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ELA 9

English Language Arts 9 · Worksheets

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

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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 this part of a script: “MAYA (without looking up from her phone): Sounds great, Dad. DAD: I said we're moving to Yellowknife. MAYA (looking up): Wait. What?” The stage directions show that Maya

    1. a) was not listening until the news got her attention
    2. b) is excited about the family moving to Yellowknife
    3. c) is upset that her dad keeps asking her questions
    4. d) already knew about the move before Dad said it

  2. The topic is “what it means to belong.” A student plans to write about her family's move from Manila to Fort McMurray. Which focus would best explore the topic?

    1. a) a list of the differences between life in Manila and in Canada
    2. b) the flight from Manila, hour by hour, with every meal described
    3. c) a description of the oil sands industry around Fort McMurray
    4. d) the moment she realized the new town had started to feel like hers

  3. Read this draft email to the principal: “Dear Mr. Patel, I am a Grade 9 student at Westbrook School. The library is closed at lunch, and many students have nowhere quiet to do homework. Last Tuesday I counted 34 students sitting in the hallway with their books out. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Amira Haddad” What is most clearly missing?

    1. a) a polite greeting and a polite sign-off
    2. b) a specific detail that supports her point
    3. c) a sentence explaining who the writer is
    4. d) a clear request for what Mr. Patel should do

  4. Read: “After her father moved out, Jana kept his old work boots by the back door and dusted them every Saturday. In the story's last scene, on the first warm day of spring, she carries them to the donation bin.” Giving the boots away most likely shows that Jana

    1. a) is angry that her father left his boots behind
    2. b) has accepted that her father is not coming back
    3. c) has noticed that the boots are too big for her
    4. d) wants someone else to have warm boots for winter

  5. Read: “In many prairie towns, the outdoor rink survives because of volunteers. They flood the ice late at night, when it freezes best. They shovel it after every snowfall and patch the boards with borrowed tools. Without them, most of these rinks would have closed years ago.” Which sentence best states the main idea of this paragraph?

    1. a) Many outdoor rinks in prairie towns closed years ago.
    2. b) Volunteers are what keep many prairie outdoor rinks going.
    3. c) Prairie towns should pay workers to look after their rinks.
    4. d) The ice is flooded late at night, when it freezes best.

  6. Read: “Great-Grandpa started school in a one-room schoolhouse, a two-mile walk from the farm. In winter, the teacher arrived at seven to light the stove so the ink would not freeze in the inkwells.” The detail about the ink mainly shows

    1. a) how far the students had to walk to school each day
    2. b) that the students wrote mostly in pencil back then
    3. c) how cold the schoolhouse got overnight in winter
    4. d) that the teacher was careless with school supplies

  7. 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) upset that she spilled her hot chocolate
    3. c) nervous and eager about her brother's turn
    4. d) bored after waiting so long in the cold rink

  8. Read Tyler's account: “I am the most patient player on our team. Everyone knows it. So when Devon fumbled the pass for the third time, I only yelled a little, and I only threw my stick once. Honestly, the ref overreacted.” What makes Tyler an unreliable narrator?

    1. a) his actions contradict how he describes himself
    2. b) he gives the reader very little detail about Devon
    3. c) he describes a game that has already ended
    4. d) he is telling the story in the first person

  9. Read: “When the bus broke down for the third time that week, Mr. Tran looked at the steaming engine and said, ‘Well, this is going great.’” Mr. Tran means that

    1. a) he thinks the engine can be fixed quickly
    2. b) he is surprised that the bus broke down
    3. c) things are going badly and he is fed up
    4. d) he is glad the class will miss a test

  10. A poem begins: “I am the last grain elevator in town. / They took my brothers down one by one.” The speaker of these lines is

    1. a) a farmer who owns the elevator
    2. b) the people who took the elevators down
    3. c) the grain elevator itself
    4. d) the poet, telling a personal story

Answer key · Cumulative review

English Language Arts 9 · maddyhelps.com

  1. a) was not listening until the news got her attention — “Without looking up” shows she answered without hearing, and “looking up” marks the moment the news sinks in. Stage directions often show what the lines alone would hide; here, that her “Sounds great” meant nothing.
  2. d) the moment she realized the new town had started to feel like hers — The move is the subject, but belonging is the topic, and only the moment the new town began to feel like home explores it. The flight and the list of differences stay on the move while saying nothing about belonging, which is how a well-written piece loses Content marks.
  3. d) a clear request for what Mr. Patel should do — Amira describes the problem and backs it up, but never asks for anything, so Mr. Patel is left to guess what she wants. Her count of 34 students is exactly the kind of specific detail a strong email needs.
  4. b) has accepted that her father is not coming back — Keeping the boots ready by the door and dusting them week after week stands for waiting for her father, and giving them away stands for letting go. The practical readings ignore that pattern: a symbol builds its meaning through repetition, and here the meaning changes at the end.
  5. b) Volunteers are what keep many prairie outdoor rinks going. — Flooding, shovelling and patching are all things volunteers do, and the first and last sentences say what they add up to. The late-night flooding is true, but it is one supporting detail, not the point the whole paragraph makes.
  6. c) how cold the schoolhouse got overnight in winter — Ink only freezes if the room drops below freezing, so the detail tells you the building had no heat overnight. The two-mile walk is also about hard conditions, but it is a different detail, and the question asks what the ink shows.
  7. 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.
  8. a) his actions contradict how he describes himself — He calls himself the most patient player on the team, then describes yelling and throwing his stick, and the ref clearly saw it differently. That gap between his self-description and his actions is the evidence. First person alone does not make a narrator unreliable; plenty of first-person narrators can be trusted.
  9. c) things are going badly and he is fed up — This is verbal irony: he says the opposite of what he means. The steaming engine shows things are not going great, and a third breakdown in one week rules out surprise.
  10. c) the grain elevator itself — The speaker is the voice in the poem, and here the poet gives that voice to the elevator: “I am the last grain elevator.” Assuming the speaker is always the poet is a common mistake; poets often speak as someone, or something, else.