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Spending the Water Under Your Feet

8th grade nonfiction passage about aquifers and groundwater use: 287 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

8th grade nonfiction aquifers and groundwater use 287 words

Spending the Water Under Your Feet

Under much of the ground you walk on, water hides in the spaces between grains of sand and gravel and in the cracks of rock. A layer that holds enough water to supply wells is called an aquifer. People in many regions rely on aquifers for drinking water and for irrigating crops, and the way they are used raises a question about timing.

Rain and melting snow soak into the ground and slowly move downward until they reach the saturated zone, where every space is filled with water. The top of that zone is the water table. A well is simply a hole dug or drilled deep enough to reach below the water table, and a pump brings the water to the surface.

Aquifers refill, but often far more slowly than they are emptied. Water moves through sand and rock at a gentle pace, and in some dry regions the water now being pumped fell as rain thousands of years ago. If a farm or a city draws water faster than rain can replace it, the water table drops. Wells must be drilled deeper, pumps use more energy, and shallow wells may go dry. In some places, the ground itself sinks as water is removed from clay layers, a change that can damage roads and pipes and cannot easily be undone.

The remedies are practical. Farmers can switch to drip irrigation or crops that need less water. Cities can fix leaking pipes and reuse treated wastewater. Because the water lies out of sight, the best tool is measurement. Monitoring wells let managers watch the water table rise and fall, so they can tell whether a community is spending its underground savings or only living on its income.

Questions

  1. What is an aquifer? in the text

  2. What is the water table? in the text

  3. What happens to the ground in some places when water is removed from clay layers? in the text

  4. What changes can farmers and cities make to use less water? in the text

  5. Why do aquifers often refill more slowly than they are emptied? think about it

  6. What does it mean to spend underground savings instead of living on income? think about it

Words to know

aquifer
a layer of rock or sand underground that holds water
water table
the top of the ground that is completely filled with water
saturated
completely soaked, holding as much water as it can
irrigating
bringing water to crops through pipes or ditches
monitoring
watching and measuring something over time
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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 · 275 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.1

Under much of the ground you walk on, water hides in the spaces between grains of sand and gravel and in the cracks of rock. A layer that holds enough water to supply wells is called an aquifer. People in many places use aquifers for drinking water and for irrigating crops. How they use them raises a question about timing.

Rain and melting snow soak into the ground. They slowly move down until they reach the saturated zone, where every space is filled with water. The top of that zone is the water table. A well is a hole dug or drilled deep enough to reach below the water table. A pump brings the water up.

Aquifers refill, but often much more slowly than they are emptied. Water moves through sand and rock slowly. In some dry places, the water now being pumped fell as rain thousands of years ago. If a farm or a city takes water faster than rain can replace it, the water table drops. Wells must be drilled deeper. Pumps use more energy. Shallow wells may go dry. In some places, the ground itself sinks when water is removed from clay layers. That can damage roads and pipes, and it is hard to undo.

The fixes are practical. Farmers can switch to drip irrigation or to crops that need less water. Cities can fix leaking pipes and reuse treated wastewater. The water is out of sight, so the best tool is measurement. Monitoring wells let managers watch the water table rise and fall. Then they can tell if a town is spending its underground savings or only living on its income.

▲ This passage · 287 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8

Under much of the ground you walk on, water hides in the spaces between grains of sand and gravel and in the cracks of rock. A layer that holds enough water to supply wells is called an aquifer. People in many regions rely on aquifers for drinking water and for irrigating crops, and the way they are used raises a question about timing.

Rain and melting snow soak into the ground and slowly move downward until they reach the saturated zone, where every space is filled with water. The top of that zone is the water table. A well is simply a hole dug or drilled deep enough to reach below the water table, and a pump brings the water to the surface.

Aquifers refill, but often far more slowly than they are emptied. Water moves through sand and rock at a gentle pace, and in some dry regions the water now being pumped fell as rain thousands of years ago. If a farm or a city draws water faster than rain can replace it, the water table drops. Wells must be drilled deeper, pumps use more energy, and shallow wells may go dry. In some places, the ground itself sinks as water is removed from clay layers, a change that can damage roads and pipes and cannot easily be undone.

The remedies are practical. Farmers can switch to drip irrigation or crops that need less water. Cities can fix leaking pipes and reuse treated wastewater. Because the water lies out of sight, the best tool is measurement. Monitoring wells let managers watch the water table rise and fall, so they can tell whether a community is spending its underground savings or only living on its income.

■ Harder · 313 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 9.6

Beneath much of the ground on which we walk, water hides in the spaces between grains of sand and gravel and in the cracks of solid rock. A layer that holds enough water to supply wells is called an aquifer. People in many regions rely on aquifers for drinking water and for irrigating their crops, and the manner in which they are used raises an important question about timing.

Rain and melting snow soak into the ground and slowly travel downward until they reach the saturated zone, where every available space is filled with water. The upper surface of that zone is called the water table. A well is simply a hole that has been dug or drilled deeply enough to reach below the water table, and a pump then brings the water up to the surface.

Aquifers do refill, but frequently far more slowly than they are emptied. Water moves through sand and rock at a very gentle pace, and in some dry regions the water that is now being pumped fell as rain thousands of years ago. If a farm or a city draws water faster than rain can replace it, the water table begins to drop. Wells must be drilled deeper, pumps consume more energy, and shallow wells may go dry. In certain places, the ground itself sinks as water is removed from clay layers, a change that can damage roads and pipes and cannot easily be reversed.

The remedies are practical ones. Farmers can switch to drip irrigation or to crops that require less water, and cities can repair leaking pipes and reuse treated wastewater. Because the water lies hidden from view, the most valuable tool is measurement. Monitoring wells allow managers to watch the water table rise and fall, so that they can judge whether a community is spending its underground savings or merely living on its income.

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 aquifer, water table, saturated, irrigating and monitoring 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 "Spending the Water Under Your Feet"?

It was written for 8th grade. It has 287 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 8.0. 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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