Streams

Which sentence states a central idea of paragraphs 1 and 2?

[Paragraph 1] Close your eyes and imagine a cool, running stream. What comes to mind? Green forests? Leaping trout? Warm breezes? If you’re like most people, you probably don’t envision skyscrapers, business suits, or city buses. Walden comes to mind, not Wal­Mart.

[Paragraph 2] Streams are an important part of every landscape, no matter whether that landscape is a forest, a city, or a suburb. Often they lie low when people, buildings, and streets are around. But rest assured, streams are there, flowing under sidewalks, meandering past ball fields, and rippling by shopping centers.

• Streams are vital resources for people.

• Streams are only found outside of cities.

• Streams are different in various landscapes.

• Streams are normal parts of natural settings.

Part A: What is the author’s purpose for using the phrase “Often they lie low” in paragraph 2?

[Paragraph 2] Streams are an important part of every landscape, no matter whether that landscape is a forest, a city, or a suburb. Often they lie low when people, buildings, and streets are around. But rest assured, streams are there, flowing under sidewalks, meandering past ball fields, and rippling by shopping centers.

• to provide an example of an urban stream

• to show that urban streams are often polluted

• to show that urban streams are not easily seen

• to contrast an urban stream with a rural stream

Part B: Which quotation from paragraph 2 supports the answer to Part A?

Part A: to show that urban streams are not easily seen

• ... part of every landscape, ...

• ... a forest, a city, or a suburb.

• ... flowing under sidewalks, ...

• ... rippling by shopping centers.

Read the sentence from paragraph 3.

"Streams, stream banks, and the low lands around them provide important habitat for animals and plants that share the urban/suburban landscape with us."

What does habitat mean as it is used in the sentence?

• area

• environment

• shelter

• territory

How do paragraphs 4 and 5 support the central idea that streams are important to urban and rural settings?

[Paragraph 4] Streams in a town or suburb are usually very different from streams in a forest or other natural area. Urban streams tend to carry more water at a faster speed after a storm than their country cousins. The reason for this has to do with what happens to rain after it hits the earth’s surface. In forests, meadows, and other natural areas, about half the water that falls to earth soaks into or infiltrates the soil. Most of what remains on the ground and in the grass, tree leaves, and other plants gets returned to the atmosphere by evapotranspiration, a combination of evaporation and transpiration (loss of water vapor by plants). Only a small portion of rainfall (about 10 percent) travels across the land as runoff and drains into a stream, lake, or pond.

[Paragraph 5] When people move into an area, they build houses, buildings, streets, and parking lots. When rain falls in urban areas it doesn’t land on nice soft ground and plants. Instead it hits impervious surfaces like hard pavement and rooftops and has no chance to infiltrate the soil. Storm water has no choice but to flow downhill into street drains and ditches and then into streams. The panels below illustrate how the fate of rainwater changes as cities grow.

• They discuss the importance of both types of streams.

• They elaborate on how streams provide resources to plants.

• They detail similarities and differences of both types of streams.

• They explain why natural streams are better than urban streams.

How does the author introduce the idea of urban streams?

• by pointing out that urban settings also have streams

• by preparing readers to think only about rural streams

• by getting readers to focus on the characteristics of all streams

• by presenting readers with the transition from rural to urban streams

Read the sentence from paragraph 5:

"Instead it hits impervious surfaces like hard pavement and rooftops and has no chance to infiltrate the soil."

What is the meaning of impervious as it is used in the sentence?

• affected

• cracked

• exposed

• resistant

Read the sentence from paragraph 7.

"If all this extra water is diverted directly into a stream channel, several important changes will occur."

What is the meaning of diverted as it is used in the sentence?

• pushed

• redirected

• sped forward

• brought together

Based on the information in paragraph 8, what inference can be drawn about water movement in cities?

More Flooding During Rainstorms

[Paragraph 8] Streams that used to carry only a small portion of rain that falls are now asked to carry most of it. Natural channels easily become overwhelmed when a big storm hits. The extra water overflows the banks and floods the surrounding land.

• Natural waterways have disappeared.

• Natural waterways are overloaded with rainwater.

• There are fewer natural waterways now than in the past.

• Flooding is caused when man-made waterways overflow.

What is the author’s purpose in the passage?

• to describe to readers the creation of urban and rural streams

• to explain to readers the flooding of streams in rural and urban areas

• to persuade readers that urban and rural streams are important to cities

• to inform readers about the differences between rural and urban streams