• 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.
 
Which one is not a reason why Sophie 
is hurrying?
A 
Her mom is waiting in the car.
B 
She needs to get to school.
C 
She overslept.
D 
She did homework that morning.
 2.
 
What causes Sneakers to dash past Sophie?
A 
The sound of the horn scares him.
B 
Gonzo is chasing him.
C 
Juice is dripping on him.
D 
He wants to get on the table.
 3.
 
What is the result of Gonzo putting
his paws on the table?
A 
He knocks over a glass of juice.
B 
The cat knocks over a glass of juice.
C 
He makes holes in Sophie’s 
homework.
D 
He barks at the cat.
 4.
 
At the end of the passage, Sophie
is worried because 
.
A 
she forgot to do her homework
B 
juice is spilling onto her puppet stage
C 
her mom is late for work
D 
her homework has juice stains 
and holes
STRATEGY PRACTICE
Underline verbs in the passage that helped you visualize the actions.
Cause and Effect
3453.indb 161
5/6/10 4:00 PM

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Name: 
162
Daily Reading Comprehension • EMC 3453 • © Evan-Moor Corp.
WEEK 26
DAY 2
READ THE PASSAGE
Notice the causes of things that happen.
Please Make Spelling Simple
Do you have trouble spelling? Do you think that the rules are confusing? If
you do, most people would agree with you. In fact, about 100 years ago, Andrew 
Carnegie tried to make changes in the English language. He correctly predicted 
that English would become the most important language in the world. So he 
wanted to make English easier to read and write. He gathered together a group 
of 30 very smart men. They created new spellings for 300 common words.
The men believed that words should be spelled the way they sound. So they 
used the letters for the sounds they heard and got rid of silent letters. For example, 
surprise 
was spelled 
surprize,
ghost
became 
gost, 
and 
through
became 
thru
.
Most of the spelling changes that the men suggested never happened. But, 
thanks to Andrew Carnegie, we now write 
fantasy
instead of 
phantasy
and 
hiccup
instead of 
hiccough
.