iReady "Worth More than Gold"

Which sentence from the passage best supports the idea that growing monocultures can be risky?

• “American farmers grow wheat, soybeans, corn, and other foodstuffs, and it’s an impressive sight.”

• B “Every cornstalk in the cornfield is exactly like its neighbors, with the same DNA.”

• C “If one cornstalk in the field can be killed easily by an attacker, so can all the rest.”

• D “One problem was that we didn’t have the science to know what had gone wrong; people didn’t know about DNA.”

• E “The cell can read DNA like a cookbook, finding recipes that tell how to make other molecules that it needs.”

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CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RL.5.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

The following question has two parts. First, answer part A. Then, answer part B

Part A : What is one main idea of “Worth More Than Gold”?

• A Gene banks protect the world’s food supply.

• B People have studied DNA for hundreds of years.

• C Monocultures are often destroyed by pests.

• D The Irish potato famine began in 1845.

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CCSS.RI.5.2

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

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CCSS.RL.6.2

Part B: Which sentence from the article best supports the answer to part A?

• A “That means it has the same instructions for building itself.”

• B “Because all the potatoes in Ireland at the time were so similar, most of the potato crop died.”

• C “If you want molecules that will fight potato fungus, you need the genes for making those molecules.”

• D “If crops are in trouble, what’s in those vaults is worth more than gold.”

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CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RL.5.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

Which of the following would not belong in a summary of the passage?

• A The Irish potato famine in the 1800s was made worse because people at the time did not know about DNA.

• B To get molecules that will fight a potato fungus, you need to have the right materials.

• C One solution to possible problems caused by monocultures lies in the field of genetics, in plant DNA.

• D To protect the world’s crops, a gene bank in Svalbard, Norway, has backup copies of more than half a million seeds.

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CCSS.RI.5.9

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RL.5.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

What is the main purpose of paragraph 5?

• A It introduces the topic of worldwide famine.

• B It provides a definition of the key term “fungus.”

• C It shows how genes can solve the problem of crop disease

• D It poses and answers logical questions about DNA and genes.

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CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RL.5.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2