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ELA 9

English Language Arts 9 · Worksheets

Year-end challenge

Ten questions of mixed difficulty, covering Business email, Ideas and details, Poetry and drama, Story, Theme and purpose. Print it, or work through it on screen — the answer key starts on its own page.

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Year-end challenge

English Language Arts 9 · 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. Read: “Priya checked the scoreboard, then her phone, then the scoreboard again. When her brother skated onto the ice for the shootout, she stood up so fast that her hot chocolate tipped over. She did not even look down.” Priya is most likely feeling

    1. a) confused about what the score of the game is
    2. b) bored after waiting so long in the cold rink
    3. c) nervous and eager about her brother's turn
    4. d) upset that she spilled her hot chocolate

  2. Read: “Every spring, Mr. Dziedzic planted his garden in perfect rows and pulled every weed the day it appeared. His neighbour let hers grow wild. In August, a hailstorm flattened his rows. Her tangle of sunflowers, squash and weeds bent under the hail and mostly stood back up.” Which theme does the passage best suggest?

    1. a) Things kept too perfect can be more fragile than messy ones.
    2. b) Neighbours should learn to accept each other's differences.
    3. c) Gardeners should never pull the weeds from their gardens.
    4. d) Hailstorms are among the worst dangers a garden can face.

  3. Read this part of a script: “GRACE (to Liam): Of course I'll help you study for the test. (turning to the audience) The test I already saw on Ms. Ruiz's desk.” The words after “(turning to the audience)” are

    1. a) a stage direction, telling the actor what to do
    2. b) an aside, heard by the audience but not by Liam
    3. c) a flashback, showing an earlier scene in the play
    4. d) a monologue, spoken at length to the other characters

  4. Two descriptions of a new skatepark. Text 1: “A 1.5-metre bowl, a flow section, and rails for every level.” Text 2: “Free parking, washrooms open 8 to 8, and a fence between the bowl and the playground.” Text 2 is most likely written for

    1. a) the city crew who will build the skatepark
    2. b) experienced skaters looking for a new challenge
    3. c) designers planning the next skatepark in town
    4. d) parents deciding whether to bring young children

  5. Read: “For years, our school's recycling program was held up as a success: a blue bin in every classroom, posters in every hallway. Then the student council sorted one week of what went into the bins. More than half of it was garbage the recycling plant would reject. The bins were full; the program was not working.” Which statement best expresses the main idea?

    1. a) The program looked successful but was failing in practice.
    2. b) Recycling plants reject most of what schools send them.
    3. c) The school put a blue bin in every one of its classrooms.
    4. d) The school's recycling program was a great success.

  6. Read: “The answer key had slipped out of Mr. Brandt's folder, and nobody had seen it fall. Ayla thought about her mark, and about her mother's face when she opened the last report card. Then she thought about Mr. Brandt, who had stayed after school three times to help her.” The main conflict here is best described as

    1. a) Ayla against herself, over whether to use the key
    2. b) Ayla against the school and its rules on cheating
    3. c) Ayla against her mother, who is angry about marks
    4. d) Ayla against Mr. Brandt, who marks too strictly

  7. You are asking the town council for a crosswalk on Main Street at your school's corner. Which supporting detail would be most persuasive?

    1. a) Crosswalks have been shown to reduce accidents in cities all around the world.
    2. b) Main Street is a very busy road, and a lot of students have to cross it each day.
    3. c) On three mornings last week, I counted 112 students crossing at the school corner.
    4. d) Many parents I know have told me that they worry about the Main Street corner.

  8. Read this poem (/ marks a line break): “All summer the canola burned yellow to the fence, / the whole field loud with bees and light. / Now the swathers have been through, / the rows laid down like folded laundry, / and my sister's room is boxes by the door.” The last line changes the poem's focus by

    1. a) linking the end of summer to the sister leaving home
    2. b) revealing that the speaker is moving to the city
    3. c) showing that this year's harvest has been a failure
    4. d) adding one more detail about the farm's harvest work

  9. In a story, Wren refuses to lend her notes to a classmate who was sick for a week. Later, Wren breaks her arm and falls behind, and that same classmate is the first to offer help. Which statement best expresses a theme of this story?

    1. a) Generosity means helping even people who did not help you.
    2. b) A broken arm can make it very hard to keep up at school.
    3. c) Students who miss a week of school can fall far behind.
    4. d) Wren should have lent her notes to her sick classmate.

  10. Read: “All season, Ben had played for the highlight — the end-to-end rush, the goal that would get him noticed. In the final game, with ten seconds left, he saw Carter open beside the net. Ben passed. Carter scored. On the bus home, Ben could not stop grinning.” Which theme does this passage best suggest?

    1. a) People who want attention never succeed.
    2. b) Hockey players should always pass the puck.
    3. c) Winning the final game is all that matters.
    4. d) Success can mean more when it is shared.

Answer key · Year-end challenge

English Language Arts 9 · maddyhelps.com

  1. c) nervous and eager about her brother's turn — Checking the scoreboard over and over and jumping up the moment he skates out show nervous excitement. The spill tempts some readers toward upset, but she does not even look down, so her attention is entirely on her brother.
  2. a) Things kept too perfect can be more fragile than messy ones. — The neat garden that breaks and the tangled one that recovers point to a general idea about perfection and toughness. “Never pull weeds” turns that idea into a literal gardening rule, and the two neighbours never interact, so nothing here is about accepting each other.
  3. b) an aside, heard by the audience but not by Liam — An aside is a short line spoken to the audience that the other characters cannot hear, which is how the audience learns Grace's secret. The words in brackets are the stage direction; the words after it are Grace's line.
  4. d) parents deciding whether to bring young children — Parking, washroom hours and a fence to keep little kids away from the bowl are what a parent checks before a trip. The details a writer chooses show who the writer has in mind; Text 1's bowl and rails are the ones aimed at skaters.
  5. a) The program looked successful but was failing in practice. — The paragraph sets up the success story in order to knock it down; the turn at “Then” and the last sentence carry the main idea. Picking the opening claim is the usual mistake, and “most of what schools send” stretches one week at one school into a claim about every school.
  6. a) Ayla against herself, over whether to use the key — Nobody saw the key fall, so nothing outside Ayla is stopping her; the struggle is happening in her own head. Her mother and Mr. Brandt are pressures she weighs, not opponents, and the school's rules are never mentioned.
  7. c) On three mornings last week, I counted 112 students crossing at the school corner. — The count is specific, about this exact corner, and something council could check. The worldwide claim sounds impressive but says nothing about this street, and “very busy” and “many parents” are general; the scoring guide rewards specific, precise details.
  8. a) linking the end of summer to the sister leaving home — The poem moves from a bright, full summer to a field cut down and folded away, and the boxes show what that change stands for: the sister is leaving. Reading the last line as one more harvest detail misses the turn, and the boxes are in the sister's room, not the speaker's.
  9. a) Generosity means helping even people who did not help you. — The classmate helps Wren after Wren refused to help her, which shows generosity that does not wait to be earned. Saying Wren should have lent her notes is a judgment about one character; a theme is an idea that reaches beyond the story.
  10. d) Success can mean more when it is shared. — Ben changes from wanting his own highlight to grinning over someone else's goal, and a theme usually lives in a change like that. “Always pass the puck” shrinks the idea to a hockey rule, and “never succeed” overgeneralizes.