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How a Pulley Lifts a Load

5th grade nonfiction passage about simple machines: 238 words, five questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

5th grade nonfiction simple machines 238 words

How a Pulley Lifts a Load

Imagine you need to lift a heavy bucket of sand to the top of a building. You could climb a ladder and carry it, but that would be tiring and unsafe. A better way is to use a pulley, which is one of the simple machines that people have used for thousands of years.

A pulley is a wheel with a groove around its edge. A rope fits into the groove and slides over the wheel. If you hang a pulley from a high beam and thread a rope through it, you can tie the bucket to one end and pull down on the other end. As you pull down, the bucket goes up. The pulley does not make the job lighter, but it changes the direction of your pull. Pulling down is easier than lifting up, because you can use the weight of your own body.

You can make the job easier still by using more than one pulley. In a system of several wheels, the rope is wrapped around them in a loop. The load is shared by more sections of rope, so each section carries only part of the weight. You must pull a longer length of rope, but you can lift something very heavy with far less force.

Pulleys are found in cranes, flagpoles, elevators, and window blinds. Next time you raise a flag or lift a blind, you are using this clever invention.

Questions

  1. What is a pulley? in the text

  2. What does a single pulley change about your pull? in the text

  3. Why is pulling down on a rope easier than lifting a load up? think about it

  4. Why does a system of several pulleys make lifting easier? think about it

  5. Where are two places pulleys are used? in the text

Words to know

pulley
a wheel with a rope that helps lift things
groove
a long, narrow channel cut into a surface
beam
a long, strong piece of wood or metal
direction
the way something moves or points
invention
something new that someone made
Share

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 · 223 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.2

Say you need to lift a heavy bucket of sand to the top of a building. You could climb a ladder and carry it. But that is tiring and not safe. A better way is to use a pulley. A pulley is a simple machine that people have used for thousands of years.

A pulley is a wheel with a groove around its edge. A rope fits in the groove and slides over the wheel. Hang a pulley from a high beam and thread a rope through it. Tie the bucket to one end of the rope. Pull down on the other end. As you pull down, the bucket goes up. The pulley does not make the job lighter. It changes the direction of your pull. Pulling down is easier than lifting up, because you can use your own body weight.

You can make the job easier still with more than one pulley. In a system of several wheels, the rope loops around them. More sections of rope share the load. Each section carries only part of the weight. You must pull a longer length of rope. But you can lift something very heavy with much less force.

Pulleys are found in cranes, flagpoles, elevators, and window blinds. When you raise a flag or lift a blind, you are using this clever invention.

▲ This passage · 238 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.4

Imagine you need to lift a heavy bucket of sand to the top of a building. You could climb a ladder and carry it, but that would be tiring and unsafe. A better way is to use a pulley, which is one of the simple machines that people have used for thousands of years.

A pulley is a wheel with a groove around its edge. A rope fits into the groove and slides over the wheel. If you hang a pulley from a high beam and thread a rope through it, you can tie the bucket to one end and pull down on the other end. As you pull down, the bucket goes up. The pulley does not make the job lighter, but it changes the direction of your pull. Pulling down is easier than lifting up, because you can use the weight of your own body.

You can make the job easier still by using more than one pulley. In a system of several wheels, the rope is wrapped around them in a loop. The load is shared by more sections of rope, so each section carries only part of the weight. You must pull a longer length of rope, but you can lift something very heavy with far less force.

Pulleys are found in cranes, flagpoles, elevators, and window blinds. Next time you raise a flag or lift a blind, you are using this clever invention.

■ Harder · 241 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 7.1

Suppose you needed to hoist a heavy bucket of sand to the top of a building. You could climb a ladder and carry it, but that would be exhausting and dangerous. A far better method is to use a pulley, which is one of the simple machines that people have relied on for thousands of years.

A pulley consists of a wheel with a groove around its edge, and a rope fits into the groove and slides over the wheel. If you suspend a pulley from a high beam and thread a rope through it, you can tie the bucket to one end and pull downward on the other. As you pull down, the bucket rises. The pulley does not make the job lighter, but it changes the direction of your pull. Pulling down is easier than lifting up, because you can take advantage of the weight of your own body.

You can make the job easier still by combining several pulleys. In a system of multiple wheels, the rope is wound around them in a loop. The load is distributed among additional sections of rope, so each section supports only part of the weight. You must pull a longer length of rope, but you can raise something extremely heavy with far less force.

Pulleys are found in cranes, flagpoles, elevators, and window blinds. Whenever you raise a flag or lift a blind, you are putting this clever invention to 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 pulley, groove, beam, direction and invention 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 3 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 "How a Pulley Lifts a Load"?

It was written for 5th grade. It has 238 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 5.4. 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 five. 3 ask for something the text says directly and 2 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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