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A Crushed Hood and Why That Is Good News

8th grade nonfiction passage about crumple zones in cars: 279 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

8th grade nonfiction crumple zones in cars 279 words

A Crushed Hood and Why That Is Good News

A car with a badly folded front end may look like a failure of engineering. In fact, the damage often means the car did its job. Modern cars are built with crumple zones, areas at the front and back that are designed to collapse in a controlled way during a collision.

The reasoning comes from physics. When a moving car stops suddenly, the people inside must lose all of their speed, and the force they feel depends on how quickly that happens. Stopping in a very short time produces a very large force. Stopping over a slightly longer time produces a much smaller one, even though the change in speed is the same. A crumple zone stretches out the moment of stopping by a small but important fraction of a second.

As the front of the car folds, it also absorbs energy. The metal bends and twists, so the energy of the moving car goes into reshaping the metal instead of into the passengers. Engineers choose the shape of every beam and panel so the parts fold in a planned order.

Meanwhile, the middle of the car works in the opposite way. The passenger compartment is built as a stiff safety cage of strong steel that is meant to keep its shape. The crumple zone does the bending, so the cage does not have to. Seat belts and airbags then hold the passengers in place and spread the remaining force across the strongest parts of the body.

Older cars were often built to be as rigid as possible, which seemed safer. Testing showed the opposite. A stiff car stops abruptly and passes more force to the people inside it.

Questions

  1. What is a crumple zone? in the text

  2. What happens to the force if the stopping time is longer? in the text

  3. Where does the energy of the moving car go as the front folds? in the text

  4. How is the passenger compartment built? in the text

  5. Why is a badly crushed hood sometimes good news? think about it

  6. Why was a very rigid older car not actually safer? think about it

Words to know

collision
a crash when two moving things hit each other
absorb
to take in energy so it does not pass on
compartment
a separate space inside a larger thing
rigid
stiff and not able to bend
controlled
carried out in a planned, steady way
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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 · 248 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.3

A car with a badly folded front may look like a failure. In fact, the damage often means the car did its job. Modern cars have crumple zones. These are parts at the front and back that are built to fold in a planned way in a crash.

The idea comes from physics. When a moving car stops fast, the people inside must lose all their speed. The force they feel depends on how fast that happens. A very short stop gives a very big force. A slightly longer stop gives a much smaller force, even though the change in speed is the same. A crumple zone makes the stop last a little longer.

As the front folds, it also takes in energy. The metal bends and twists. The energy of the moving car goes into changing the shape of the metal and not into the people. Engineers pick the shape of each beam and panel so the parts fold in a planned order.

The middle of the car works in the opposite way. The place where people sit is a strong steel cage that keeps its shape. The crumple zone bends, so the cage does not have to. Seat belts and airbags hold people in place. They spread out the force that is left.

Older cars were often built to be as stiff as possible. That seemed safer. Tests showed the opposite. A stiff car stops all at once and gives more force to the people inside.

▲ This passage · 279 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.8

A car with a badly folded front end may look like a failure of engineering. In fact, the damage often means the car did its job. Modern cars are built with crumple zones, areas at the front and back that are designed to collapse in a controlled way during a collision.

The reasoning comes from physics. When a moving car stops suddenly, the people inside must lose all of their speed, and the force they feel depends on how quickly that happens. Stopping in a very short time produces a very large force. Stopping over a slightly longer time produces a much smaller one, even though the change in speed is the same. A crumple zone stretches out the moment of stopping by a small but important fraction of a second.

As the front of the car folds, it also absorbs energy. The metal bends and twists, so the energy of the moving car goes into reshaping the metal instead of into the passengers. Engineers choose the shape of every beam and panel so the parts fold in a planned order.

Meanwhile, the middle of the car works in the opposite way. The passenger compartment is built as a stiff safety cage of strong steel that is meant to keep its shape. The crumple zone does the bending, so the cage does not have to. Seat belts and airbags then hold the passengers in place and spread the remaining force across the strongest parts of the body.

Older cars were often built to be as rigid as possible, which seemed safer. Testing showed the opposite. A stiff car stops abruptly and passes more force to the people inside it.

■ Harder · 305 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8.5

A car with a badly folded front end may look like a conspicuous failure of engineering. In fact, the damage often means that the vehicle accomplished exactly what it was designed to do. Modern cars are built with crumple zones, areas at the front and back that are engineered to collapse in a controlled and predictable way during a collision.

The reasoning comes from physics. When a moving car stops suddenly, the people inside must lose all of their speed, and the force they feel depends on how quickly that happens. Stopping in a very short time produces a very large force. Stopping over a slightly longer time produces a much smaller one, even though the change in speed is exactly the same. A crumple zone stretches out the moment of stopping by a small but critically important fraction of a second.

As the front of the car folds, it also absorbs energy. The metal bends and twists, so the energy of the moving car is spent reshaping the metal instead of being delivered to the passengers. Engineers deliberately choose the shape of every beam and panel so that the parts fold in a carefully planned order.

Meanwhile, the middle of the car is designed to behave in the opposite manner. The passenger compartment is built as a stiff safety cage of strong steel that is meant to keep its shape. The crumple zone does the bending, so the cage does not have to. Seat belts and airbags then hold the passengers in place and spread the remaining force across the strongest parts of the body.

Older cars were often built to be as rigid as possible, which seemed to be the safer approach. Testing eventually showed the opposite. A stiff car stops abruptly and passes considerably more force along to the people inside it.

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 collision, absorb, compartment, rigid and controlled 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 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 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 "A Crushed Hood and Why That Is Good News"?

It was written for 8th grade. It has 279 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 6.8. 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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