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Why Sailors Packed Lemons

4th grade nonfiction passage about vitamin c and scurvy: 185 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

4th grade nonfiction vitamin c and scurvy 185 words

Why Sailors Packed Lemons

Long ago, sailors spent many months at sea on wooden ships. Fresh food spoiled quickly, so crews ate mostly hard biscuits and salted meat. After a few months, many sailors grew weak and tired. Their gums became sore, and small cuts took a long time to heal. The sickness was called scurvy.

For a long time, nobody knew what caused it. Then ship doctors began to notice a pattern. Sailors who ate oranges and lemons got better. Some captains started to carry citrus fruit and juice on long trips, and fewer people became sick.

Scientists later found the reason. Citrus fruit is full of vitamin C. A vitamin is something your body needs in small amounts to stay healthy. Your body cannot make vitamin C by itself, so you must get it from food. Without it for many weeks, a person can get scurvy.

Today scurvy is rare in most places, because fresh food is easy to find. You can get vitamin C from oranges, strawberries, red peppers and broccoli. The old sailors never knew the word vitamin, but their lemons were doing important work.

Questions

  1. What did sailors eat most on long trips? in the text

  2. What was the sickness called? in the text

  3. What did ship doctors notice about sailors who ate oranges and lemons? in the text

  4. Why must you get vitamin C from food? in the text

  5. Can you name two foods that have vitamin C? in the text

  6. Why was fresh fruit missing from the sailors' diet? think about it

Words to know

scurvy
an illness caused by not getting enough vitamin C
citrus
fruits like oranges, lemons and limes
vitamin
something in food your body needs to stay healthy
spoiled
gone bad and not safe to eat
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One passage, three levels

The same topic and facts written three ways, so a mixed class can read and talk about one text. Each group’s sheet shows only a shape; the key says which is which.

● Easier · 176 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.8

Long ago, sailors spent many months at sea on wooden ships. Fresh food went bad fast. So crews ate hard biscuits and salted meat. After a few months, many sailors grew weak and tired. Their gums were sore. Small cuts took a long time to heal. The sickness was called scurvy.

For a long time, no one knew the cause. Then ship doctors saw a pattern. Sailors who ate oranges and lemons got better. Some captains began to carry citrus fruit and juice on long trips. Fewer people got sick.

Scientists later found the reason. Citrus fruit is full of vitamin C. A vitamin is something your body needs in a small amount to stay healthy. Your body cannot make vitamin C, so you must get it from food. Without it for many weeks, a person can get scurvy.

Today scurvy is rare, because fresh food is easy to find. You can get vitamin C from oranges, strawberries, red peppers and broccoli. The old sailors never knew the word vitamin. But their lemons did important work.

▲ This passage · 185 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.2

Long ago, sailors spent many months at sea on wooden ships. Fresh food spoiled quickly, so crews ate mostly hard biscuits and salted meat. After a few months, many sailors grew weak and tired. Their gums became sore, and small cuts took a long time to heal. The sickness was called scurvy.

For a long time, nobody knew what caused it. Then ship doctors began to notice a pattern. Sailors who ate oranges and lemons got better. Some captains started to carry citrus fruit and juice on long trips, and fewer people became sick.

Scientists later found the reason. Citrus fruit is full of vitamin C. A vitamin is something your body needs in small amounts to stay healthy. Your body cannot make vitamin C by itself, so you must get it from food. Without it for many weeks, a person can get scurvy.

Today scurvy is rare in most places, because fresh food is easy to find. You can get vitamin C from oranges, strawberries, red peppers and broccoli. The old sailors never knew the word vitamin, but their lemons were doing important work.

■ Harder · 187 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.4

Long ago, sailors spent many months at sea aboard wooden ships. Fresh food spoiled quickly, so crews lived mostly on hard biscuits and salted meat. After a few months, many sailors grew weak and exhausted. Their gums became sore, and even small cuts took a long time to heal. The sickness was known as scurvy.

For a long time, nobody understood what caused it. Eventually, ship doctors began to notice a pattern. Sailors who ate oranges and lemons recovered. Some captains started to carry citrus fruit and juice on long voyages, and fewer people became ill.

Scientists later discovered the reason. Citrus fruit is rich in vitamin C. A vitamin is something your body needs in small amounts to stay healthy. Your body cannot make vitamin C by itself, so you must obtain it from food. After many weeks without it, a person can develop scurvy.

Today scurvy is rare in most places, because fresh food is easy to find. You can get vitamin C from oranges, strawberries, red peppers and broccoli. The old sailors never knew the word vitamin, but their lemons were doing important work.

Download as one PDF

How to use it

  1. Press Read it big (or B) to put the text on the projector, or Full screen (F) to fill the whole screen.
  2. Ask the questions one at a time and use Show answer when the class has decided. A shows or hides every answer.
  3. Print student copy for the class, or Print with answers for yourself.

Ideas for class

  • Before reading, put scurvy, citrus, vitamin and spoiled on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the text will be about.
  • Read it aloud once while students follow along, then have them reread it alone or with a partner. At a calm 100 words a minute it takes about 2 minutes to read aloud.
  • Use the Read it big button (or B) to put the text on the projector, and Show answer on one question at a time so the class commits to an answer first.
  • Question 6 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to write one question the passage did not answer, then look for the answer in a book or on a classroom screen.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "Why Sailors Packed Lemons"?

It was written for 4th grade. It has 185 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 5.2. That is a formula's estimate from sentence length and syllables, and it is not a Lexile or a guided reading level, so check it against your students.

What do the questions ask?

There are six. 5 ask for something the text says directly and 1 ask the reader to work something out from clues. Each has an answer in the key, and the answers are written as a teacher would accept them, not as the only possible wording.

How long does it take to read?

About 2 minutes read aloud at 100 words a minute. For a one-minute fluency check, paste it into the fluency timer and use the word count.

Can I print it?

Yes. Print student copy gives the passage, the questions with lines to write on, and the word meanings. Print with answers gives the same page with the answers filled in. Both are made in your browser.

Is this passage from a published book?

No. It was written for Peabody Teach, so there is no book to buy and no login to read it.

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