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Gus Harrow's Turnip and the Closed Road

7th grade fiction passage about a tall tale about a giant turnip: 279 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

7th grade fiction a tall tale about a giant turnip 279 words

Gus Harrow's Turnip and the Closed Road

Folks in Turnip Gulch will tell you that Gus Harrow grew the biggest turnip the world has ever seen, and folks in Turnip Gulch have never been known to shrink a story.

It started as an ordinary seed, but Gus watered it with a leaky bucket every evening, and that bucket must have been enchanted. By June the turnip had pushed up past the fence. By July it was taller than the barn. By August its leaves cast so much shade that the rooster crowed at noon, convinced it was sunset.

The trouble came when the turnip sat down right across Main Road. It was so wide that wagons had to drive around it, and the detour took three days. The mail arrived late. The mayor missed her own birthday party. A traveling salesman, trapped on the wrong side, sold his entire stock of umbrellas to a family of frogs just to pass the time.

Gus tried everything. He tied a rope around the turnip and hitched twelve horses to the other end. The horses pulled until their hats fell off, and the turnip never wiggled. He tried asking politely. Politeness did not work on vegetables.

At last Gus's grandmother, who was smaller than a mailbox and wiser than a library, tapped the turnip with her spoon and said, "Well, it is dinner time." The whole town came with pots, bowls, and one very large ladle. They made turnip soup, and it fed everybody for a month, with enough left over to heat the school all winter. The road opened on the first of September, and the turnip skin made a very fine roof for the gulch's new bakery.

Questions

  1. What made Gus Harrow's turnip grow so large? in the text

  2. Where did the turnip sit that caused trouble? in the text

  3. What is one problem the closed road caused? in the text

  4. Why did the horses fail to move the turnip? think about it

  5. How did Gus's grandmother solve the problem? in the text

  6. Which detail in the story is an exaggeration that makes it a tall tale? think about it

Words to know

enchanted
under a magic spell
detour
a longer way around something that blocks the road
salesman
a person who travels around selling goods
hitched
fastened to something so it can pull
ladle
a large deep spoon used for serving soup
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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 · 259 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.9

People in Turnip Gulch say that Gus Harrow grew the biggest turnip in the world. People in Turnip Gulch never make a story smaller.

It began as a plain seed. Gus watered it each evening with a leaky bucket. That bucket must have been magic. By June the turnip was taller than the fence. By July it was taller than the barn. By August its leaves made so much shade that the rooster crowed at noon. He thought it was sunset.

Then the turnip sat down across Main Road. It was so wide that wagons had to go around it. The trip took three days. The mail came late. The mayor missed her own birthday party. A salesman got stuck on the wrong side. He sold all his umbrellas to a family of frogs just to pass the time.

Gus tried many things. He tied a rope to the turnip and hitched twelve horses to it. They pulled so hard that their hats fell off. The turnip did not wiggle. He asked it nicely. That did not work on a vegetable.

At last Gus's grandmother tapped the turnip with her spoon. She was smaller than a mailbox and wiser than a library. "Well," she said, "it is dinner time."

The whole town came with pots, bowls, and one huge ladle. They made turnip soup. It fed everybody for a month, and some was left to heat the school all winter. The road opened on the first of September. The turnip skin made a fine roof for the new bakery.

▲ This passage · 279 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6

Folks in Turnip Gulch will tell you that Gus Harrow grew the biggest turnip the world has ever seen, and folks in Turnip Gulch have never been known to shrink a story.

It started as an ordinary seed, but Gus watered it with a leaky bucket every evening, and that bucket must have been enchanted. By June the turnip had pushed up past the fence. By July it was taller than the barn. By August its leaves cast so much shade that the rooster crowed at noon, convinced it was sunset.

The trouble came when the turnip sat down right across Main Road. It was so wide that wagons had to drive around it, and the detour took three days. The mail arrived late. The mayor missed her own birthday party. A traveling salesman, trapped on the wrong side, sold his entire stock of umbrellas to a family of frogs just to pass the time.

Gus tried everything. He tied a rope around the turnip and hitched twelve horses to the other end. The horses pulled until their hats fell off, and the turnip never wiggled. He tried asking politely. Politeness did not work on vegetables.

At last Gus's grandmother, who was smaller than a mailbox and wiser than a library, tapped the turnip with her spoon and said, "Well, it is dinner time." The whole town came with pots, bowls, and one very large ladle. They made turnip soup, and it fed everybody for a month, with enough left over to heat the school all winter. The road opened on the first of September, and the turnip skin made a very fine roof for the gulch's new bakery.

■ Harder · 295 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 7.3

Folks in Turnip Gulch will assure you that Gus Harrow grew the largest turnip the world has ever witnessed, and folks in Turnip Gulch have never been known to shrink a story.

It began as an ordinary seed, but Gus watered it every evening from a leaky bucket, and that bucket must have been enchanted. By June the turnip had pushed up past the fence. By July it towered over the barn. By August its enormous leaves cast so much shade that the rooster crowed at noon, fully convinced that the sun was setting.

The trouble came when the turnip settled itself squarely across Main Road. It was so wide that wagons were forced to take a detour lasting three whole days. The mail arrived late. The mayor missed her own birthday party. A traveling salesman, stranded on the wrong side, sold his entire stock of umbrellas to a family of frogs simply to pass the time.

Gus attempted every remedy he could imagine. He knotted a rope around the turnip and hitched twelve horses to the opposite end. The horses strained until their hats fell off, and the turnip never so much as wiggled. He tried asking politely. Politeness, it turned out, had no effect whatsoever on vegetables.

At last Gus's grandmother, who was smaller than a mailbox and wiser than a library, tapped the turnip with her wooden spoon and remarked, "Well, it is nearly dinner time." The entire town arrived carrying pots, bowls, and one tremendous ladle. They cooked turnip soup that fed every resident for a month, with plenty left over to heat the school throughout the winter. The road reopened on the first of September, and the turnip's thick skin made a very fine roof for the gulch's new bakery.

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 enchanted, detour, salesman, hitched and ladle on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the story 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 3 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 4 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to retell the story in three sentences: how it began, what the problem was, and how it ended.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "Gus Harrow's Turnip and the Closed Road"?

It was written for 7th grade. It has 279 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 6.0. 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. 4 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 3 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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