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Released Reading Selections and Assessment Questions, 2019
Released Reading Selections and Assessment Questions, 2019
Junior Division
Grade 6
Language
Assessment of Reading, Writing and Mathematics
Education Quality and Accountability Office, 2 Carlton Street, Suite 1200, Toronto Ontario, M5B 2M9 .
Telephone: 1-888-327-7377 Web site: www.eqao.com, © 2019 Queen’s Printer for Ontario.
.
1 Somewhere near the bottom of the hill, the beast growls. I peer into the swirling morning
mist. I can’t see anything. But that sound —a rumble so low you feel it. It’s coming.
,
3 We run. Our backpacks flap against us. Our breath plumes in the cold air. Our boots pound the
gravel. My brother skids on a murky puddle. His boot cracks the thin film of ice on the water’s
surface. He pauses, pokes it with a toe. I nudge him forward. “There’s no time!” I insist.
4 The beast remains hidden in the dense morning fog, but its groan tells us it’s close. We strain
harder. The corner is so far away.
5 The beast bursts through the mist. Blinding eyes, heavy black brow, yellow-orange flanks
speckled with mud. It hurls itself up the gravel road, gaining ground on us. We’ll never make it.
6 Even my brother knows what’s at stake. His little legs churn up and down, up and down, as
fast as they can go. Our scarves stream behind us like flags. The beast’s groan tells us it’s
close.
7 Then it lets out a squeal. It sees us! It screeches at the corner and then stops to pant and purr.
Waiting.
9 We run.
13 It’s my turn. I take a deep breath. Carrying the two bags, I struggle to climb aboard. The beast
slams its mouth shut behind me.
16 A woman in a blue baseball cap perches on a green seat. She grips the wheel. “Next time I’m
not waiting,” she warns. “It’ll be a long walk to school.”
17 She releases the lever and wrestles the beast into gear. With a grunt and a roar, the school
bus rattles away from the corner and rumbles along to Carley Elementary.
Section A1 Reading: Multiple-Choice
hold
block
comfort
encourage
2: What is the main effect of using short sentences throughout the text?
5: Is Julia a good sister? Explain using specific details from the text to support your answer. (3
typed lines)
6: Explain how the words used in the text help the reader imagine the bus as a beast. Use specific
details from the text to support your answer. (3 typed lines)
Section A 4 Writing: Multiple-Choice
, ,
17: Choose the words that complete the following sentences correctly.
, Blank space., are many things that lead to success in learning. Most importantly, if students
believe in themselves, , Blank space., more likely to have success in , Blank space., learning.
Priceless Treasure
1 On an island about 950 km from the North Pole, a steel vault juts out from the side of a
mountain. Inside this building are some of the riches of the world, guarded by a high-tech
security system. The vault is designed to be protected from both natural disasters and human-
made problems.
3Seed banks have been used as long as people have farmed. The first banks were simple jars,
baskets and bags. But farmers often experienced problems
when it came to storing seeds for food crops such as corn,
oats and wheat. To bugs, mice, birds and other creatures,
seeds are a food source. If the seeds did manage to survive,
they were still at risk of being destroyed by plant diseases and
natural disasters.
4 Scientists understood the importance of saving seeds, so seed banks that could store these
treasures for centuries were created in the scientists’ own countries.
5 But the seeds were still at risk. Crops and farmland were often destroyed during wars and
natural disasters. Thieves raided seed banks to sell the seeds or keep them for their own use.
Scientists became concerned about the extinction of some plants. Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Svalbard. Barents Sea. 1,000 kilometres. Norway. Europe.
Top of the World
6 So where would the world’s supply of seeds be safe? Scientists consulted with many
experts and eventually chose Svalbard, a remote Norwegian archipelago —a collection of
,
7 In 2007, engineers and workers used dynamite to create a tunnel deep inside a mountain on,
an island in Svalbard. Then they created a hallway with three doors, each leading to a
chamber the size of a hockey rink. These three chambers can hold up to 4.5 million varieties of
seeds.
8 The Svalbard Global Seed Vault works a lot like a bank. When a country deposits a specific
type of seed, it owns these seeds and controls what happens to them.
9 As of 2015, the vault holds more than 864,000 seed samples from almost every country in the
world. Seeds are kept a minus 18 degrees Celsius.
Section B1 Reading: Multiple-Choice
to provide an opinion
to provide a definition
to provide a justification
to provide an explanation
finds
drops
stores
borrows
Section B1 Reading: Open-Response
5: Why is there a need to protect seeds in the vault? Explain using details from the text to support
your answer. (3 typed lines)
6: Why is the site ideal for a seed vault? Use information from the text to support your answer.
(3 typed lines)
Section C2 Writing
(1) The girls won the league championship and learn ed that hard work pays off.
n
(2) Kate was excited for a great season of hockey with her hockey team.
(3) Kate’s coach trained her how to play different positions.
(4) Her teammates worked hard every week in practice and listened carefully to their coach
during the drills.
2, 1, 4, 3
2, 3, 4, 1
3, 4, 1, 2
3, 1, 2, 4
3, 4, 1, 2
3, 1, 2, 4
4, 3, 1, 2
4, 1, 3, 2
Stop.
Permissions and Credits
Section A1 Reading
Adapted from “Racing the Beast” by W.H. Beck, from Highlights for Children Magazine, February 2013, volume
68, number 2, issue 736. © 2013 Highlights for Children, Incorporated, Columbus, Ohio. All rights reserved.
Used by permission.
Section B1 Reading
Adapted from “The Vault at the Top of the World” by Aileen Kirkham, published in the August 2015 issue of
Highlights for Children magazine. © 2015 by Highlights for Children, Incorporated, Columbus, Ohio. All rights
reserved. Reprinted with permission.