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Reading a Floor Plan to Price Carpet

7th grade nonfiction passage about scale drawings and area: 236 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

7th grade nonfiction scale drawings and area 236 words

Reading a Floor Plan to Price Carpet

A family wants new carpet for a bedroom, and the store asks for the size of the room. Nobody has to haul out a long tape measure, because the plans for the house are already lying on the table. A floor plan is a scale drawing, which is a small picture in which every length has been shrunk by exactly the same amount.

The scale is printed in a corner of the plan. Suppose it says that 1 inch on the paper stands for 4 feet in the real house. On the plan, the bedroom measures 3 inches by 2.5 inches, so to find the real lengths you multiply each one by 4. The room turns out to be 12 feet by 10 feet. Since area is length times width, the floor covers 120 square feet.

Here is a mistake to avoid. The area on paper is 7.5 square inches, but you cannot simply multiply that number by 4. Both the length and the width were shrunk, which means the area was shrunk twice. Every square inch on the plan stands for 4 feet times 4 feet, which is 16 square feet, and 7.5 times 16 gives the same 120 square feet.

If the carpet costs $3 per square foot, the total cost is 120 times $3, or $360. A sensible shopper also asks about extra material, because the pieces must be trimmed to fit around corners and doorways. Scale drawings let people plan rooms, maps and machines without ever having to work at full size.

Questions

  1. What is a scale drawing? in the text

  2. In the example, what does 1 inch on the plan stand for? in the text

  3. What are the real measurements of the bedroom? in the text

  4. How much would the carpet cost at $3 per square foot? in the text

  5. Why can you not multiply the area on paper by 4 to find the real area? think about it

  6. Why might a shopper ask about extra carpet? think about it

Words to know

scale
the rule that tells how drawn lengths match real lengths
floor plan
a drawing of a room or house as seen from above
measures
has a certain size when checked with a ruler
area
the amount of flat space inside a shape
doorways
the openings where doors are placed
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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 · 201 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.3

A family wants new carpet for a bedroom. The store asks how big the room is. Nobody needs a long tape measure. The house plans are on the table. A floor plan is a scale drawing. It is a small picture where every length is shrunk by the same amount.

The scale is printed in a corner of the plan. Say it tells you that 1 inch on the paper means 4 feet in the real house. On the plan, the bedroom is 3 inches by 2.5 inches. Multiply each by 4. The room is 12 feet by 10 feet. Area is length times width. The floor is 120 square feet.

Here is a mistake to avoid. The area on paper is 7.5 square inches. You cannot just multiply that by 4. The length was shrunk and so was the width. So the area was shrunk twice. Each square inch on the plan means 4 feet times 4 feet. That is 16 square feet. And 7.5 times 16 is the same 120 square feet.

Carpet costs $3 per square foot. So the cost is 120 times $3. That is $360. A smart shopper also asks about extra carpet. Pieces must be cut to fit corners and doorways. Scale drawings help people plan rooms, maps and machines without working at full size.

▲ This passage · 236 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.1

A family wants new carpet for a bedroom, and the store asks for the size of the room. Nobody has to haul out a long tape measure, because the plans for the house are already lying on the table. A floor plan is a scale drawing, which is a small picture in which every length has been shrunk by exactly the same amount.

The scale is printed in a corner of the plan. Suppose it says that 1 inch on the paper stands for 4 feet in the real house. On the plan, the bedroom measures 3 inches by 2.5 inches, so to find the real lengths you multiply each one by 4. The room turns out to be 12 feet by 10 feet. Since area is length times width, the floor covers 120 square feet.

Here is a mistake to avoid. The area on paper is 7.5 square inches, but you cannot simply multiply that number by 4. Both the length and the width were shrunk, which means the area was shrunk twice. Every square inch on the plan stands for 4 feet times 4 feet, which is 16 square feet, and 7.5 times 16 gives the same 120 square feet.

If the carpet costs $3 per square foot, the total cost is 120 times $3, or $360. A sensible shopper also asks about extra material, because the pieces must be trimmed to fit around corners and doorways. Scale drawings let people plan rooms, maps and machines without ever having to work at full size.

■ Harder · 243 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8.4

A family wishes to install new carpet in a bedroom, and the flooring store requests the dimensions of the room. Fortunately, nobody has to wrestle with a long tape measure, because the architectural plans for the house are already lying on the table. A floor plan is a scale drawing, a reduced picture in which every length has been shrunk by exactly the same proportion.

The scale is printed in one corner of the plan. Suppose it states that 1 inch on the paper represents 4 feet in the actual house. On the plan, the bedroom measures 3 inches by 2.5 inches. To determine the real lengths, you multiply each measurement by 4, which shows that the room is 12 feet by 10 feet. Area equals length multiplied by width, so the floor covers 120 square feet.

There is one error that is worth avoiding. The area on the paper is 7.5 square inches, but you cannot simply multiply that figure by 4. Both the length and the width were reduced, so the area was reduced twice over. Every square inch on the plan represents 4 feet by 4 feet, or 16 square feet, and 7.5 multiplied by 16 produces the same 120 square feet.

If the carpet is priced at $3 per square foot, the total is 120 multiplied by $3, or $360. A sensible shopper will also inquire about additional material, since pieces have to be trimmed to fit corners and doorways. Scale drawings allow people to plan rooms, maps and even machines without ever having to work at full size.

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 scale, floor plan, measures, area and doorways 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 5 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 "Reading a Floor Plan to Price Carpet"?

It was written for 7th grade. It has 236 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 6.1. 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 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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