitchen, packing for school, whether or not the trail crew begged him to stay. When Wyatt asked what would happen if he concluded that engineering was not for him after all, Neil lifted his coffee again. "Then you'll decide with your eyes open, instead of letting a truck decide for you. I'm not trying to keep you from the year; I'm trying to keep the year from keeping you."

6 That night Wyatt composed the letter, and when the form requested his expected date of return, he typed one, considered it for a long time, and left it there. In the morning he shifted the walleye an inch to the left, so that it held the curling letter flat against the door, where it could wait for him.

Written for PlayOwl

Questions

Read the passage. Fill in the circle next to the best answer, or every box that fits when a question says "Choose all that are true". Name the paragraph that proves each answer.

1In paragraph 3, Wyatt hears the story told "as though his father were reading it from a bill he still owed." What does this suggest?
- Neil is worried about how Wyatt will pay the university's deposit.
- Neil is still angry at the plant for offering him so much overtime.
- Neil still feels the cost of a choice he made when he was Wyatt's age.
- Neil has told the story so often that he no longer finds it interesting.
Evidence: paragraph

2In paragraph 5, what does Neil mean when he calls a plan with no end date "a hope wearing work boots"?
- The plan will succeed only if Wyatt is willing to do hard physical labor.
- Without a deadline, the plan is only a wish dressed up to look practical.
- Any plan grows more realistic the longer a person spends working outdoors.
- Hopes are childish, and Wyatt should look for a steady job near home.
Evidence: paragraph
3Which sentences show that Neil accepts the year off but wants limits on it? Choose all that are true.

More than one answer. Fill in every box that fits.
- "One year is a remarkably persuasive number," he said, "but nobody plans for the second and third."
- He returned the page and instructed Wyatt to write the letter, but to include a date in it …
- At eighteen, he explained, he had also taken a single year away, working at the plant to save for tuition …
- "I'm not trying to keep you from the year; I'm trying to keep the year from keeping you."
- Neil Bergstrom read the page twice, because twenty-two years of repairing furnaces … had taught him …
Evidence: paragraph
4The story begins and ends with the letter on the refrigerator. What does the final paragraph's return to the letter add?
- It reveals that Neil secretly moved the magnet to change Wyatt's mind.
- It shows that Wyatt has dropped the trail crew after all and will start school in the fall.
- It introduces a new problem that the story leaves the reader to solve.
- The curling letter is now held flat, suggesting college is postponed, not abandoned.
Evidence: paragraph
5Which statement best expresses a theme the story develops through both characters?
- Taking time away from school almost always ends in regret.
- Freedom to explore is most useful when it comes with limits a person accepts.
- Parents should step back and let their grown children make every important decision alone.
- Being good at math is the surest sign of the career a person should choose.
Evidence: paragraph

Reading Comprehension · Grade 12

Name Date

How Algorithms Shape What You See

Science · 5 questions · 536 words

1 Every time someone opens a video app, a music service or a social feed, a piece of software has already made hundreds of small decisions about what to show first. These programs are called recommendation systems, and their basic task is simple to state but difficult to perform: out of millions of possible posts, songs or clips, select the handful that one particular person is most likely to watch, play or click at that moment. Because no human editor could sort so much material for every user, the sorting is done by algorithms, sets of step-by-step instructions that a computer follows to reach a decision.

2 A recommendation system begins by collecting signals, the traces people leave behind as they use a service. Some signals are deliberate, such as a like, a follow or a search. Others are quieter, such as how long someone watched a clip before scrolling past it, whether a song was replayed, or what time of day a person usually visits. The system combines these signals with information about the items themselves, such as a video's subject or length, and with patterns drawn from millions of other users. One widely used method, called collaborative filtering, rests on a principle that sounds almost like neighborly advice: people who agreed with you in the past will probably agree with you again, so the items they enjoyed are suggested to you. From all of this, the system predicts a score for every possible item, ranks the items from highest to lowest, and displays the top of the list.

3 What the score is designed to measure matters enormously. Many systems are built to predict engagement, meaning the likelihood that a person will click, watch, share or comment. Engagement is easy to count, and companies often treat it as evidence that users are satisfied, but the two are not always the same. A post that makes people angry may attract hundreds of comments without leaving anyone better informed, and a video that keeps someone watching past midnight may not be one they are glad to have seen. For this reason, some companies also survey users directly about how much they valued what they saw and blend those answers into the score.

4 Recommendation systems also create feedback loops. If a viewer watches three cooking videos, the system offers more cooking videos, which the viewer is then more likely to watch, which in turn seems to confirm the system's original prediction. Some critics argue that loops like this gradually narrow what people encounter, enclosing them in a "filter bubble" of familiar ideas. Researchers disagree about how strong this effect is in practice. Some studies have found that many users still meet a fairly wide mix of sources, partly because of what they search for themselves and what other people share with them.

5 Understanding this machinery does not require distrusting it, but it does offer a measure of control. Because a recommendation system learns from behavior, a user's choices become part of its instructions. Searching for unfamiliar subjects, pressing a "not interested" button, clearing a viewing history, or simply pausing to ask why a suggestion appeared are all ways to influence what an algorithm decides a person wants to see next.

Written for PlayOwl

Questions

Read the passage. Fill in the circle next to the best answer. Name the paragraph that proves each answer.

1Which statement best expresses the central idea of the passage?
- The systems rank items from people's signals, and what they are built to predict shapes what people see.
- Recommendation systems trap nearly every one of their users inside a filter bubble of familiar ideas and sources.
- Human editors now choose most of what appears in video apps and social feeds.
- Collaborative filtering is the only method a recommendation system needs in order to work.
Evidence: paragraph

2How does paragraph 3 develop the meaning of the term "engagement"?
- It uses the term as another name for how satisfied users feel.
- It defines the term as measurable action, then shows it can differ from what people value.
- It treats the term as a measure of how accurate and trustworthy the information in a post is.
- It narrows the term to mean only the comments people leave under a post.
Evidence: paragraph
3Based on paragraph 4, why might a feedback loop make a system's predictions look better than they really are?
- Viewers secretly prefer cooking videos to every other kind of content.
- The system quietly deletes any prediction that turns out to be mistaken, so only accurate ones remain.
- Researchers check each prediction before it reaches the viewer.
- The system can partly cause the viewing that it then counts as proof it was right.
Evidence: paragraph
4The passage leaves one question about recommendation systems unsettled. Which sentence shows this most clearly?
- "Recommendation systems also create feedback loops."
- "Researchers disagree about how strong this effect is in practice."
- "Engagement is easy to count, and companies often treat it as evidence that users are satisfied …"
- "Because a recommendation system learns from behavior, a user's choices become part of its instructions."
Evidence: paragraph
5Why does the author end the passage with paragraph 5?
- To warn readers to stop using apps that recommend content
- To admit that the earlier explanation of recommendation systems was mistaken
- To show that knowing how the systems learn gives users some influence over them
- To argue that companies should stop measuring engagement and rely on surveys alone
Evidence: paragraph