Reading Comprehension — Grade 5

🔊 ListenOne dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And the next day would be Christmas. Della counted the money three times, but it came to the same sad sum. She had been saving every penny for months, and this was the result.

🔊 ListenThere was clearly nothing left to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and cry. So Della cried. For she wished to buy a present for Jim, her husband — something fine and rare, something worthy of the man she loved. And one dollar and eighty-seven cents could not buy it.

🔊 ListenNow, the Youngs had two treasures in which they both took mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch, which had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's long, beautiful brown hair, which fell about her like a shimmering cascade.

🔊 ListenSuddenly Della whirled from the window and stood before the mirror. Her eyes were shining, but her face had lost its color. She let her hair fall to its full length. Then she did it up again with trembling fingers, and hurried out the door and down the stairs to the street.

🔊 ListenWhere she stopped, the sign read: “Madame Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.” “Will you buy my hair?” asked Della. “Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the heavy mass with a practiced hand. With the money clutched tight, Della flew to find the perfect chain for Jim's beloved watch.

🔊 ListenDeep beneath the Earth's surface, it is so hot that rock can melt into a thick, glowing liquid called magma. Because magma is lighter than the solid rock around it, it slowly rises toward the surface, collecting in spaces called magma chambers.

🔊 ListenMagma contains dissolved gases, much like the gas trapped in a bottle of soda. As the magma rises and the pressure on it drops, those gases begin to expand and form bubbles. The bubbles push the magma upward with greater and greater force.

🔊 ListenWhen the pressure becomes too great, the magma blasts out through an opening called a vent. Once magma reaches the surface, it is given a new name: lava. An eruption may send out lava, ash, and rock high into the sky.

🔊 ListenNot all eruptions are the same. Thin, runny lava flows out gently and builds wide, gently sloping mountains. Thick, sticky lava traps more gas and can erupt in a violent explosion, building steep, cone-shaped volcanoes.

🔊 ListenAlthough volcanoes can be dangerous, they also build new land and enrich the soil. Scientists called volcanologists study volcanoes closely, watching for warning signs so they can help keep nearby communities safe.

🔊 ListenThe Wind and the Sun were arguing about which of them was stronger. They were still disputing the question when a traveler came walking down the road, wrapped in a warm cloak.

🔊 Listen“Let us settle it this way,” said the Sun. “Whichever of us can make that traveler take off his cloak shall be called the stronger. You may try first.”

🔊 ListenSo the Sun slipped behind a cloud, and the Wind began to blow. He blew harder and harder, in cold and furious blasts. But the harder he blew, the more tightly the traveler wrapped the cloak around himself. At last the Wind gave up in despair.

🔊 ListenThen the Sun came out from behind the cloud and shone gently down upon the traveler. The man, feeling the pleasant warmth, soon loosened his cloak. As the Sun grew warmer still, the traveler took the cloak off altogether and sat down in the shade to rest.

🔊 Listen“You see,” said the Sun kindly, “gentleness and warmth accomplished what force and fury could not.”

🔊 ListenSaturday morning had come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh. There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. But Tom Sawyer appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. Aunt Polly had ordered him to paint the fence — thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life seemed hollow, and existence but a burden.

🔊 ListenHe dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank, then sat down on a tree-box, discouraged. His friends would come skipping along on all sorts of delicious adventures, and they would make fun of him for having to work. The very thought of it burnt him like fire.

🔊 ListenAt this dark moment an inspiration burst upon him — nothing less than a great, magnificent idea. He took up his brush and went calmly to work. Soon Ben Rogers came in sight, eating an apple. Tom went on whitewashing, paying no attention to him.

🔊 Listen“Hello!” said Ben. “You're up a stump, ain't you? Got to work, hey?” Tom turned suddenly and said, “Why, it's you, Ben! I warn't noticing.” “Say — I'm going swimming. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd druther work — wouldn't you? Course you would!”

🔊 ListenTom looked at his work and said, “Work? Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?” That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Before long, Ben was begging for the brush, and he even gave Tom his apple for the chance to paint. By afternoon, Tom had traded the job to boy after boy — and grown rich in treasures while they did his work.

🔊 ListenTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

🔊 ListenThen took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

🔊 ListenAnd both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

🔊 ListenI shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

🔊 ListenIf you visit the same beach in the morning and again in the evening, the water's edge may be in a very different place. Twice a day the sea slowly rises and then falls. This regular rise and fall is called the tides.

🔊 ListenTides are caused mostly by the Moon's gravity. Although the Moon is far away, its gravity still pulls on the Earth — and especially on the Earth's oceans. The water on the side of the Earth facing the Moon is pulled into a bulge, creating a high tide there.

🔊 ListenSurprisingly, there is a second bulge of high water on the far side of the Earth at the same time. As the Earth spins, different places pass through these bulges, so most coasts have two high tides and two low tides each day.

🔊 ListenThe Sun's gravity affects the tides too, though less than the Moon because the Sun is so much farther away. When the Sun and Moon line up, their pulls combine to make especially high tides. When they pull at right angles, the tides are gentler.

🔊 ListenTides matter to many living things. Animals in tide pools must survive being underwater and then exposed to air. People who fish, sail, or live near the coast study tide charts so they can plan around the changing water.

🔊 ListenBuck had lived an easy life on Judge Miller's sunny estate in California. He had never known cold, or hunger, or cruelty. Then, one night, he was stolen, sold, and shipped far to the north, locked in a crate on a rocking train.

🔊 ListenHis first day on the new land was a nightmare. Every moment was full of shock and surprise. He had been suddenly jerked from the heart of civilization and flung into the heart of things wild and frozen.

🔊 ListenThe first thing Buck noticed when he was let out of the crate was the white, cold something falling through the air. He blinked at it. More of it fell. He sniffed at it, then licked some up on his tongue. It bit like fire, and the next instant was gone.

🔊 ListenThis puzzled him. He tried it again, with the same result. The watching men laughed loudly, and he felt ashamed, though he did not know why. It was his first snow.

🔊 ListenFrom that day Buck began to learn. He learned to dig a warm hole beneath the snow, to eat fast before the other dogs stole his food, and to watch and obey the strong. The soft house-dog of California was waking up, day by day, to the hard wisdom of the wild.

🔊 ListenThe fog comes
on little cat feet.

🔊 ListenIt sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

🔊 ListenA milkmaid was carrying a full pail of milk on her head to the market. As she walked along the country road, she began to dream of all she would do with the money from the milk.

🔊 Listen“With this money,” she thought, “I will buy three hundred eggs. The eggs will hatch into chicks, and I will sell the chicks. With that money I will buy a fine new gown, so grand that every young man at the fair will wish to talk to me. But I will simply toss my head and refuse them all!”

🔊 ListenLost in her daydream, the milkmaid tossed her head — just as she imagined doing at the fair. Down came the pail from her head, and all the milk spilled out upon the road. And with it spilled her eggs, her chicks, her new gown, and all her grand plans. The lesson she learned was this: do not count your chickens before they are hatched.

🔊 ListenSetting goals is a good thing, but wise planners know the difference between a realistic plan and wishful thinking. A realistic plan looks honestly at each step and at what could go wrong along the way.

🔊 ListenExperts suggest breaking a big goal into small steps and asking, “What must happen first?” Each step depends on the one before it. If an early step fails, the later steps may never happen at all.

🔊 ListenGood planners also prepare for setbacks. They keep a backup idea in case something does not go as hoped. By focusing on the next real step instead of only the final dream, planners are far more likely to succeed — and far less likely to be disappointed.