Grade 6 reading comprehension worksheets

2 worksheets ready to print: The Long Way Home, How the Printing Press Changed the World.

8 more passages in Grade 6 come with a PlayOwl plan. The Old Man and His Grandson, The Dust Bowl, Why Teenagers Need Sleep, The Audition, Building the Panama Canal, Should Every Player Get a Trophy?, "Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers, Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor.

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Reading Comprehension · Grade 6

Name Date

The Long Way Home

Story · 5 questions · 361 words

1 For eight school days in a row, Sam Becker walked home the long way. Instead of turning left on Fourth Street, he cut behind the car wash, crossed the soccer fields and followed the creek until it curved back toward his house. The detour added twenty minutes to his walk and a layer of mud to his sneakers. But it kept him far from the corner of Fourth and Birch, where Lena Ortiz sat on a low brick wall every afternoon.

2 Two weeks earlier, Lena had tripped in the cafeteria and dropped her tray, splashing chocolate milk all over her shoes. The whole table had laughed, and Sam had laughed the loudest, until Lena looked straight at him and her face went stiff and still. Sam had felt miserable about it ever since, but every time he pictured apologizing, his throat closed up. He decided she must be waiting on that wall to tell him off, so he stayed away.

3 On the ninth afternoon, rain poured down so hard that the creek path turned into a river of brown water. Sam hesitated at the edge of the school parking lot with his hood dripping, and then he turned left onto Fourth Street. Lena was standing under the bus shelter with a purple umbrella. When she noticed him, she dug into her backpack and pulled out a blue notebook with his name on the cover. "You dropped this in the cafeteria that day," she said. "I've been trying to return it all week, but you never come this way anymore."

4 Sam stared at the notebook and asked, "So that's why you wait here every day?" "No, I wait for my little brother," Lena said, "because the elementary school gets out at three-thirty." Sam looked down at his soaked sneakers, took a breath and made himself say it. "I'm sorry I laughed at you. It was mean." Lena was quiet for a moment before she answered, "Yeah, it was, but thanks for saying it." When her brother came splashing up the sidewalk, Sam walked the rest of the way with them. The short way, it turned out, was not so hard after all.

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.

  1. 1Why does Sam really take the long way home?

    • He feels guilty about laughing at Lena and is afraid to face her.
    • He likes walking by the creek more than walking on Fourth Street.
    • Lena told him in the cafeteria never to walk past her corner.
    • He wants more exercise before his soccer practice.

    Evidence: paragraph

  1. 2In paragraph 2, every time Sam pictures saying sorry, "his throat closed up." What does this phrase show?

    • He has a sore throat from walking home in the cold, pouring rain.
    • He is too angry at Lena to speak to her.
    • He feels too nervous and ashamed to get the words out.
    • He forgets what he meant to say to Lena.

    Evidence: paragraph

  2. 3Which sentences show that Sam was wrong about why Lena waits on Fourth Street? Choose all that are true.

    More than one answer. Fill in every box that fits.

    • "He decided she must be waiting on that wall to tell him off, so he stayed away."
    • "… until Lena looked straight at him and her face went stiff and still."
    • "I've been trying to return it all week, but you never come this way anymore."
    • "No, I wait for my little brother," Lena said …
    • "Yeah, it was, but thanks for saying it."

    Evidence: paragraph

  3. 4How does the rainstorm in paragraph 3 fit into the plot of the story?

    • It explains why Lena is standing at the bus shelter with an umbrella.
    • It makes Sam angry, which is why he finally argues with Lena.
    • It shows that Sam's long walks home have made him sick.
    • It floods the creek path, so Sam must take the street he has avoided.

    Evidence: paragraph

  4. 5Which sentence best states a theme of the story?

    • Facing a mistake is often easier than the fear of facing it.
    • If you avoid a problem long enough, it will go away by itself.
    • People who have been hurt should stay away from the person who hurt them.
    • Losing your things is the best way to meet new friends.

    Evidence: paragraph

Free to copy for home and classroom use · PlayOwl · Grade 6 · The Long Way Home

Reading Comprehension · Grade 6

Name Date

How the Printing Press Changed the World

History · 5 questions · 353 words

1 Six hundred years ago, a book in Europe was a rare and costly treasure. Each one was copied by hand, letter by letter, by trained writers called scribes. Copying one long book could take months. Only rich families and a few schools could afford books. Most people never owned a single book in their whole lives.

2 Around 1450, in the German city of Mainz, a goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg found a faster way. He cast hundreds of small metal letters that could be lined up into words, inked and pressed onto paper. When a page was done, the letters could be taken apart and used again. For the press itself, he borrowed the design of the screw presses that farmers used to squeeze grapes and olives. Gutenberg was not the first to print with movable type. Printers in China and Korea had done it centuries earlier. But his mix of metal letters, oily ink and a strong press worked so well that it spread quickly across Europe.

3 The results were astonishing. A team at one press could print hundreds of copies of a page in a day. In the same time, a scribe might finish only a few pages. By 1500, print shops were running in more than two hundred European cities. Together they had turned out millions of books. As books grew cheaper, ordinary people could buy them, and many more people had a reason to learn to read.

4 Cheap books also changed the way ideas traveled. Hand-copied books often picked up mistakes, because a tired scribe could skip a line or misspell a word. Printed copies were nearly identical, so readers in different cities could study the very same pages. Now a scientist's discovery, a doctor's drawings of the human body or a map of a newly explored coast could reach readers in many countries. Printing even helped settle spelling, because printers wanted words to look the same in every book.

5 Today we send words around the world in seconds. But the idea behind that speed took shape in Gutenberg's workshop: knowledge grows more powerful when many people can share it.

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.

  1. 1Which statement best expresses the central idea of the passage?

    • Gutenberg was the first person in the world to print with movable type.
    • Gutenberg's press made books cheap and common, spreading reading and ideas.
    • Before printing, books in Europe were rare treasures that few people owned.
    • Scribes made fewer mistakes than printers because they worked so slowly and carefully.

    Evidence: paragraph

  1. 2In paragraph 4, printing "helped settle spelling." What does "settle" mean in this sentence?

    • to move to a new place and live there
    • to fix in one agreed way
    • to make shorter and simpler
    • to argue about loudly

    Evidence: paragraph

  2. 3Which sentences support the claim that printed books were more accurate than hand-copied books? Choose all that are true.

    More than one answer. Fill in every box that fits.

    • "Hand-copied books often picked up mistakes, because a tired scribe could skip a line or misspell a word."
    • "For the press itself, he borrowed the design of the screw presses that farmers used to squeeze grapes and olives."
    • "Printed copies were nearly identical, so readers in different cities could study the very same pages."
    • "By 1500, print shops were running in more than two hundred European cities."
    • "Each one was copied by hand, letter by letter, by trained writers called scribes."

    Evidence: paragraph

  3. 4What can you infer about reading in Europe before the printing press?

    • Fewer people could read, partly because books were so hard to get.
    • Most people borrowed books from scribes whenever they wanted something to read.
    • Every child learned to read in school from hand-copied books.
    • People read more before printing because each book was a treasure.

    Evidence: paragraph

  4. 5How does the author organize most of the passage?

    • It tells the story of Gutenberg's life from his childhood to his old age.
    • It compares printing in China and Korea with printing in Europe, step by step.
    • It explains how books were made before the press, how it worked and what it changed.
    • It gives reasons for and against using printing presses, then lets readers decide for themselves.

    Evidence: paragraph