Grade 7 Language: Reading comprehension

Amira left a metal spoon and a wooden spoon on a sunny porch. After twenty minutes, the metal spoon felt much warmer. Heat from the sun had transferred to both spoons, but metal conducts thermal energy more readily than wood. Amira wrote that conductors and insulators behave differently, which matters when we choose materials for cooking pots or winter coats.

Fleas are tiny, wingless insects known for surviving as parasites on warm-blooded animals. Although a flea is only a few millimetres long, its abilities far exceed what its size would suggest. A flea can go more than one hundred days without eating, a duration that would be fatal to any large mammal. A female flea consumes nearly fifteen times her own body weight in blood each day. Most astonishing of all is the flea's jumping ability: it can leap about two hundred times its own height. Scaled to human proportions, such a jump would launch a person high enough to clear a skyscraper.

Grade 7 visited a ravine near the ferry dock. Lila counted three kinds of trees, including cedar, and spotted an eagle. Their teacher explained that biodiversity means many different living things sharing a habitat. Daniel wrote that if one species disappeared, others might lose food or shelter. The class agreed the ravine was worth protecting.

Understanding the scale of the universe is a challenge even for experienced scientists. The distances involved are so vast that they stretch the limits of human imagination. A short film begins with a couple resting on a blanket in a quiet park. The camera steadily zooms outward, expanding the view by a power of ten each interval. What begins as a picnic soon becomes a glimpse of Earth, then the Solar System, then the Milky Way. The film reverses direction and explores the microscopic world of cells and proteins. Trying to grasp these extremes feels like trying to hold the ocean in a teacup.

Grade 7 visited a ravine near the playground. Aisha counted three kinds of trees, including willow, and spotted a goose. Their teacher explained that biodiversity means many different living things sharing a habitat. Nathan wrote that if one species disappeared, others might lose food or shelter. The class agreed the ravine was worth protecting.

Grade 7 visited a ravine near the berry patch. Nathan counted three kinds of trees, including oak, and spotted a goose. Their teacher explained that biodiversity means many different living things sharing a habitat. Nina wrote that if one species disappeared, others might lose food or shelter. The class agreed the ravine was worth protecting.

Grade 7 visited a ravine near the community hall. Samuel counted three kinds of trees, including ash, and spotted a loon. Their teacher explained that biodiversity means many different living things sharing a habitat. Owen wrote that if one species disappeared, others might lose food or shelter. The class agreed the ravine was worth protecting.