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24 Nonfiction Passages
for Test Practice
Grades 4–5
by Michael Priestley

New York • Toronto • London • Auckland • Sydney
Mexico City • New Delhi • Hong Kong • Buenos Aires

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Scholastic Inc
...
No other part of this publication may be reproduced in
whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of
the publisher
...
, 555 Broadway,
New York, NY 10012
...

Interior illustrations by Kate Flanagan, page 6; Greg Harris, pages 10, 20, 40;
Neil Riley, page 40
Interior photos by Chris Cole/Duomo/Corbis, page 5; Hulton Archive, pages 6, 16, 36;
Duomo/Corbis, page 24; Stock Montage, Inc
...
All rights reserved
...
S
...


24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice
Grades 4–5

Contents
Introduction
...

2
...

4
...

6
...

8
...

10
...

12
...

14
...

16
...

18
...

20
...

22
...

24
...
5
Informational article: Where Did We Get That Word?
...
Peralta
...
9
News story: The Amistad Sails Again
...
12
Informational article: Fighting Fires
...
14
Biography: Sequoyah
...
18
Franny’s Journal
...
20
How-to guide: How to Make a Swan
...
24
Comparison/Contrast: Whales and Dolphins
...
C
...
30
Editorial: School Uniforms? Think Again!
...
34
Speech: “I Will Fight No More Forever”
...
38
Informational article: Beekeeping Basics
...
42
Comparison/Contrast: Bridging the Gaps in New York City
...
46

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Intr oduction to Teachers
Today’s students receive information from an ever-increasing number of sources
...
They must understand what they read in
traditional forms of nonfiction, such as textbooks and news articles, but they must also
comprehend newer forms of nonfiction, such as advertisements on Web sites and e-mail on the
Internet
...


How to Use This Book
The purpose of this book is to provide interesting, well-written nonfiction selections for
students to read
...

This book provides 24 grade-appropriate nonfiction texts in a wide variety of genres, from
informational articles, letters, and biographies to e-mail announcements and how-to guides
...

a set of 2–6 comprehension questions that resemble the kinds of questions students will
see on standardized tests
...
These questions will help you assess students’ comprehension of the material
and will help students practice answering test questions
...
(You will find answers to these questions in the Answer Key beginning on page 46
...
For example, for any given text you could have students
write a summary of the selection in their own words or rewrite the passage from a different
point of view
...
For other texts, you might want to create writing prompts and have students write
full-length essays about what they have learned
...


4

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Name

Te x t 1

Date

Who is Brandi Chastain?

he United States and China were
tied 4–4 in the final game of the
Women’s World Cup soccer match
...
Another forty million
people were watching on TV
...
The ball flew into the upper
right corner of the net
...
S
...
But it was not her only triumph
...
She played on a winning
World Cup team in 1991
...
S
...

Soccer was at the center of her life
...
In 1993, Chastain played for one
season on a professional team in Japan
...
But when she returned home,
she could not continue playing soccer
as a professional
...
The Women’s United Soccer
Association (WUSA) set up eight teams
...

Brandi Chastain was
assigned to play for
San Francisco
...


1
...

C Japan
...

D San Francisco
...


What can you tell about the 1999 U
...
World Cup team from
this article?
F Members of the team had been playing together for many years
...

H The players were not professionals
...
S
...

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

5

Name

Te x t 2

Date

Why is a sandwich called a

The dancer put a cardigan sweater over her leotard
...
Cardigan, leotard, sandwich—where did these words come
from? Did you know that each of them was a person’s name? Words that
come from proper names are called eponyms, and there are
many eponyms in English
...
He lived from
1718–1792
...
By putting cold meat between
two pieces of bread, he could eat while he played
...
In the 1800s, James Thomas Brudenell, the Earl of Cardigan,
spent his own money to buy special knitted jackets for the men in his
regiment
...

Jules Leotard was a French circus performer
...
He became known as the “daring
young man on the flying trapeze
...
Dancers and acrobats still call their
close-fitting garments leotards
...
Bloomer was
the editor of a magazine called The Lily
...
In
1851, a young woman named Elizabeth Smith
Miller introduced a new kind of clothing that
was much easier to move around in
...
Under it
she wore baggy pants that fitted close at the
ankles
...
She hoped women
would adopt the new style
...
”
A hundred years later, people were still
using the word bloomers for pants worn
under a dress
...
The
diesel engine was named for its inventor, Rudolf Diesel
...
Where each word came from is a story in itself
...

1
...
”
The animal’s hard shell looks like armor
...

C Cricket is a word that imitates the sound a cricket makes
...
”
Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, created the word
...


Which of these words came from a person’s name?
F trapeze
G editor
H boycott
J acrobat

3
...


Why did the Earl of Sandwich invent the “sandwich”?

5
...
Peralta do?
October 9, 2001
Mr
...

Newtonville, Nebraska
Dear Mr
...
It was very exciting to
meet a real television personality! We all learned a lot about how you make your
weather predictions
...

After you left, we made a list of what we had learned
...
From now on, one student in the class
will be the weather person every day
...
After a few months, we will start making graphs and charts that
show our weather patterns here in Nebraska
...
Next year’s students
will continue our work
...
Thank you so much for
opening our eyes to this interesting subject
...
J
...
Morse’s Class, Oakview School

1
...


What is Mr
...


8

What is B
...
’s purpose in writing this letter?

Why do you think Mrs
...
Peralta to speak to
her class?

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Name

Te x t 4

Date

TIVVGRMTH! Can you guess what that means?

ould you and your friends like to write secret messages to each other?
If you read this article, you will soon know how to do it
...
A code
gives special meanings to symbols, words, or even a nod of the head
...
Some codes can be used only by people who have
the same code book or computer program
...

Unlike a code, a cipher uses the regular meanings of words
...
Each letter has been changed to something else
...
Words written in cipher are easy to
read once you know the key
...

1) Write the alphabet in one row
...

Place each letter directly under a letter in the first row
...
For example, the word YOU would be BLF
...
If BLF is in the message,
find B in the bottom row
...

People who want to know your secrets might try to figure out the key to your
cipher
...
You can put letters in groups of five: HVXIV GNVHH ZTVHX
ZMYVU FM
...
Put the spaces in the right places
...
”

1
...


2
...
” Peach means “Don’t call
...
”
C Raising the left thumb means “That’s right
...
”

3
...
The ship’s
builders used plans and tools from
the nineteenth century to re-create a
wooden sailing ship
...

The original Amistad became
famous in 1839
...
On board
were 53 Africans who had been
taken from Sierra Leone, their home
country, and shipped to Cuba
...

It was a crime to bring new slaves
into the United States
...
They had broken
it before
...
The Africans
on the ship rebelled
...

The Africans wanted to
sail back to Sierra
Leone
...

There, the Africans were caught, put
in jail, and tried for murder
...

In 1976, Warren Marr, a magazine
editor, came up with the idea of
rebuilding the Amistad
...
For more than
14 years, Marr worked to interest
people in the project
...
That’s
when the project really took off
...

The new Amistad will be both a
ship and a museum
...
Then it will
sail on, carrying its story
of the struggle
for freedom
...


What is the main idea of this article?
A It was a crime to bring new slaves into the United States
in 1839
...

C Warren Marr came up with the idea of rebuilding
the Amistad
...


2
...


In 1839, how did the Africans on the Amistad end up
in Connecticut?

4
...

To make this year’s show the best ever, we are trying to get as
many different kinds of acts as possible
...
We are also hoping to have more family acts with parents and
children performing together
...
Some
of them were too long
...
Each lip-synch group must have at least three people in it
...
Groups
that want to do a lip-synch must choose a song and present
their idea to the Talent Show Committee by February 25
...

Students who want to be in the show should sign up as soon
as possible
...
Mrs
...
Denby will make the final decision about
which acts will be included in the show
...


What kind of selection is this?
A editorial
B review

C
D

announcement
letter to the editor

2
...


12

What was the problem with last year’s Talent Show? What
changes are being made to correct the problem?

If you want to be in the Talent Show, you should —
F sign up in the office
...

H tell Mrs
...
Denby
...

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Name

Te x t 7

Date

What is a bucket brigade?

othing gets people moving faster
than the word fire
...
Their only thought
is to get out of the building fast
...
They
want to put out the blaze as fast as
possible
...

They are trained to put out fires
...
Putting
out fires was everyone’s job
...
When a fire
broke out, everyone ran to
help
...
Men formed one line leading
from the water supply and passed
buckets of water to throw on the fire
...
It was a very slow way to
put out a fire, and many homes
burned to the ground before they
could be saved
...
He convinced a group of
people in Philadelphia to form the
Union Fire Company
...

Today, three out of four American
firefighters are volunteers
...
George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson, and Paul Revere
were all volunteer firefighters,
too, in their day
...


People formed “bucket brigades” to —
A prevent fires from starting
...

B put out fires
...


2
...


How, when, and where was the first fire company formed?

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

13

Name

Te x t 8

Date

What makes you special?

veryone likes to feel that he
or she is special
...
We wish that we could
be better at sports or more attractive
...
Like the Scarecrow,
the Tin Man, or the Cowardly Lion
from The Wizard of Oz, we believe
we’re not good enough just as we
are
...
The Tin
Man wishes he had a heart, and the
Lion wants courage
...

Most parents want us to be the
best we can be
...
They mean
well, but the message we often get is
that we’re not good enough
...
There will always be
someone out there who is better than
we are at something
...
Or they may not
be as good-looking, but they have
more money
...

Like the Scarecrow, the Tin Man,
and the Cowardly Lion, we all want
what we believe will make us better
people
...
Parents
sometimes forget to tell us that we are
special, that we are good enough just
as we are
...
Either way, it’s
up to us to remind them from time to
time that each of us, in our own way,
is special
...
is enough
...


2
...

B parent
...

D coach
...

G smart people are more special than others
...

J we are all good enough just the way we are
...


Why does the author believe it is not a good idea to
compare yourself to others in order to feel special?

4
...


What makes you special? Write a paragraph telling what
you like about yourself
...
Now imagine that same man
creating a brand new alphabet from
scratch
...

Born around 1770 in Tennessee,
Sequoyah was a Cherokee
...
He couldn’t help
noticing, though, how white people wrote
to one another on sheets of paper
...

Back then, the Cherokee had no way to write down words in their own
language
...
So, in 1809, he set out to create an alphabet that the
Cherokee could use to do just that
...
He soon realized that writing sentences using
pictures would be much too difficult
...
No
one would ever be able to remember that many pictures
...
He began to develop
symbols to stand for the sounds, or syllables, that made up words
...

Each one stood for a different syllable in the Cherokee language
...
Soon thousands of
Cherokee were able to read and write in their own language
...
He helped to establish a
print shop and began publishing a bilingual newspaper in both Cherokee
and English
...
In later years, Sequoyah also became a political leader
among the Cherokee
...
Thanks to him, the Cherokee now have a
written history that will never be forgotten
...
The name of Sequoyah
will never be forgotten either
...


Sequoyah is best remembered for —
A not being able to read or write
...

C drawing pictures to represent words or ideas
...


2
...

What were “talking leaves”?

3
...

G He began growing giant redwood trees
...

J He became a political leader
...


Give one reason why Sequoyah’s invention was important
to the Cherokee
...


What did the people of the United States do to
honor Sequoyah?

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

17

Name

Te x t 1 0

Date

What is this Harry Potter book about?

ow would you like to
wake up one morning
and discover that you’re
really a wizard? That is
what happens to Harry Potter in
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,
a novel written by J
...
Rowling
...
His Uncle
Vernon and Aunt Petunia treat him
like dirt
...

Harry sleeps in a tiny closet under
the stairs and wishes that someone
someday would come take him
away
...

Harry has all but given up hope
that it ever will
...
They are addressed
to Harry
...
That’s when
Harry learns that he is a wizard
...

Just like that, Harry Potter goes
from being a nobody to being a
famous wizard
...
They were
done in by an evil wizard, a wizard
so powerful that everyone is afraid
even to say his name: Voldemort
...
If you love action,
you won’t be disappointed
...


1
...


18

In this book, Harry Potter finds out that he is —
A an orphan
...

C an author
...

How does the author of this book review feel about Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer’s Stone? How can you tell?

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Name

Te x t 1 1

Date

On May 17, Franny got quite a scare
...

May 17

I had the scare of my life today
...
Nolan’s house, she asked if I
would mind taking her dog Buster out for a walk
...

We were almost there when this enormous black dog suddenly appeared from out of
nowhere
...
I just stood there frozen, unable to move
...
It was just
awful
...

Thank goodness someone showed up just then
...
The black beast was his
...
His dog had yanked the leash right out of his hand and managed to get away
...

I was still shaking when I got back to Mrs
...
Poor Buster was limping
...
Mrs
...

I helped her load Buster into the car, and we drove right over to the animal hospital
...
I’m not so
sure about me, though
...
Mrs
...
But her kind words didn’t make me feel any better
...


On the way to the park, Buster —
A escaped from Mrs
...

B attacked someone else’s dog
...

bit another dog’s owner
...


Who do you think was really to blame for Buster getting hurt?
Tell why you think so
...


How did Franny feel about what happened to Buster?

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

19

Name

Te x t 1 2

Date

Will the Everglades be lost forever?

100 MI

si m

50

Ki s

0

m

e

e

20

Ri v e

verglades National Park is the
most endangered national
park in America
...
But things that happen
outside the park also affect the life
within it
...
At one time, water
flowed freely in the Everglades
...

Then it flowed into Lake
Okeechobee
...
From there a shallow sheet of
water moved slowly down the
Florida Peninsula
...
This shallow sheet
of water was the Everglades River
...
But it was up to 50 miles
wide and over 100 miles long
...
Today, some of
these plants and animals are in
danger of disappearing forever
...
Canals have been built
to drain most of the shallow river
...

Most of the water from the
Everglades is trapped in manmade
lakes
...
Now it
threatens the wildlife in the park
...

Years ago, large areas of the Everglades were drained and turned into farmland
...
The “river of grass”
is slowly disappearing
...
Many other kinds of plants are
disappearing
...

The problems facing Everglades National Park are very serious
...
Work is already underway to save the Everglades
...
But can they do it? Can they save the
Everglades before it is too late?
1
...


What is the main source of problems in the Everglades?
F The rainy season is too short
...

H Water is no longer allowed to flow freely
...


3
...


4
...


24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

21

Name

Te x t 1 3

Date

What is origami?

If you have ever folded a piece of paper to make an airplane, you were
practicing the ancient Japanese art of origami
...
” In origami, a single sheet of paper is folded in different ways to create
different shapes, such as animals or flowers
...
There is no cutting, gluing, or drawing
...
All you need to get
started is one square sheet of paper
...
Look at the picture
...
Fold the
paper in half as shown, then unfold it
...
)

Step 2
...
Make sure the
edges meet in the middle
...
Make sure the edges do not overlap
or rest on top of each other
...

Step 3
...

(The gray shading means the back of the paper
is showing
...


22

Step 4
...


24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Step 5
...


Step 6
...
You can change what the swan
looks like by changing the length of the neck or of the head
...
Fold the swan in half, as shown
...
Grab the swan by its neck and pull the paper up
...
Then squeeze the
paper at the base of the swan’s neck to crease it
...


What is origami?
A a type of swan
B an old Japanese person

C
D

the art of folding paper
a special kind of paper

2
...


What should you do next after you make the swan’s neck?
F Unfold the paper
...

G Turn the paper over
...


4
...

Born in 1968 in the Dominican Republic,
Sammy Sosa learned early the value of hard
work
...

Everyone pitched in to help support the
family
...

Young Sosa was so busy working, he did
not have much time to play
...
Too
poor to own real equipment, the boys used
tree branches or scraps of wood for bats and
milk cartons for baseball gloves
...

When he was fourteen, Sosa got to play on a real baseball team in his
hometown
...
He worked
hard, and he had a lot of natural talent
...

Shortly after Sosa turned sixteen, he was noticed by a scout for the Texas
Rangers
...
Sosa signed the contract on July 30, 1985, becoming a professional
baseball player at age sixteen
...
He still had a lot to learn about the game
of baseball
...
Then he also started making more mistakes in the field
...

The White Sox were excited about having him
...
Unfortunately, his success did
not last
...
He was
thinking too much
...
In 1992,
the White Sox traded Sosa to the Chicago Cubs
...
They began to work
with him to improve his batting
...
Soon
he was hitting more and more home runs, and he continued to improve
...
He was voted the
National League’s Most Valuable Player that year
...
In 1997, he created the Sammy Sosa Foundation to help people
less fortunate than himself
...
He has donated money to worthy
causes in both the Dominican Republic and in Chicago
...
Sosa’s foundation
also raised $700,000 to help his country
...
Mrs
...
” These words most likely meant more
to Sosa than any award he received that year
...


Which of these events happened first?
A The Texas Rangers traded Sosa to the White Sox
...

C Sosa signed a contract to play baseball in the United States
...


2
...


Why was Sosa most likely traded by the Rangers?

4
...


24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

25

Name

Te x t 1 5

Date

When is a whale not a whale?

here are about 76 different
kinds of whales and dolphins
around the world
...
They are
warm-blooded mammals, like cats,
dogs, and humans
...

Mammals breathe air and cannot
breathe underwater as fish do
...
A few, though, can
stay under for an hour or more
...
There are two main kinds
of cetaceans: those with teeth and
those without
...

Baleen whales, on
the other hand,
do not have
teeth
...
These are used to filter
bits of food from the water
...
One kind of baleen whale,
the blue whale, is the largest
living thing on Earth
...
Names can be confusing,
though, especially when some
dolphins are called dolphins and
some others are called whales
...

The killer whale is one of the
most handsome beasts in the sea
...
The killer whale is marked
with a clear pattern of black and
white, and it is the largest of the
dolphins
...


24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Bottlenose dolphins are probably the best known dolphins
...
They can be trained
to perform jumps, flips, and other exciting moves
...
Sea World’s Shamu® is one
example
...
However, since these are all natural behaviors to begin with,
the question is, who’s training whom? Dolphins and whales are very
intelligent creatures
...


The killer whale is really a —
A dolphin
...

C porpoise
...


2
...

G The killer whale is one of the most handsome beasts in the sea
...

J The blue whale is the largest living thing on Earth
...


What are the two main kinds of cetaceans? Tell how
they differ
...


All dolphins are whales, but not all whales are dolphins
...


24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

27

Name

Date

Te x t 1 6

What did Alicia see in Washington?

en
ut I’ve be
capital, b
’s
ut
the nation
randpa,
ally fun b
ma and G
our trip to
as been re
Grand
about
this would
Dear
D
...
h
you all
I thought
shington,
ed to tell
a
so
I promis
r stay in W anywhere tonight,
write! Ou
g
to
oin
too busy
e’re not g
y favorite
austing
...
You kn
Space M
rite
...
We
s and din
d the M
Today w
Nick like
ts of fossil other beautiful gem
o far
...

things we
the
there
...
It
at night w
ere Saturd nt to the National
Th
got h
we
indoors!)
y much
...
We
music ver
xt day we

...
Th
k and I d
ington M
time look
ic
sh
t of
p there
nn, but N
of the Wa
spent a lo
we were u
ith Aunt A elevator to the top
ile
rt w
e map wh
t stop was
k an
to a conce
studied th
y, we too

...
W
everythin
ouse of
of where
at
a
e
saw the H Lincoln
better ide
d got a gr
a
nd
an
ould have
building a
e saw the
ur of the
that we w
orial
...

e Senate
...
Then w
rial, th
ouse
frican Art
...
Later, w eums here are free
Tuesd
On
Histor
sat on the
the mus
American
and then
n
of
t all
Museum
ture garde
tiful day
...

fter suppe
inia
...

ount Vern Saturday we’re leav
ice cream
visit M
eating
grass
aryland
...

lived
...
C
...


What kind of letter is this?
A a business letter
B a thank-you note

C
D

an invitation
a friendly letter

2
...
C
...


Which museum did Alicia and her family go to first?
A the National Air and Space Museum
B the Museum of Natural History
C the Museum of American History
D the Museum of African Art

4
...


What did Alicia and her family plan to see in Virginia
and Maryland?

6
...
In the boxes on the right, give a
detail from the letter to support each word
you choose
...
She
works with fourth and fifth graders
in an after-school nature program
called Nature Web
...

Q
...
Nature Web is an after-school
program developed by the
McFarlane Nature Center
...
A few years ago, we
noticed that children seem to know a
lot about the rain forest
...

We hope they will want to protect
the region’s natural areas
...
How can kids join Nature Web?
A
...
At those
schools, any fourth or fifth grade
student can sign up to be in a group
...
What will the kids do after they
join Nature Web?
A
...
The naturalists plan
and lead an activity
...
What kind of activities do
you plan?

30

A
...

Often, we hike outdoors to identify
wildlife
...
We follow animal
tracks in the snow
...

We use a microscope to look at life
in a drop of pond water
...

Q
...
We’ve had some wonderful
experiences
...
We wanted
our students to discover how many
different species live in one small
area
...

The idea was to write down every
living thing they saw
...

They ranged from moss and ants to
oak trees and squirrels
...
Why did you decide to become
a naturalist?
A
...
I’m curious about
everything I see and hear
...
I’m just lucky to have
a job that lets me do what I love all
the time
...


The main reason for this interview
with Fiona Walker was to find out about —
A a famous person
...

C her job as a naturalist
...


2
...


Nature Web’s goal is to encourage more people to —
A support the McFarlane Nature Center
...

C use time after school for learning
...


4
...


What does it take to become a naturalist? Name
two things
...
He wants
to solve? Would children really feel
the children in our city’s public
better about themselves if they had
schools to wear school uniforms
...
Parents do not
express themselves through their
have to decide what kind of clothes
clothes
...
And,
creativity
...

for some families
...

what it costs
...

clothes as children from
children to wear outside
rich families
...

make it easier for children of different
Mr
...

committee to vote for his plan
...
Two committee members,
make a decision yet
...
The school committee
they thought it was a good idea
...

should interview students, parents,
Oakley suggested that the schools
and teachers in towns that have
would look much neater
...
They should do
behavior might even improve
...
“Is there
uniforms
...
“I wasn’t aware that
findings
...
”
into a vote on this question
...


Which sentence from the selection is a fact?
A Uniforms help children feel better about themselves
...

C Mr
...

D It would be foolish to rush into a vote on this question
...


Why does Superintendent Russell think school uniforms are a
good idea? List two reasons
...


What is the writer’s opinion of school uniforms? How can
you tell?

4
...


What is your own opinion on school uniforms? Give reasons
for your opinion
...
Yet there was
a time when rulers of this region were
thought to be the richest kings in all the
world
...
D
...
These were the empires of
Ghana, Mali, and Songhay
...
The most important of these
were gold and salt
...
There
was so much gold that the Ghana king
had to control the supply carefully
...

Salt, on the other hand, was very
scarce
...

Most of the salt came from the Taghaza
mines in the Sahara Desert
...
The gold went to the
king, who used it to keep the army and
the government strong
...


The Empire of Ghana

Today, Ghana is the name of a West
African country on the Atlantic coast
...
The country of Ghana
adopted the name in 1957 in honor of
the ancient empire of Ghana
...
” It was a title given to the
rulers of the Soninke people who called
their homeland Wagadu
...

The Soninke people were highly
skilled in metal working
...
This skill
helped them become powerful
...

One farmer could grow enough food for
many people
...
Many men
became soldiers
...

As Wagadu grew in size and power, it
became an important center of trade
...
When they
reached Morocco, they heard
about a land of gold across the
desert
...
The Arabs were
surprised by the power of the
Wagadu army
...


The people of Wagadu had no
written language until the Arabs
came
...
They called the kingdom
Biland Ghana, “the land of the
warrior-king
...
That is why
the first great West African
kingdom is called Ghana rather
than Wagadu
...


In a social studies textbook, this article would most likely
be included in a unit called —
A “The Age of Exploration
...
”
C “The Arab World
...
”

2
...


How did skill in forging iron help make the Soninke
people powerful?

4
...


24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

35

Name

Te x t 2 0

Date

Who was Chief Joseph?

The Nez Percé people lived for many centuries in the part of America we
now call Oregon
...
The settlers wanted the land for themselves, and they had the
United States Army to help them take it
...
In 1877, Chief Joseph surrendered to General Howard of the United
States Army
...
My heart
is sick and sad
...

Chief Joseph and the other survivors of his
band were forced to leave their homeland
...
Many died of
sickness
...
In January 1878, Chief
Joseph delivered a speech to a large gathering
of United States officials and congressmen
...

There has been too much talking by
men who had no right to talk
...
If the white man wants to live
in peace with the Indian he can live in peace
...

Treat all men alike
...
Give them all an even
chance to live and grow
...

They are all brothers
...

Let me be a free man—free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to
trade, where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the
religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself—and I will
obey every law, or submit to the penalty
...


The main purpose of Chief Joseph’s speech in January 1878
was to —
A create misunderstandings between whites and Indians
...

C persuade the U
...
government to let him return to his homeland
...


2
...

G Whites can live in peace with Indians if they respect them as equals
...

J People with freedom to travel and work where they choose will obey
the law
...


What clue do you have that the U
...
government did not believe
Chief Joseph when he said he would “fight no more forever”?

4
...
” What does Chief Joseph mean? Rewrite the sentence,
using your own words to express the same idea
...


Reread the last paragraph of Chief Joseph’s speech
...
You can even go to a Red Sox
baseball game! Your children will have a ball! $179* per night
Big Sky, MT

Hey, dude! Spend a week at the Big Sky Dude Ranch where
you’ll learn to ride horses, camp under the stars, and tend cattle
...
Try the
thrilling Alpine Slide
...

Offers not valid during holiday periods, July 1–6 and September 3–8
...


2
...

H see a Broadway show
...

J ride horses
...


This advertisement gives a special price for each trip
...


Which two places described in this advertisement focus on
nature and doing things outside? Name the two places and
describe what they offer
...


If you could choose one of these five places to visit, which
would you choose, and why? Give at least two reasons
...
Spread some on a slice of toast
...
There’s nothing else quite like it!
Where does honey come from? Bees make it, right? But wait! Bees are
insects
...
To get it, people would search for a hive of wild bees and steal the honey
...
They became beekeepers
...

Later, in about 1500, farmers in Europe began building straw beehives that
looked like baskets turned upside down
...

Around 1850, an American beekeeper invented a better kind of hive called
the hanging movable-frame beehive
...
Inside are
wooden frames where bees build wax honeycombs for storing their honey
...

The amazing thing about a beehive is how much it actually is like a little
factory for making honey
...
A colony has one queen that lays eggs
...

Some bees are guards that protect the hive
...

Honey is made from nectar, a sweet
liquid inside flowers
...
A wax-making bee places the
nectar in a honey cell
...
The nectar is mostly water when
it is first brought to the hive
...
As the water evaporates, the
nectar changes into honey
...


40

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Beekeepers give the bees several months to fill the honeycombs in a
hive
...

Otherwise, they would surely be stung many times as they pull frames
filled with honey from the hive
...
They do this so that the bees will not need to
rebuild the honeycomb
...

No bee can make honey alone
...
We could learn a lot from these little
creatures about working together and getting things done
...


Beekeepers extract honey without breaking the
honeycomb
...


How is a beehive like a factory?

3
...

1
2
3
4

4
...

H Honeybees are useful and interesting creatures
...


24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

41

Name

Te x t 2 3

Date

Can one accident lead to a life ’s career?

One week before my seventh birthday, my sister and I were playing in the
basement with a friend
...
We were taking turns standing on a sturdy toy chest
...
After each successful round, we moved the chest farther from
the bar
...
My mother had just called us for lunch
...
This time I landed
face first on the hard floor
...
A few weeks later, I was fitted with
a brand new pair of front teeth
...
I had lost my baby
teeth before the accident, but my permanent teeth had not yet grown in
...
I loved showing my friends
how I could pop them in and out of my mouth whenever I wanted to
...
When we learned about George Washington at
school, what I remembered best was that he had false teeth
...

They were very uncomfortable
...
This really got me
thinking
...
What hope would I ever have had for a normal smile? My
whole life could have been ruined by an accident at the age of six
...
I might have decided to become
a dentist so that I could help others as I had been helped
...
My grandmother walked from her farm to a one-room schoolhouse
when she was a child
...
I went to a big
school with different teachers for every grade
...
What other parts of our lives
had changed because of inventions? I loved thinking about it
...
I soon tired of learning
about governments, kings, and wars
...
That’s when I discovered archaeology
...
They use them to figure out how people lived
long ago
...

I prefer writing and talking about the things that other people have dug
up
...
The exhibits I set up help
visitors understand how people’s lives have changed over time
...
I think about it every time I brush my teeth!
1
...


What does the author of this article do in her job?
F She fixes people’s teeth
...

H She invents things that change people’s lives
...


3
...


Why did the author decide to study archaeology?

5
...
But
different parts of the city are separated by water
...
They needed bridges
...
Long
bridges in those days usually rested on a series of solid supports
...
Roebling wanted to build a suspension
bridge that hangs in the air
...
Ships would be able to sail underneath
...
It would
be much longer than any
suspension bridge yet built
...
But he
died suddenly before work
began
...

The most dangerous part of
the job was sinking the
foundations that would support the towers
...
When they came up, they often experienced terrible
pain
...
Today, we know that
people working deep under water need to come up slowly to let their bodies
adjust to the change in pressure
...
Washington Roebling himself became too ill to leave his bed
...

In 1872, work on the towers began
...
Then thousands of thin steel wires were strung from
Brooklyn to Manhattan and attached to the towers
...
This
was the first time that steel cables had been used for a bridge
...
Then extra cables were added for strength
...
It
had a main span of 1,595 feet—the longest in the world
...
The bridge was not only a great feat of
engineering, it was also a beautiful sight
...
It would have to cross
the Hudson River and would be longer than any bridge yet built
...
His
bridge would have a main span of 3,500 feet—more than twice that of
the Brooklyn Bridge! It would arch 200 feet above the river
...
The steel cables would be three
feet thick
...
It was completed just four years
later
...
It
was thinner and more graceful than any suspension bridge built before
...
And it was now home to two of the most beautiful
bridges in the world
...


Compared with the George Washington Bridge, the
Brooklyn Bridge is —
A taller
...

B older
...


2
...


3
...
A Soccer Superstar
1
...
H
2
...
B
2
...
It is about eponyms, or words that come
from people’s names
...
He could eat while playing cards without
stopping the game
...
Bloomers are pants worn under a dress
...
”
3
...
Peralta
1
...
Peralta
...
Mr
...

3
...
She wanted Mr
...

4
...
GREETINGS!
2
...
A code gives special meanings to symbols
or words; a cipher uses the regular meaning
of words, but each letter is changed to
something else
...
The Amistad Sails Again
1
...
Answers will vary but should indicate that
African slaves on board the ship rebelled
and won their freedom
...
They wanted to return to Africa, but they
were not experienced sailors, and the ship’s
crew fooled them
...
Answers will vary
...

6
...
C

46

2
...
This year only six lipsynch acts can be in the show and each
group must limit its time to five minutes
...
F

7
...
B
2
...
Women and children formed another
line to pass the buckets back
...
In 1736, Benjamin Franklin convinced a
group of people to form the Union Fire
Company in Philadelphia
...
On Being Yourself
1
...
J
3
...

4
...

5
...

9
...
D
2
...

3
...
Example: It enabled the Cherokee to
record their own history
...
The giant redwood tree and a national park
were named after him
...
The World of Harry Potter
1
...
The author of this review likes the book
...
”

24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

11
...
C
2
...
The owner of the black
dog was most at fault because he did not
have control of his dog
...
Franny felt awful, upset, or terrible; she
felt that the incident was her fault; she
felt guilty
...
A
1
...

3
...

4
...
You can infer the author’s view
from statements such as “done more
harm than good” and the use of words
such as “threaten
...
How to Make a Swan
1
...
The dotted lines in the drawings show
where to fold the paper
...
J
4
...
This will help the swan
keep its shape, or will keep the swan
from unfolding
...
A
1
...

3
...
He was
making a lot of mistakes
...

4
...
He created the
Sammy Sosa Foundation to help others
less fortunate than himself
...


15
...
A
2
...
Toothed whales and baleen whales
...
The baleen
whales do not; instead they have large
hanging plates called baleen
...
There are two types of whales: toothed
whales and baleen whales
...

16
...

2
...

4
...


Letter from Washington, D
...

D
F
C
the National Zoo
They were going to see Mount Vernon in
Virginia and the wild ponies in Maryland
...
Examples: Alicia is enthusiastic (or
excited)
...
She is honest
...
She is appreciative
...


17
...

2
...

4
...

5
...


18
...
C
2
...
Parents do not have to
decide what kind of clothes to buy for
school
...
Uniforms help children feel
better about themselves
...


24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources

47

3
...
The writer says that uniforms
“crush creativity” and suggests other
problems with uniforms
...
Example: The writer recommends that the
school committee gather more information
and hold public meetings to discuss the
issue before voting
...
Answers will vary
...


19
...
B
2
...
Answers will vary
...
Because one farmer could
produce food for many people, more men
could serve as soldiers
...

4
...

20
...

2
...


Will Fight No More Forever”
C
G
Example: The government would not
let him return to his homeland even after
he surrendered
...
Example: People who are born free cannot
be happy when they are forced to live in
one place and are not allowed to go where
they please
...
Opinions and reasons will vary
...
Crockett Travel Agency
1
...
J
3
...
Lake Tahoe offers beautiful scenery,
mountain climbing, mountain biking, and
an alpine slide
...

5
...
Students should choose
one of the five places and give two or more
reasons for their choice
...
Beekeeping Basics
1
...
Examples: The work is done in steps; the
bees all work together to make something
that one bee could not make alone
...
Answers will vary
...

4
...
How I Came to the Museum
1
...
J
3
...
The story
of Washington’s teeth helped her realize
how lucky she was to have good-looking,
comfortable false teeth
...
She was interested in how ordinary people
lived long ago
...
Examples: tools a dentist would have used
long ago, wooden false teeth
...
Bridging the Gaps in New York City
1
...
Examples: Both are suspension bridges;
boats can sail underneath; at the time each
was built, it was the longest suspension
bridge ever built; both use steel cables;
each connects Manhattan with a nearby
community; both bridges are beautiful
...
Answers will vary
...
Many
people got sick while working on it
...
Building
materials and techniques improved
between the 1880s and the 1920s
...


24 Nonfiction Passages for Test Practice: Grades 4-5 © Michael Priestley, Scholastic Teaching Resources



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