Grade 7 reading comprehension worksheets

2 worksheets ready to print: The Stopwatch, The Race to the South Pole.

8 more passages in Grade 7 come with a PlayOwl plan. The Storyteller, Who Invented the Telephone?, How Coral Reefs Are Built, The Interview, I'm Nobody! Who Are You?, The History of the Bicycle, Should Schools Start Later?, Houston, We've Had a Problem.

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Reading Comprehension · Grade 7

Name Date

The Stopwatch

Story · 5 questions · 424 words

1 Tessa Halvorsen checked her watch after every single lap, the way some people check their phones for messages. At the end of each practice, she copied her times into a green notebook, and whenever a number went up instead of down, she sulked all the way home. So when Coach Pell announced that the team would leave their watches in their bags for the rest of the season, Tessa was the first to argue, "How will I ever know if I'm getting faster?" Coach Pell lifted the old silver stopwatch that hung around her neck on a faded red cord and said simply, "I'll know."

2 For three weeks, Tessa ran without her numbers, and it felt like walking through a dark house. She kept guessing at every turn of the track: too slow, too fast, too slow again. Coach Pell clicked the stopwatch at the beginning and end of every run, but she never once read a time aloud. Instead she offered comments like "Your arms were loose today" or "You gave up on the last curve again." Tessa rolled her eyes whenever she thought the coach wasn't looking, because loose arms were not something you could write down in a notebook.

3 At the league meet, Tessa lined up for the 1,600 meters, four laps of the track, with nothing on her wrist at all. During the first lap, she reached for a watch that was not there, so she concentrated on her breathing instead. During the second, she noticed her shoulders creeping up toward her ears and deliberately let them drop. By the final lap, two runners were still ahead of her, and her legs felt as heavy as wet sand. On the last curve, exactly where she usually gave up, she pumped her arms harder and caught one of them a single step before the finish line.

4 Afterward, still gasping, Tessa found Coach Pell beside the fence and immediately asked, "What was my time?" The coach unhooked the stopwatch and placed it in Tessa's hand, and Tessa saw that the glass was cracked and both hands were stuck at zero. "It hasn't worked in years," Coach Pell admitted. "I just like the click." Tessa stared at it. "Then how did you know if I was getting faster?" "I watched you," the coach said with a shrug. "Somebody had to, since you were only watching your wrist." That night, Tessa opened her green notebook, and next to the date, where a time usually went, she wrote four words: loose arms, last curve.

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. 1In paragraph 2, running without her numbers "felt like walking through a dark house." What does this simile show about Tessa?

    • She is afraid of running by herself after the sun goes down.
    • She feels unsure, since she cannot tell how fast she is going.
    • She is bored with practicing on the same school track every day.
    • She feels certain she will run her best time at the league meet.

    Evidence: paragraph

  1. 2At the start of the story, how do Tessa and Coach Pell see a runner's progress differently?

    • Tessa thinks progress depends on her coach, and the coach thinks it depends on luck.
    • Tessa thinks progress means beating other runners, and the coach thinks it means having fun.
    • Tessa measures progress in times; the coach sees it in how a runner moves and tries.
    • Tessa thinks she is getting slower, and the coach thinks Tessa is already fast enough.

    Evidence: paragraph

  2. 3Which sentences show Tessa using what Coach Pell told the team during the race? Choose all that are true.

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

    • "During the first lap, she reached for a watch that was not there …"
    • "During the second, she noticed her shoulders creeping up toward her ears and deliberately let them drop."
    • "By the final lap, two runners were still ahead of her, and her legs felt as heavy as wet sand."
    • "On the last curve, exactly where she usually gave up, she pumped her arms harder and caught one of them …"
    • "Afterward, still gasping, Tessa found Coach Pell beside the fence …"

    Evidence: paragraph

  3. 4In paragraph 1, Coach Pell says, "I'll know." What does the end of the story suggest she meant?

    • She meant she would look up Tessa's times in the official meet results.
    • She meant she could judge the times from the sound of the stopwatch.
    • She meant she expected Tessa to tell her how every practice had felt.
    • She meant she would judge Tessa's progress by watching her, not by timing her.

    Evidence: paragraph

  4. 5Which statement best expresses a theme of the story?

    • Keeping careful records of every result is the only sure way to improve.
    • Noticing how you do something can matter more than measuring it.
    • Coaches should always tell their runners the truth about their race times.
    • Old equipment works just as well as new equipment if you take care of it.

    Evidence: paragraph

Free to copy for home and classroom use · PlayOwl · Grade 7 · The Stopwatch

Reading Comprehension · Grade 7

Name Date

The Race to the South Pole

History · 5 questions · 426 words

1 In 1910, two expeditions set out for Antarctica with the same goal: to be the first to reach the South Pole. One was led by Robert Falcon Scott, a British navy officer who had explored Antarctica before. The other was led by Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian who had already sailed the icy Northwest Passage. Amundsen had planned to go to the North Pole. When other explorers claimed to have reached it first, he secretly turned his ship south. He sent Scott a telegram about the change only after he had set sail.

2 The two leaders prepared in very different ways. Amundsen built his whole plan around dogs and skis. Years before, he had learned from the Netsilik Inuit how to drive dog teams and stay warm in loose fur clothing. He chose men who were skilled skiers and dog drivers. Scott brought motor sledges, ponies and dogs, and his men planned to pull their own sledges for the last part of the route. The motor sledges broke down early, and the ponies floundered in the deep, soft snow, sinking and stumbling with every step. Scott's expedition also had a second goal, science, so his teams collected rocks and weather records along the way.

3 Amundsen and four companions set out in late October 1911 with sledges pulled by dogs. They reached the South Pole on December 14 and left a small tent there flying the Norwegian flag. By late January, all five were back at their base, tired but healthy.

4 Scott's group of five reached the Pole on January 17, 1912, after weeks of pulling heavy sledges across the frozen plateau. There they found Amundsen's tent; the Norwegians had arrived about five weeks earlier. On the long trip back, cold, hunger and exhaustion wore the men down. None of the five survived. The last three were stopped by a blizzard only about 11 miles from a large store of food and fuel. In November, a search party found their tent. Their sledge still held about 35 pounds of rock samples, which the men had kept hauling for hundreds of miles.

5 For more than a century, people have argued about why the two journeys ended so differently. Some point to Amundsen's dogs, his skilled skiers and his single-minded focus on the Pole. Others point to bad luck. A scientist who studied old weather records found that March 1912 was much colder than usual on that part of the ice. Today, the American research station at the South Pole is named for both men: the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

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. 1In paragraph 2, the ponies "floundered in the deep, soft snow." What does "floundered" mean?

    • Ran ahead quickly
    • Refused to eat or drink
    • Struggled clumsily to move
    • Rested quietly in warm shelters

    Evidence: paragraph

  1. 2Which statements are central ideas that the passage develops? Choose all that are true.

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

    • The two leaders made different choices about how to travel, and those choices shaped their journeys.
    • Scott's team reached the Pole second because the men did not work as hard as the Norwegians.
    • People still debate why the two expeditions ended so differently, and they point to several causes.
    • Science was the only reason Scott and his men traveled to Antarctica.
    • The North Pole turned out to be much harder to reach than the South Pole.

    Evidence: paragraph

  2. 3Scott's men kept hauling about 35 pounds of rocks even as they grew weak. What does this suggest about them?

    • They thought their scientific work was worth the extra weight and effort.
    • They needed the rocks as weights to keep the sledge steady in strong wind.
    • They did not know the rocks were still packed on their sledge.
    • They planned to give the rocks to Amundsen to prove they had reached the Pole.

    Evidence: paragraph

  3. 4Which sentence best supports the idea that Scott's group may have faced worse weather than anyone expected?

    • "The motor sledges broke down early …"
    • "On the long trip back, cold, hunger and exhaustion wore the men down."
    • "Others point to bad luck."
    • "A scientist who studied old weather records found that March 1912 was much colder than usual …"

    Evidence: paragraph

  4. 5Why does the author most likely end the passage with the name of the research station?

    • To show that Americans were the first people to build at the Pole
    • To show that both explorers are honored, not only the one who arrived first
    • To explain how scientists study the weather at the South Pole today
    • To suggest that Scott deserves more credit than Amundsen does

    Evidence: paragraph