• Practice for every day of the school year • Help students prepare for standardized testing

SKILL PRACTICE
Read the question. Fill in the bubble next to the correct answer.
 1.
 
The author wrote the passage to 
.
A 
describe how Native Americans lived
B 
give facts about Native Americans 
C 
tell how to play a Native American game
D 
tell you to play simple games
 2.
 
How does the author encourage you to
be creative?
A 
by letting you make designs on the circles
B 
by telling how many toothpicks to get
C 
by telling how to score
D 
by letting you find a flat container
 3.
 
The purpose of the first paragraph
is to 
.
A 
encourage you to play the game
B 
tell what you need to play the game
C 
tell how to play the game
D 
tell the history of the game
 4.
 
Which of these could you use 
instead of making six circles?
A 
six pencils
B 
six pine cones
C 
six toothpicks
D 
six coins
STRATEGY PRACTICE
What is the author’s purpose in the second paragraph?
Author’s Purpose
3453.indb 179
5/6/10 4:00 PM

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Name: 
180
Daily Reading Comprehension • EMC 3453 • © Evan-Moor Corp.
WEEK 29
DAY 2
READ THE PASSAGE
Think about what the author wants you to know.
They’re Everywhere!
Tiny specks float all over the world. People try to get rid of them, but they can’t 
make them disappear. You can write your name in the specks, and they can make 
you sneeze. The specks are dust.
Everything in the universe breaks down into dust. Even space is filled with dust. 
When objects crash, they blow up into dust. Stars explode into dust. Comets form 
from dust and ice. The astronauts stirred up layers of dust on the moon. Meteorites 
that crash on the moon’s surface create dust. The robots sent to Mars landed on 
rusty-orange dust. There are no plants to keep the dust in place, so strong storms 
can cover the planet in dust.
Everything on Earth is always crumbling into dust. Plants and trees rot, and the 
bits get blown around. Shoes kick up soil, and volcanoes cough out ash. Pencil 
shavings, hair strands, and bits of paper form some of the dust that’s in your 
classroom. Even your body creates dust. Your body makes new skin cells every
day. The old cells flake off as dead skin, or dust.