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ELA 8

English Language Arts 8 · Worksheets

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Ten questions of mixed difficulty, covering Character and plot, Mood, tone and theme, Reading closely, Research, Sentences and conventions, Writing and revising. Print it, or work through it on screen — the answer key starts on its own page.

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English Language Arts 8 · maddyhelps.com

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

  1. Which sentence uses hyphens correctly?

    1. a) My cousin is a fourteen-year-old goalie.
    2. b) My cousin is a fourteen year-old goalie.
    3. c) My cousin is a fourteen-year old goalie.
    4. d) My cousin is fourteen-years-old.

  2. You are writing about what the very first Calgary Stampede, in 1912, was like. Which source is most useful?

    1. a) a 1990s novel set at an imaginary rodeo in southern Alberta
    2. b) a 2024 blog post listing the writer's favourite Stampede rides
    3. c) the Stampede's official website describing this year's events
    4. d) a Calgary newspaper report written during the 1912 Stampede

  3. You are writing to the town council to ask for a crosswalk near your school. Which sentence has the most appropriate tone?

    1. a) If someone gets hurt on 12th Street, it will be all your fault.
    2. b) It's honestly crazy that there's still no crosswalk on 12th Street.
    3. c) You need to build a crosswalk on 12th Street right now, no excuses.
    4. d) A crosswalk on 12th Street would make the walk to school much safer.

  4. Read: “For three summers, Amara and her grandmother tended the garden together, though Amara mostly complained about the weeds. The spring after her grandmother died, Amara found herself kneeling in the dirt, pulling weeds one by one, exactly the way she had been taught.” Which statement best expresses a theme?

    1. a) Young people should always listen to their grandparents.
    2. b) The people we love can shape us in ways we only notice later.
    3. c) Gardening is hard work, but the vegetables are worth the effort.
    4. d) Amara misses her grandmother very much after she dies.

  5. Read: “A chinook is a warm, dry wind that pours down the eastern slopes of the Rockies in winter. In a few hours, it can raise the temperature in southern Alberta by twenty degrees. Snow slides off roofs by noon, and people who left home in parkas walk around with them tied at their waists.” Which sentence best states the main idea?

    1. a) The Rockies have the warmest winter weather anywhere in Canada.
    2. b) A chinook can change a winter day in southern Alberta very quickly.
    3. c) During a chinook, the snow slides off the roofs of houses by noon.
    4. d) People in southern Alberta often carry their parkas instead of wearing them.

  6. Read: “All afternoon the lake had been calm. Then the sky over the far shore turned an ominous green-black, the birds went quiet, and the lifeguard began waving everyone out of the water.” In this passage, “ominous” most likely means

    1. a) strange and beautiful to look at
    2. b) calm and still, like the lake
    3. c) warning that something bad is coming
    4. d) dark because night is falling

  7. Read: “The gym smelled of popcorn. Parents squeezed into the bleachers holding up their phones, and the Grade 8 band sat in rows of folding chairs, adjusting their music stands one last time.” What is most likely about to happen?

    1. a) the parents are getting ready to leave
    2. b) the band is about to start a practice
    3. c) the band is about to play a concert
    4. d) a basketball game is about to begin

  8. Read: “All weekend, a blizzard kept Leon's family snowed in at the cabin. All weekend, Leon tried to find the right moment to tell his dad he wanted to quit hockey, the sport his dad had played and coached for twenty years. On Sunday the storm ended, and on the drive home, Leon finally said it.” Which conflict is the story mainly about?

    1. a) Leon's struggle to tell his dad a hard truth
    2. b) the family against the rules of the league
    3. c) Leon against the other players on his team
    4. d) the family's fight to get through the blizzard

  9. A story's theme is “Real courage often looks ordinary.” Which scene would best support that theme?

    1. a) A girl wins the provincial speed-skating title by a tenth of a second.
    2. b) A boy climbs the tallest tree in the park because of a dare.
    3. c) A shy boy tells his teacher he was the one who broke the window.
    4. d) A firefighter carries a child out of a burning building at night.

  10. Read: “The power went out at seven. Dad lit a row of candles on the table, and we play cards until midnight.” Which word should change to keep the verb tense consistent?

    1. a) lit, which should be lights
    2. b) No word needs to change.
    3. c) play, which should be played
    4. d) went, which should be goes

Answer key · Cumulative review

English Language Arts 8 · maddyhelps.com

  1. a) My cousin is a fourteen-year-old goalie. — When a group of words works as one adjective before a noun, it is hyphenated all the way through: a fourteen-year-old goalie. After the verb, as in “My cousin is fourteen years old,” the words do not sit in front of a noun, so they take no hyphens.
  2. d) a Calgary newspaper report written during the 1912 Stampede — For a question about 1912, a report written by someone who was there is the best source, even though it is more than a hundred years old. The official website is reliable and up to date, but being current only matters when the question is about now, and this one is not.
  3. d) A crosswalk on 12th Street would make the walk to school much safer. — A letter to people in charge should be polite and give a reason they can act on. “Honestly crazy” is too casual for the reader, and ordering or blaming the council makes its members defensive instead of willing to help.
  4. b) The people we love can shape us in ways we only notice later. — Amara complained about the work, yet after her grandmother is gone she does it exactly as she was taught: the grandmother's influence outlasts her. “Listen to your grandparents” sounds like a lesson, but the story never shows what happens when someone does not listen; a theme has to come from what the story shows.
  5. b) A chinook can change a winter day in southern Alberta very quickly. — Every detail, from the twenty-degree jump to the melting snow and the parkas, shows how fast a chinook changes the day. The snow sliding off roofs is true, but it is one piece of evidence for that idea, not the idea itself.
  6. c) warning that something bad is coming — The clues around the word are signs of danger: the birds go quiet and the lifeguard clears the water. A green-black sky is unusual, which tempts readers toward “strange and beautiful,” but the people in the passage treat it as a threat.
  7. c) the band is about to play a concert — Parents crowding in with phones ready and a band making last adjustments point to a performance. The gym and the bleachers suggest a basketball game, but nothing in the passage mentions players, and the band is the group getting ready.
  8. a) Leon's struggle to tell his dad a hard truth — The story builds toward the moment Leon speaks, and that moment is its climax, so his struggle to find the courage is the main conflict. The blizzard is the loudest thing in the passage, but it only traps the two of them together; the storm ending on Sunday settles nothing that matters.
  9. c) A shy boy tells his teacher he was the one who broke the window. — Owning up to a broken window is a small, everyday act that still takes courage, which is exactly what the theme claims. The firefighter is brave too, but a rescue from a burning building is the opposite of ordinary, so it would support a different point.
  10. c) play, which should be played — The passage tells what already happened, so each verb stays in the past: went, lit, played. Changing “went” or “lit” to the present would still leave the passage mixing tenses, because the other past-tense verb would still be there.