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Student:
Class:
Date:
Read the passage - 'Excerpt from Old Indian Legends: ?Dance in a Buffalo Skull?' - and answer the question
below:
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fire hopped the mice, each bouncing hard on his two hind feet. Some carried their tails over their arms, while
others trailed them proudly along.
Ah, very near are those round yellow eyes! Very low to the ground they seem to creepcreep toward the
buffalo skull. All of a sudden they slide into the eye-sockets of the old skull.
Spirit of the buffalo! squeaked a frightened mouse as he jumped out from a hole in the back part of the skull.
A cat! a cat! cried other mice as they scrambled out of holes both large and snug. Noiseless they ran away
into the dark.
1
frolic: to play
footfalls: footsteps
3 nigh:
near in space
Old Indian Legends: Dance in a Buffalo Skull retold by Zitkala-Sa. Project Gutenberg,
2001. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/338/338-h/338-h.htm#2H_4_0012 (06/15/2012).
1.
In paragraph 10, what does it mean when the author says the mice were
all unconscious of those fearful eyes?
A.
B.
The mice were asleep after all of their dancing and feasting.
C.
The mice were tired and ready for bed while the others sang.
D.
The mice were starting another song at the feast around the fire.
Read the passage - 'Excerpt from Old Indian Legends: ?Dance in a Buffalo Skull?' - and answer the question
below:
2.
In paragraph 10, what does it mean when the author says the mice were
all unconscious of those fearful eyes?
A.
B.
The mice were asleep after all of their dancing and feasting.
C.
The mice were tired and ready for bed while the others sang.
D.
The mice were starting another song at the feast around the fire.
Read the passage - 'Excerpt from Old Indian Legends: ?Dance in a Buffalo Skull?' - and answer the question
below:
Page 3 of 8
3.
In paragraph 10, what does it mean when the author says the mice were
all unconscious of those fearful eyes?
A.
B.
The mice were asleep after all of their dancing and feasting.
C.
The mice were tired and ready for bed while the others sang.
D.
The mice were starting another song at the feast around the fire.
Read the passage - 'Excerpt from Old Indian Legends: ?Dance in a Buffalo Skull?' - and answer the question
below:
4.
Which sentence from the selection shows the mice were having fun in the
dark?
A.
Overhead the stars were twinkling bright their red and yellow lights.
B.
There in a huge old buffalo skull was a great feast and dance!
C.
All the while across the dark from out the low river bottom came that
pair of fiery eyes.
D.
Read the passage - 'Excerpt from Old Indian Legends: ?Dance in a Buffalo Skull?' - and answer the question
below:
5.
In paragraph 3, how does the phrase out of the wooded river bottom
glided forth two balls of fire affect the tone?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Read the passage - 'Excerpt from Old Indian Legends: ?Dance in a Buffalo Skull?' - and answer the question
below:
Page 4 of 8
6.
In paragraph 3, which statement from the selection explains why the cat
was not readily visible?
A.
B.
C.
The dark hid the body of the creature with those fiery eyes.
D.
They came on and on, just over the tops of the prairie grass.
Read the passage - 'Adapted from Soils and Organisms' - and answer the question below:
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map and analyze soil in the field so that farmers apply just the right amount of water and
fertilizer.
While most organisms in the soil are good, a few are bad and can hurt crops.
One bad guy is a fungus called Cercospora Beticola that attacks sugar beets. At the
Northern Plains research lab in Sidney, Montana, scientists are studying ways to fight C.
beticola using friendly fungi that lives in the soil. These friendly fungicalled Laetisaria
arvalisrelease an enzyme that prevents C. beticola from getting the food it needs,
essentially starving the bad fungi and preventing the disease from occuring.
Sidney scientists are also studying ways to increase the number of another beneficial fungi
found in the ground that helps to aggregate the soil and may also aid in weed control.
Soil! Without it we would be naked, homeless and starving. Although we rarely notice the
soils around us, we rely on them to produce our food, clothing, and shelter to clean our water
to play on and in, and as a solid base for our buildings.
Soil is our greatest resource, yet every year soil that could be growing crops or pastures is
lost or damaged by erosion, contamination and overuse or misuse.
Scientists at the Northern Plains research lab in Sidney, Montana, are studying ways to
improve, maintain and save our agricultural soil through both biological and mechanical
methods. Some of those methods include no-till, minimum till, and conventional tillage2 with
different crop rotations to preserve nutrients in the soil.
1aggregate:
2till/tillage:
Which is suggested by the phrase maintain and save our agricultural soil
through both biological and mechanical methods?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Scientists use machines and biology to study how soil works and
grows crops.
Scientists are using farming and agriculture to save soil and make it better.
Read the passage - 'Adapted from Soils and Organisms' - and answer the question below:
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8.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Rock takes hundreds of years to break down, while soil breaks down
quickly.
Read the passage - 'Adapted from Soils and Organisms' - and answer the question below:
9.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Read the passage - 'Adapted from Soils and Organisms' - and answer the question below:
10.
Which explains the concern of scientists and farmers about the loss of soil?
A.
B.
The vast majority of all organisms living in the soil are good guys.
C.
Nature does not always provide the best type of soil for the crops
farmers want to grow.
D.
While most organisms in the soil are good, a few are bad and can
hurt crops.
Read the passage - 'Adapted from Soils and Organisms' - and answer the question below:
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11.
B.
C.
D.
Read the passage - 'Adapted from Soils and Organisms' - and answer the question below:
12.
B.
C.
D.
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