maddyhelps

ELA 7

English Language Arts 7 · Worksheets

Cumulative review

Ten questions of mixed difficulty, covering Paragraphs, Poetry, Reading for meaning, Sentences and conventions, Stories, Writing a story. Print it, or work through it on screen — the answer key starts on its own page.

All worksheets

Cumulative review

English Language Arts 7 · maddyhelps.com

Name
Date
Score
/ 10

Circle the best answer for each question. Use the space to note the evidence or reasoning that decided it.

  1. Which sentence uses commas correctly?

    1. a) We packed sandwiches, apples, water and sunscreen.
    2. b) We packed, sandwiches apples water and sunscreen.
    3. c) We packed sandwiches apples, water, and, sunscreen.
    4. d) We, packed sandwiches, apples water and sunscreen.

  2. In a student's story, the “monster” in the barn turns out to be a lost calf. The student wants readers to be surprised. Which plan will work best?

    1. a) Open with the calf's owner searching the fields for it.
    2. b) Tell the whole story from the lost calf's point of view.
    3. c) Explain in the very first paragraph that the noise is a lost calf.
    4. d) Show only the scary sounds and shadows until the barn door opens.

  3. A source says: “Burrowing owls often nest in holes that ground squirrels and badgers have already dug.” Which is the best paraphrase?

    1. a) Burrowing owls dig deep holes of their own in the ground to make their nests.
    2. b) Burrowing owls often nest in holes that badgers and ground squirrels have already dug.
    3. c) Burrowing owls often make their nests in holes that ground squirrels and badgers dug.
    4. d) For their nests, these owls often take over old ground squirrel and badger burrows.

  4. A student wants this to be a haiku (/ marks a line break): “The wind is blowing / across the empty schoolyard / the swings move by themselves.” What needs to change?

    1. a) The middle line has too many syllables in it.
    2. b) The last line has six syllables and needs five.
    3. c) The lines need to rhyme at the end, like a song.
    4. d) The poem needs a fourth line to finish the idea.

  5. Read: “Beavers are sometimes called nature's engineers. A single beaver family can cut down hundreds of trees in a year. Their dams hold back streams and turn dry meadows into ponds, and soon ducks, frogs and moose move in.” Which sentence best states the main idea?

    1. a) Ducks, frogs and moose like to live near ponds.
    2. b) Beavers change the land around them in big ways.
    3. c) Beavers should be kept away from dry meadows.
    4. d) A beaver family can cut down hundreds of trees a year.

  6. Read: “Coach told us to bank our energy in the first half, because the other team always gets tired near the end.” In this sentence, “bank” most nearly means

    1. a) a place to keep money
    2. b) tilt to one side while turning
    3. c) save for later
    4. d) the ground beside a river

  7. Read: “Noah stood at the edge of the deep end for a long time. He looked down at the water, then back toward the shallow end. When the instructor called his name, he took one step backward.” Noah is most likely feeling

    1. a) annoyed at the instructor for calling him
    2. b) cold from standing beside the pool
    3. c) afraid of going into the deep water
    4. d) bored of waiting for his turn to swim

  8. Read: “Maya's team was losing the final 3–0. But what worried her most was that Eva, the goalie and her best friend, had not spoken to her since their fight on Friday. Every time the ball went in, Maya looked at the net, not at the scoreboard.” The conflict that matters most to Maya is

    1. a) her falling-out with Eva
    2. b) her coach's anger about the score
    3. c) her fear of losing the final
    4. d) the team that is winning 3–0

  9. Read (/ marks a line break): “Everyone went in for supper. / The field went dark. / I stayed out, / alone.” Putting “alone” on a line by itself mainly

    1. a) shows that the speaker went in for supper too
    2. b) speeds up the ending so the poem finishes quickly
    3. c) makes the reader pause on the word, so it stands out
    4. d) makes “alone” rhyme with the word “dark” above it

  10. Which revision fixes the run-on sentence “The lights went out we lit some candles”?

    1. a) The lights, went out we lit some candles.
    2. b) The lights went out we lit, some candles.
    3. c) The lights went out. We lit some candles.
    4. d) The lights went out, we lit some candles.

Answer key · Cumulative review

English Language Arts 7 · maddyhelps.com

  1. a) We packed sandwiches, apples, water and sunscreen. — Commas separate the items in a list: sandwiches, apples, water and sunscreen. (A comma before “and” is also fine if you use it every time.) A comma never goes between a verb and what it acts on, as in “We packed, sandwiches.”
  2. d) Show only the scary sounds and shadows until the barn door opens. — A surprise only works if the reader does not know the answer until the character does, so the writer holds it back. Telling the story from the calf's point of view sounds creative, but the reader would know it was a calf from the first line, and the owner's search gives it away too.
  3. d) For their nests, these owls often take over old ground squirrel and badger burrows. — A paraphrase keeps the meaning but uses your own words and your own sentence. Swapping “badgers” and “ground squirrels” or changing a word or two leaves it the writer's sentence, and saying the owls dig their own holes changes the facts.
  4. b) The last line has six syllables and needs five. — A haiku has three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. The first two lines are right, but “the swings move by themselves” has six, so one syllable has to go (“swings move by themselves” works). Haiku do not need to rhyme, which is the most common wrong idea about them.
  5. b) Beavers change the land around them in big ways. — The trees, the dams and the new ponds all show beavers reshaping the land, and “engineers” in the first sentence names that idea. The hundreds of trees is true, but it is one detail that supports the point, not the point itself.
  6. c) save for later — Here “bank” is something the players are told to do with their energy, and the rest of the sentence explains when they will need it. “A place to keep money” is the meaning most people know first, but it names a thing, not an action, so it does not fit this sentence.
  7. c) afraid of going into the deep water — Looking back toward the shallow end and stepping away when he is called show he wants to get away from the deep water, not into it. Nothing in the passage mentions shivering, so “cold” is a guess about pools in general rather than something this passage shows.
  8. a) her falling-out with Eva — The passage says so directly (“what worried her most”) and then shows it: she watches Eva's net, not the score. The game is the biggest thing happening, which is why it tempts, but the conflict that matters is the one the character cares about most.
  9. c) makes the reader pause on the word, so it stands out — A line break is a small pause, and a word with a line all to itself gets the reader's full attention, so the poem ends on the feeling of being alone. “Dark” and “alone” do not rhyme, and “I stayed out” shows the speaker did not go in.
  10. c) The lights went out. We lit some candles. — The run-on is two complete sentences with nothing between them, and a period splits them correctly (so would a comma plus “so”). A comma on its own is not strong enough to hold two sentences together; that mistake is called a comma splice.