Quizalize

https://app.quizalize.com/view/quiz/42a-determine-the-meaning-of-academic-english-words-ee9ba068-e706-4d40-a47f-f98bb4507c96

Grade 4

4.2.A: Reading - Vocabulary Development

4.2.A Determine The Meaning Of Academic English Words

A Dessert with a Long History

1. When it’s hot outside, there’s nothing better than ice cream to cool you down. But it hasn’t always been possible to order a scoop of ice cream at your local ice-cream shop.

2. Hundreds of years before there were electric freezers, people in China made frozen desserts by mixing milk with snow and spices. The Roman emperor Nero sent his fastest runners into the mountains to gather snow. The snow was brought back before it could melt and was mixed with honey, nuts, or fruit juice.

3. The Chinese and Roman treats were unlike today’s ice cream. These desserts were made with small pieces of frozen ice and were similar to snow cones. By the 1600s flavored dishes in which cream was combined with ice were being produced in several European countries. These desserts looked and tasted more like the kind of ice cream served today.

4. When people came from Europe to America in the 1700s, they brought their recipes for ice cream with them. But the frozen treat did not become very popular. It was difficult to find and keep the ice needed to make the dessert. It took a long time to mix the ingredients, and then the mixture had to be frozen for several hours before it could be eaten.

5. All that changed thanks to Nancy Johnson of Pennsylvania. In the 1840s Johnson invented an ice-cream maker that enabled people to make the dessert faster than they could by mixing it by hand. The machine, which could easily be used in the home, froze the ice cream as it was being made. Similar machines are still used today.

6. Ice cream wasn’t placed into a cone until 1904. A man selling crispy waffles at a fair noticed that people would leave his stand and go to the ice-cream booth. They would then drop their ice cream onto his waffles. This gave him the idea of rolling a waffle into a cone shape. The ice-cream cone was born!

7. Years later, in 1920, Harry Burt decided to start making ice-cream treats. Burt, a candy maker, covered a small block of vanilla ice cream with thick chocolate. His daughter said that it was good but too messy. Burt’s son suggested that he put the ice cream on a stick the same way he would a lollipop. Burt did just that and made the first ice-cream bar on a stick. 

8. More ice cream is eaten in the United States than in any other country. Every July U.S. ice-cream companies celebrate National Ice Cream Month. The companies spend lots of time testing new flavors such as chunky chocolate cherry and berry blast. Still, the most popular flavor is that all time favorite: vanilla.

If you “scream for ice cream,” here is an easy way for you and your friends to mix up a batch. Ingredients:
6 tablespoons rock salt
1/2 gallon ice cubes
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large (gallon-size) plastic sealable bag• 1 small (sandwich-size) plastic sealable bag 
What to do:
1. Put the ice and the rock salt into the large bag.
2. Pour the heavy cream, the sugar, and the vanilla into the small bag.Seal the small bag.
3. Place the small bag in the large bag. Seal the large bag.
4. Shake the large bag until the mixture thickens (about five minutes).
5. Remove the small bag from the large bag. Open the small bag carefully. You’re ready to enjoy your tasty treat!

Building a Better Sandcastle

1. Foamy waves splash upon the beach. A misshapen pile of wet sand is out of reach of the waves. Plop! A child dumps a bucket of sand on the mound and then carves lines into it. After some time the pile of sand looks somewhat like a castle. Holes in the sides of the mound look like windows. A tower with flat ledges sticks up on one side, while the wall on the other side has crumbled.

Not Just Child’s Play
2. On many beaches it is common to see children building sandcastles. However, the results of their efforts seem clumsy or careless when compared to the magnificent castles found in book illustrations and fairy tales. But building a sandcastle that looks as good as a castle in a drawing is not easy.

3. Some people think that all that is needed to build a sandy masterpiece is a plastic bucket and a shovel. But building an expert sandcastle really requires patience and attention to detail, as well as the proper tools. Some sandcastle builders are actually professional sand sculptors. They have mastered their art through practicing and learning from other sand sculptors. The tricks these sculptors know can help anyone build a better sandcastle.

Tricks of the Pros
4. A strong sandcastle needs sand that is just the right wetness. Dry sand will crumble. Sand that is too wet will be soggy. Some experts say it is best to fill a bucket with water and then add sand to it. They know the sand is just right when it can be molded by hand and keep a shape. To start a sandcastle, expert builders pile sand on the ground. They don’t worry about the shape when getting started, and neither should you. Just make sure to have enough sand to complete the project.

5. For beginners it may be easier to pack sand into a bucket and tip the bucket over onto the ground. Some experts use wooden beams to make walls to hold the sand together and then pack the sand until it becomes firm. Once the sand is firm enough, they remove the wooden beams, leaving a block of sand. Having compact sand is a really important step in the process of making a great sandcastle. Even experts agree that no matter what you are making, big or small, it is vital to pack the sand tightly.

6. It’s important to get the main part of the castle just right. If a tall, round tower is the goal, the bottom should be wide and well packed and have a smooth surface. Tall towers will begin to fall if the base is too small. 

Tools of the Trade
7. After the sandcastle is shaped, it is time to carve the details. Expert sculptors use all kinds of tools to carve. Garden shovels can be used to shape the walls. Pointed tools are good for making smaller details, such as stairs. Some experts use kitchen tools, such as rubber spatulas. Others prefer small artists’ tools, such as paint knives. Fun tools for kids include Popsicle sticks and toothpicks.

8. When building sandcastles, even the best sculptors make mistakes. But there’s no need to worry. A paintbrush can act like an eraser. It can smooth out areas so that an artist can add just the right details. If the brush removes too much sand, the artist simply adds more.

9. As experts carve, the sand may start to dry out. Some experts keep a spray bottle full of water nearby to keep the sand damp so it won’t crumble. Then when they finish carving, they might add ornaments to their creation. Seashells and seaweed are sometimes used to decorate walls and towers. 

10. Building a sandcastle is a great way to spend time at the beach. By following this advice from experts, you, too, can make a sandcastle that looks like it belongs in a fairy tale!

Becky Schroeder, Young Inventor

1. Do you ever wish for a tool that would make your life easier? Becky Schroeder didn’t just wish for such a tool—she invented one! And she was only 10 years old when she got the idea for her invention.

2. One day Becky was waiting inside her family’s car while her mother was shopping. Becky was trying to finish her math homework, but it was getting dark outside. Since there was no flashlight in the car, she wondered how she could solve her problem.

3. “So I thought it would be neat to have my paper light up somehow, and that’s when the idea came to me,” Becky said.

4. Becky was certain she had a good idea; she just needed to turn it into a good plan. She thought about her glow-in-the-dark toys and tried to figure out how they worked and what made them glow. She studied a Frisbee and decided that it must be made of a material that reflected light.

5. Becky’s father took her to a hardware store, where they bought a special paint that glows after it has been exposed to light for a short time. Becky tried an experiment in her bathroom. It was the ideal place to test her idea because it was the darkest room in the house. First she applied the special paint to a piece of paper and held the paper up to a lightbulb. When she turned the light off, the paint on the paper glowed.

6. Next Becky applied the special paint to a plastic board. Her plan was to make the board glow. She hoped that if she could get it to glow, the light would shine through a piece of paper placed on top of the board. She held the board up to the light for several seconds and found that her conclusion was correct—the painted board glowed. She would be able to write on a piece of paper even in the dark!

7. Soon a big-city newspaper published a story about Becky’s invention, which she had named Glo-Sheet. People and businesses began ordering Glo-Sheets. They loved her simple new tool because they could use it anytime they needed to write in the dark. Medical workers used it when they needed to make notes while caring for patients during nighttime. Theater critics used it to write notes while they watched plays in dark theaters. Scientists at NASA heard about the Glo-Sheet and wondered whether its inventor had ever worked for the space agency. They had trouble imagining how a 10-year-old could have invented this amazing tool.

8. Becky became the president of her own company and the youngest girl ever to receive a U.S. patent. Her patent made Becky the only person who had the right to make Glo-Sheets and prevented anyone else from producing them. Becky worked to improve her invention and tested new uses for Glo-Sheets. She experimented with materials such as plastic and cloth. She also tried using different colors and sizes of Glo-Sheets. Eventually, she earned patents for other types of Glo-Sheets. Her invention wasn’t just for math homework anymore.

The Puppy Bowl

1. Months before Puppy Bowl IX was televised, the stars of the show arrived in New York City, where the big event is filmed. There, in a film studio, 63 puppies, 21 kittens, 9 hedgehogs, and 6 hamsters participated in the 2013 Puppy Bowl. With their big eyes and clumsy ways, puppies are very cute to watch on a football field. Audiences agree. The Puppy Bowl has become an annual event, drawing as many as 12.4 million viewers.

Play by Play
2. The Puppy Bowl began in 2005 when the cable channel Animal Planet had a problem. Each year more than 100 million Americans stopped everything to watch the Super Bowl, the biggest football game of the year. This left few viewers to watch the shows on Animal Planet on the day of the Super Bowl. The cable channel decided to create a show that viewers would find interesting.

3. Many people liked the idea of a Puppy Bowl. It is like a real football game in many ways. The Puppy Bowl is played in a stadium with footballs. However, the stadium is much smaller than a regular football stadium. In fact, it is closer to the size of a school classroom. And the footballs used in the Puppy Bowl aren’t real footballs. They are chew toys of different shapes and sizes. Like a real football field, the Puppy Bowl stadium has field goals in the end zones, a green field that is marked with lines, and advertisements posted on the surrounding walls. Of course, there is a major difference between the Super Bowl and the Puppy Bowl. The Puppy Bowl is played by puppies, not humans. But that’s not all. The Puppy Bowl has an entertaining halftime show performed by kittens. For the 2013 show, hamsters operated a blimp camera, and hedgehogs were the cheerleaders.

Picking Puppy Players
4. Animal shelters throughout the country send in pictures of their puppies, hoping one will be chosen. Each puppy is photographed next to a soda can so that the judges can see its size. Puppies are typically between 8 and 16 weeks old, and each puppy is available for adoption. Petfinder.com, an organization that helps people find pets, picks the players based on cuteness and their ability to play well with others.

5. Once the puppies are chosen, they are flown to New York City and taken to a film studio. Many volunteers are waiting at the studio to welcome the puppies, kittens, and other animal participants in the Puppy Bowl.

Puppy Protection
6. At the studio, camera crews film the puppies and other animals in action. While the Puppy Bowl is being recorded, the puppies and other animals are well cared for by all the volunteers and crew members. In addition, a veterinarian examines each puppy before it goes on camera and gives medical care that might be needed during the game. A worker from the Humane Society supervises all play. The puppies are filmed for only 20 minutes at a time to make sure that they stay safe and enjoy themselves.

7. To make the game fair, the puppies are divided into groups so that they play with puppies their own size. Even though puppies do not know how to play football, they seem to have fun on the field. There are puppy tug-of-war contests, puppies tripping over their own feet, and puppies falling into the water bowl, as well as puppies that seem confused and simply sit on the field.

8. A referee watches the puppies during the game and stops the game when necessary. If a puppy drags a toy to the end of the field, the referee announces a touchdown. Volunteers cheer when they hear the news. A puppy that gets too playful on the field may have to take a break. A puppy that falls asleep gets a time-out. And when there is a “personal foul,” a volunteer quickly grabs some paper towels to soak up the puddle!

9. The staff members at Animal Planet enjoy the company of the puppies until the camera crews have collected many hours of film. Then they review the film and select the cutest moments to share with viewers of the Puppy Bowl.

Everyone Wins
10. In addition to the cuteness and fun, the Puppy Bowl has a serious side. All the puppies, kittens, and other animals come from animal shelters. And by the end of the Puppy Bowl each year, all of them are adopted. But that’s not all. Petfinder.com reports that the Puppy Bowl increases the overall number of adoptions nationwide. The Puppy Bowl is always a fun day with a happy ending for both animals and humans.

The Spelling Test
by Suzy Kline
 
Characters
NARRATOR 
HERBIE JONES 
MISS PINKHAM 
MR. JONES 
OLIVIA JONES
ANNABELLE LOUISA HODGEKISS
 
1. [Settings: Miss Pinkham’s third-grade classroom; Herbie’s house.]
2. [Time: One week in March.]
3. MISS PINKHAM: As a special bonus this week, I have a challenge for the whole class. If you can learn to spell your name, address, town, state and zip code correctly, I will mail you a postcard saying congratulations.
4. HERBIE: Hmmmmmm, I know I usually don’t study my spelling words, but... gee, that postcard would be good news for Dad to find in the mail.
5. NARRATOR: Herbie’s dad works the night shift at an airplane factory, and the first thing he does when he gets up around 2:00 P.M. is look in the mailbox.
6. HERBIE: I can hear him now...
7. MR. JONES: Bills! Bills! Bills! There’s nothing but bills!
8. HERBIE: I can do something about that.
9. NARRATOR: As soon as Herbie got home that afternoon, he practiced writing his spelling words on the dusty coffee table. His sister Olivia was shocked.
10. OLIVIA: What are you doing?
11. HERBIE: Studying.
12. OLIVIA: Studying? Since when?
13. HERBIE: Since I got my spelling list. How do you study spelling?
14. OLIVIA: You’re asking my advice about something?
15. HERBIE: Well, you do make better grades than I do.
16. OLIVIA: Well, Herbie, I write the words down...
17. HERBIE: Yeah?
18. OLIVIA: . . . and I say them to myself. That’s about it. No biggie.
19. HERBIE: What if you have a tough word like Laurel? I keep getting the a and u mixed up, and I never remember which one comes first. The same thing happens with the o and u in pound.
20. OLIVIA: Oh! In that case you think of something like APES USE RADISHES for the a-u-r in Laurel, and OH UNICORN for the o-u in pound.
21. HERBIE: APES USE RADISHES! OH UNICORN! Why didn’t I think of that?
22. NARRATOR: That week, Herbie carried his spelling list with him wherever he went. He practiced writing his words on paper, on frosty car windows, on his mother’s meatloaf—before it went in the oven—and in the gravel on the school playground. At 11:00 A.M. on Friday, Miss Pinkham passed out the white lined paper.
23. MISS PINKHAM: Put your name and date on the first highway.
24. NARRATOR: Miss Pinkham always referred to the blue lines on the paper as highways. When Annabelle Louisa Hodgekiss finished writing her name and date neatly, she sat back in her chair.
25. ANNABELLE: I didn’t even have to study—these words are a cinch.
26. MISS PINKHAM: Boys and girls, those of you who want to try for the spelling bonus may do so now. Write your full name, address, town, state and zip code.
27. NARRATOR: Very carefully, Herbie printed his street address. When he came to his zip code, Herbie was in trouble.
28. HERBIE: 0...6...7...9... What is that last number of my zip code?
29. MISS PINKHAM: Pass your papers in, please.
30. HERBIE: What is that number?
31. MISS PINKHAM: Herbie! You are keeping the entire class.
32. HERBIE: 0...6...7...9...?
33. MISS PINKHAM: Herbie Jones, if you don’t hand me your paper by the time I count to three...
34. HERBIE: THREE! That’s it!
35. NARRATOR: Annabelle raised her hand.
36. ANNABELLE: Miss Pinkham, I can’t wait to get my postcard in the mail tomorrow. Can’t you tell us now who got one hundred percent?
37. MISS PINKHAM: Looking through this stack of papers, I wonder if anyone got one hundred percent.
38. NARRATOR: Saturday afternoon Herbie sat on his porch and waited. And watched... for the mail.
39. HERBIE: Is that him coming around the corner? It is! It’s the mailman!
40. NARRATOR: Herbie raced into the house and grabbed a book off the coffee table. It was Ten Days to Slimmer Thighs. Mr. Jones, who had just shaved, walked toward the door. Herbie looked up and noticed he still had some soap around his ears.
41. HERBIE: Morning, Dad.
42. MR. JONES: Morning, Herbie. Nice to see you reading. Guess I better check on the mail. [Starts to groan.] Let’s see, what’s in this mess... Whistleman’s Department Store, Occupant. HEY, HERBIE!
43. HERBIE: [Hopeful.] Yeah?
44. MR. JONES: You got a postcard. Your teacher said you were the only student to get a hundred percent on your spelling bonus.
45. HERBIE: YAHOO!
46. MR. JONES: That’s the best news I’ve found in the mail in a long time.
47. NARRATOR: Monday morning right after the Pledge of Allegiance, Miss Pinkham asked...
48. MISS PINKHAM: Will the one person who received the ONLY postcard please rise?
49. NARRATOR: Everyone looked at Annabelle.
50. ANNABELLE: I...I forgot to capitalize Connecticut.
51. ALL: Who got the postcard?
52. HERBIE: [Stands up and raises hand.] Me.
53. ALL: HERBIE JONES?
54. MISS PINKHAM: Herbie’s paper Friday was outstanding. I think we should give him a big round of applause for his achievement.
55. ALL: [Clap.]

Flying Lesson
by Joyce Sidman

This time, Father says, (1)
he will not bring me my dinner. (2)
This time (3)
he will let it fall, (4)
and I must try to catch it. (5)

Flying, Father says, (6)
is like seeing the air. (7)
Not just the blue shimmer, (8)
not just the bright clouds, (9)
but the air itself (10)
as it swells and swirls (11)
around our rocky cliff. (12)

To show me, (13)
he leaps from the nest, (14)
gathers the wind in his wings, (15)
and dives. (16)
He comes up dangling dinner (17)
between his claws. (18)

He calls to me: (19)
Now! Fly! (20)

Because I love him, (21)
because he says to, (22)
because I want with all my heart (23) 
to catch that bait, (24)
I tumble out: (25)
flapping, (26)
dropping, (27)

soaring (28)

into the blue, shimmering air (29)
that I can almost see. (30)

Roald Dahl

1. British author Roald Dahl wrote many books. Several have become classics. Kids still read James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, and Matilda. While Dahl may be best known as an author of famous children’s books, he also had an interesting life unrelated to his writing.

2. Adventure wasn’t something Dahl just wrote about in his books. He loved adventure and looked for it in his own life. Before he started writing, he traveled to other countries, flew fighter planes, and worked as a spy.

3. Dahl was born in 1916 in Wales, a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Dahl’s parents named him after one of their heroes, Roald Amundsen. Amundsen enjoyed adventure, too. He led a trip to the South Pole a few years before Roald Dahl was born.

4. When Dahl was four years old, his father died. His mother thought of moving but decided to stay in Wales. She valued education and wanted Dahl to be a good student. She thought it would be best for him to attend a boarding school in England.

5. While attending boarding school, Dahl missed his mother and hated the endless rules. Although he did not like his new school, he did find a few things to enjoy. He realized he was great at sports, and he also developed a love of photography. After graduation Dahl decided to get a job instead of going to college. He worked at the Shell Oil Company and learned new skills. Then the company sent him to East Africa. Dahl soon learned that Africa had many new things to see. Finally, at the age of 18, he was having an adventure!

6. After World War II began, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force. He wanted to be a fighter pilot for Great Britain. There was a problem, though: Dahl was very tall—six-and-a-half feet tall. The windscreen on the fighter plane was lower than Dahl’s head. It was difficult for Dahl to breathe with the wind blowing in his face. He wore goggles to protect his eyes, but he still had to bend down to take deep breaths every few seconds. This did not stop him from doing what he wanted, though. Dahl tied a thin cotton scarf around his nose and mouth so that he could breathe. Flying came naturally to Dahl, so after several months of training with the Royal Air Force, he was ready to go to battle.

7. In 1940, Dahl received instructions to fly to a spot in the North African desert. He looked and looked for the landing strip but could not find it. With the plane running out of fuel, Dahl made a risky decision to land the plane in the desert sand. Although he was terribly hurt, he managed to crawl away. Dahl’s recovery took months. Among other things, the crash left him temporarily blind. However, his sight did return, and his body healed. After Dahl was once again fit for duty, he flew in many air battles.

8. Later the British government found a new way for Dahl to help his country. Dahl was asked to work as a spy. In his new role Dahl would gather information to help the British war effort.

9. While working as a spy, Dahl began to write. Most of his writings were short stories for adults. He wrote spooky stories that often startled readers. The mystery stories were quite popular. He began to write children’s stories when he became a father. The first two novels, James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, began as bedtime stories he shared with his daughters. The books quickly became best sellers. Dahl was able to combine childhood mischief, suspense, and humor in a way that appealed to children. Although Dahl died in 1990, his books live on and are enjoyed by many children and adults today.

Confetti, the Helpful Horse

1. Dogs have been used as guides for a long time. They are the most common type of guide animal. Many people who are blind rely on a dog to help with daily activities. Cheryl Spencer used to depend on a guide dog named Delta to help her. When Delta became unable to work, Spencer learned that some people use miniature horses as guides. At first, Spencer thought this idea was silly. But after learning more, she started looking for a guide horse.

2. First Spencer found someone who could train a guide horse. Then she set about finding just the right horse. In 2002 she e-mailed all the nearby miniature-horse farms looking for a horse, 26 inches tall at most, to be trained as her guide. She received an e-mail from a horse breeder named Barbara McDermott saying that the only horse McDermott had that might work was her favorite, Confetti, who was 27 inches tall. McDermott wasn’t willing to give Confetti away at first, but Spencer was persistent. After Spencer explained her situation to McDermott, she asked to meet Confetti. A few days later Spencer, her husband, and her horse trainer visited McDermott’s ranch.

3. When Spencer first met Confetti, she immediately knew the horse would be perfect for her. The trainer also thought Confetti would be a good guide. Even McDermott could see that Spencer was already quite fond of the horse. She agreed to allow Confetti to become Spencer’s full-time guide.

4. Weighing 150 pounds, Confetti is the size of an extremely large dog. She goes everywhere a guide dog would. She even has a “horsey door” so she can go in and out of the house when she wants. Confetti
sleeps in Spencer’s closet and eats in the laundry room. When Spencer and her husband eat at a restaurant, Confetti goes with them. Confetti has flown to Boston and has even been to Walt Disney World®!

5. Confetti is only the third horse to be used as a guide animal in the United States. As guides, miniature horses have some advantages over dogs. Most guide dogs can work for only 8 to 10 years, but a horse can work for up to 30 years. These horses have excellent vision, are quick learners, and are gentle and smart. These qualities make them good guide animals and great helpers for people like Spencer.

Measures 1 skill from
Grade 4
ELAR (2009)
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)

Our brand new solo games combine with your quiz, on the same screen

Measures 1 skill fromGrade 4ELAR (2009)Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)

Our brand new solo games combine with your quiz, on the same screen

Measures 1 skill from
Grade 4
ELAR (2009)
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)