Middle East International School

Academic Year 2020-2021

Comprehension Worksheet
Name: _______________ Grade 6____ Subject: Comprehension
Total Mark: 50 Marks Obtained: ____ Time Allowed: 1:30 hours

An Engineering Superstar

It’s early morning in a small village in Kenya, Africa. Women and

children are carrying heavy containers of water on their heads. They walk
many miles to get this water. It’s hot, and they’re tired. They can only carry a
few containers a day. A young British woman learns about the problem. She
wants to help.

Who is the young woman? Her name is Emily Cummins. How did she
help? She invented a water carrier for the people in Kenya. They can pull it
like a suitcase.

Cummins is an engineer. She designs useful products for places without

many natural resources. These places often don’t have a lot of water. They
also don’t have a lot of oil, coal, or gas. These resources are not renewable.
That means you can’t replace them when you take them from the earth.
Cummins’s products don’t use oil, coal, or gas. They use other sources of
energy, such as the sun. This makes the products sustainable. People can
continue to use them in the future without hurting our planet.

How did Cummins get started? As a young child in England, she loved
to work with her grandfather in his workshop. He taught her how to use his
tools. He showed her how to make toys and jewelry boxes from small pieces
of metal.

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 She designed her first product when she was in high school and just 15
years old. Her grandfather had a disease called arthritis. He couldn’t squeeze
a tube of toothpaste with his hand. Cummins invented a tube with a lever.
The lever pushes the toothpaste out of the tube. You don’t have to squeeze
the tube.

While she was still a high school student, Cummins designed a new kind
of refrigerator. Why? Refrigerators normally use a lot of electricity. They are
too expensive for many people in developing countries. Cummins’s
refrigerator is not expensive. Here’s how it works: One container of the
refrigerator keeps food and medicine clean and dry. This container sits in
another container filled with water and sand. The sun’s energy makes the
water in the sand evaporate. In other words, the water goes into the air and
takes heat from the sand with it. This cools the sand. The cool sand keeps
the food and medicine cool. The design is very simple, and it uses cheap,
local materials. People can even make the refrigerator themselves.

After leaving school, Cummins spent five months in Africa. She wanted to
learn more about life there, so she volunteered at a school in Namibia. There,
she could test and improve her designs. Her refrigerator became a great
success! Today, it helps thousands of people.

Cummins studied business at the University of Leeds, in England. Today,

she continues to design sustainable products. She has won many awards for
her designs. Her inventions are famous because they use local resources,
they don’t hurt the planet, and the materials are all recyclable.

Do you have ideas for sustainable products? Maybe you, too, can become
an engineering superstar!

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 A) Match each of Cummins’s inventions with the way it works.

(0.5x3=1.5pts.)
1
1. toothpaste tube _______ You can pull it like a suitcase. .
5
2. refrigerator _______ It uses a lever.

3. water carrier _______ It cools things with evaporation.

B) Write (T) if the statement is true or (F) if the statement is false.

(0.5x8=4pts.)
4

1) People in Namibia carry heavy water containers on their heads. (___)

2) Cummins’s products exist in places rich with natural resources. (___)

3) Cummins’s inventions help keep our planet safe. (___)

4) Cummins invented a water carrier to help her grandfather who suffered

from arthritis. (___)

5) Cummins’s refrigerators were cheap and simple. (___)

6) Cummins spent five years in Africa to learn more about life there. (___)

7) Cummins studied business at the University of Leeds, in England. (___)

8) Cummins’s inventions are not helpful nowadays. (___)

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C) Circle the letter of the best choice. (0.5x8=4pts.)
4

1) To help people carry water, Cummins invented _______.

a) a suitcase b) a container for the head c) a container that you pull

2) Cummins’s products are sustainable because they use __________.

a) a lot of water b) renewable materials c) a lot of oil and gas

3) Cummins learned how to build things when she was _________.

a) a young child b) just 15 years old c) a university student

4) Cummins’s first product was _____________.

a) a water carrier b) a toothpaste tube c) a refrigerator

5) Which is a true sentence about Cummins’s refrigerator?

a) It uses a lever.

b) It uses electricity.

c) It uses energy from the sun.

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 Circle the letter of the best choice.

6) How does Cummins’s refrigerator work?

a) Energy from the sun cools the water.

b) Energy from the sun evaporates the sand.

c) Energy from the sun evaporates the water.

7) When Cummins was in Africa, __________.

a) she worked at a school

b) she studied at the university

c) she sold refrigerators

8) Cummins won awards because ______________.

a) she studied business

b) she volunteered in Africa

c) she designed sustainable products.

D) Some nouns and verbs often go together. Circle the verbs that often
come before the nouns in bold. Sometimes, more than one answer is
possible.(0.5x5=2.5pts.)

1) use do save electricity

2
2) save help live the planet .
5

3) do make use tools

4) have find run natural resources

5) do save use energy

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E) Fill in the blanks with the correct words from the box.
(0.5x10=5pts.)
5
electricity energy local evaporate
source natural resource tool
renewable planet volunteer expensive

1) She doesn’t eat food from places that are far away. She gets food from
_____________________ farms.

2) Oil is not __________________, so when we take it from the earth, we

should use it wisely since we can’t replace it.

3) In a food chain, ________________ from the sun passes from a producer

to a consumer, and then it passes to a decomposer.

4) Greg has quickly realized that if water comes in contact with

________________, it will cause an electric shock.

5) After boiling two cups of water for a long time, it would _______________
over time producing steam without having any water left.

6) It would be extremely difficult to break concrete without a/an

________________ like a sledgehammer or a jackhammer.

7) Water is one of Earth’s most prominent and heavily consumed

____________________(s).

8) How long does it take for the ______________ Jupiter to make a complete
revolution around the sun?

9) She got all the information and the data of the research from a reliable
________________.

10) On the weekends, Katie and her friends ________________ at the local
center and help struggling children learn to read.
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F) Match each supporting detail to its main idea by writing the correct
letter in the box.(0.5x4=2pts.)

Main Idea Supporting Details

a. Her grandfather showed her

1. Cummins designs products without
how to make toys and jewelry
many natural resources.
boxes from small pieces of

metal.

b. She designs products that use

2. Cummins started to make things
sources of energy, such as the
when she was very young.
sun.

c. She designs products that don’t

use oil, coal, or gas.

d. Her grandfather showed her

how to use his tools.

G. Find four supporting details for

2 the following main idea.(0.5x4=2pts.)

Cummins designed a new kind of refrigerator.

2

_____________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

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 7

H) Answer the following questions in full sentences. (7pts.)

1) What causes Cummins to design her first product? What was it?(1.5pts.)

_____________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

2) What caused Cummins’s inventions to be famous? Mention three causes.

(1.5pts.)

_____________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

3) What did Cummins do when she visited Namibia? (1.5pts.)

_____________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

4) How did Cummins’s grandfather help her? Mention two ways.(1.5pts.)

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_____________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

5) Based on the passage, how can you describe Cummins’s personality?

(1pt.)

_____________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

I) From each given paragraph, write a word which has the given
definition.

(0. 5x18=9pts.) 9

2nd Paragraph:

1) a large bag where you keep your clothes while traveling _____________

3rd Paragrah:

2) able to be extended for another time _________________

3) to use instead _________________

4) a useful or valuable possession or quality of a country______________

4th Paragraph:

5) a chemical element, such as iron or gold _________________

6) decorative objects worn, such as necklaces and rings_________________

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5th Paragragh:

7) to firmly press with fingers _________________

From each given paragraph, write a word which has the given
definition.

8) pain in joints and fingers _________________

6th Paragrah:

9) power; strength _________________

10) a piece of kitchen used to preserve food _________________

11) costing much _________________

7th Paragraph:

12) to offer to do something or to help __________________

13) accomplishment; achievement ___________________

8th Paragraph:

14) something newly designed or created ___________________

15) able to exist or continue over a period of time ___________________

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16) a prize, trophy, honor _________________

17) able to be used again _________________

18) to damage, ruin __________________

J) Put the following events in order according to the passage.

(0.25x7=1.75pts.)
1.
_____ Cummins traveled to Namibia. 7
5

_____ Cummins designed a new kind of refrigerators.

_____ Cummins worked with her grandfather in his workshop.

_____ Cummins invented a tube with a lever.

_____ Cummins invented a water carrier.

_____ Cummins won many awards.

_____ Cummins studied business.

5.
K) Write the antecedent of each pronoun. (0.5x11=5.5pts.) 5

Pronoun Antecedent

1) “their” in paragraph 1 _________________

2) “it” in paragraph 2 _________________
3) “they” in paragraph 3 _________________

4) “he” in paragraph 4 _________________

5) “they” in paragraph 6 _________________
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 6) “it” in paragraph 6 _________________
7) “themselves” in paragraph 6 _________________
8) “she” in paragraph 7 __________________

9) “it” in paragraph 7 __________________

10) “they” in paragraph 8 ___________________
11) “you” in paragraph 9 ___________________
L) For each sentence, replace the underlined word with its antonym.

Write the new word on the line provided. (0.5x7=3.5pts.)

3.5

difficult – failure – useless –– worldwide –

condense – saved – cheap – nonrenewable

1) While cutting the apple, she hurt her hand._________

2) We package our products in recyclable

materials._________

3) It would be so expensive to repair the new car. ________

4) Confidence and hard work are the key to her

success.______________

5) When sea water is allowed to evaporate, salt crystals are

deposited.__________

6) He is well-known in the local community. __________

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7) Renewable sources of energy must be used where they’re

practical. __________

M) In each of the following sentences, circle the context

2
clue for the underlined word. (0.25x9=2.25pts.) .
2
5
1) She volunteered to help us decorate the room for the party.

2) Don’t leave the lights on; this is a waste of electricity.

3) Natural resources like gas and water are harvested and sold

between countries.

4) Pluto is the farthest planet in the solar system.

5) A suitcase is enough to take your clothes with you on the

holiday.

6) Most of her jewelry is stored in bank vaults.

7) When my remote control stopped working, I realized I

needed to replace the batteries with new ones.

8) We filled the box with sustainable ingredients that could last

for a long time without going bad.

9) She will present the trophies to the award winners.

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GOOD LUCK

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