Reading Comprehension · Grade 3

Name Date

Inside a Volcano

Science · 4 questions · 156 words

Picture: A labeled diagram: a volcano cut in half from top to bottom. Deep below, an orange pool is labeled "magma chamber". A narrow orange "pipe" runs up to the "vent", which opens at the bottom of the bowl-shaped "crater" at the top. Orange "lava" flows down one side, a gray "ash cloud" rises above, and stripes in the cone are labeled "layers of rock".

1 Deep under the ground, it is hot enough to melt rock. This melted rock is called magma. Magma collects in a big space called a magma chamber. Magma is lighter than the hard rock around it, so it slowly pushes up.

2 It rises up a long, thin pipe. Gases in the magma push harder and harder, like the fizz in a shaken soda bottle. When the push gets too strong, the volcano erupts. Magma bursts out of an opening called a vent. The vent sits in a bowl-shaped hole at the top, called the crater. Once magma reaches the air, it has a new name: lava.

3 Sometimes lava oozes gently down the sides. Other times, huge clouds of ash blast high into the sky. When the lava and ash cool, they harden into new rock. After many eruptions, layer upon layer of rock builds up. That is how a volcano can grow into a tall mountain.

Written for PlayOwl

Questions

Read the passage. Fill in the circle next to the best answer. Then write where you found the answer.

  1. 1What is this passage mostly about?

    • why people should stay far away from volcanoes
    • what lava looks like after it cools into rock
    • how melted rock rises, erupts and builds a volcano
    • how scientists measure the heat deep inside Earth

    I found it in paragraph

  1. 2What makes a volcano erupt?

    • Rain fills up the crater at the top.
    • The lava cools down and gets hard.
    • The ground above the magma chamber melts.
    • Gases inside push the magma out.

    I found it in paragraph

  2. 3In paragraph 2, the volcano "erupts." What does "erupts" mean?

    • bursts open and throws out what is inside
    • cools down slowly and turns into hard rock
    • sinks lower and lower into the ground
    • grows taller, one layer at a time

    I found it in paragraph

  3. 4Where would you find the newest layer of rock on a volcano?

    • deep down in the magma chamber
    • under all the older layers of rock
    • on the outside, covering the older layers
    • inside the long, narrow pipe

    I found it in paragraph