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GRALLY! EDUCATION22 Railroad AvenueGlen Head, NY 11545888-99-RALLYwww.RALLYEDUCATION.com2At-Home Success: 1 Week to Better ReadingNF-1Copyright RALLY! EDUCATION. All rights reserved. No part of thematerial protected by this copyright may be reproduced in any form byany means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, withoutpermission in writing from the copyright owner. Printed in the U.S.A. RALLY! EDUCATION. IT IS ILLEGAL TO COPY THIS BOOK. VISIT US AT WWW.RALLYEDUCATION.COM

NF-1At-Home Success: 1 Week to Better ReadingIntroductionGDear At-Home Helper,Reading comprehension means understanding what you read. There are 13 skills aperson uses to read and understand nonfiction. Nonfiction is information that is true.Learners must use these 13 skills to answer questions on reading tests.At-Home Success:1 Week to Better Reading will help the Learner become a better reader and a bettertest taker.At-Home Success: 1 Week to Better Reading is designed for an At-Home Helper to workalongside the Learner. The directions and hints should be read to your Learner. Thischeck mark x means that you should read this information with the Learner.Our goal is to help the Learner become a better reader and a better test taker. There aretwo questions for each skill. Question a has a hint. Read the hint to the Learner.Question b does not have a hint.Congratulations on taking an active interest in your Learner’s education!Day 1:Day 2:Day 3:Read and take notes.Review skill and answer questions:Facts & Details, Main Idea, Author’s Purpose, Prior KnowledgeReview skill and answer questions:Sequence, Vocabulary/Language, Sources of Information, Fact/OpinionDay 4: Review skill and answer questions:Conclusions, Cause/Effect, Inferences, Compare/ContrastDay 5:Review skill and answer questions, draw a picture:Prediction, Complete a Chart, Deserts of the World by Numbers RALLY! EDUCATION. IT IS ILLEGAL TO COPY THIS BOOK. VISIT US AT WWW.RALLYEDUCATION.COM3

GAt-Home Success: 1 Week to Better ReadingNF-1Day 1x Read the passage. Take notes about the passage.Deserts of the WorldWhen you think about deserts, do you picture flowers andpolar bears, volcanoes and mines? Most students do not.Deserts are filled with sights, sounds, and smells that mostpeople do not expect. Brilliant red and orange flowersbloom on cactus. Ancient desert people made elaboratepaintings that can still be seen today. Polar bears even roamthe coldest deserts on earth.Notes About WhatI Am ReadingWe filled in the firstnote for you:Deserts on every continentThere are 58 million square miles of land on Earth, and onethird of that land is desert! Most of Australia is a desert.Large parts of the western United States are desert. TheSahara Desert takes up almost all of northern Africa. Thereare deserts on every continent.In some of these arid areas, the ground receives less thanten inches of rainfall each year. In others, heat from the sunplus wind cause more water to evaporate over a year thanto fall as rain. In some areas, rain falls so fast, water cannotsoak into the hard ground. When this happens, flash floodsare common. In the polar regions of the Arctic andAntarctica, whatever water exists is frozen.The deserts of the American Southwest and the polarregions depict the extreme characteristics of deserts.The American DesertsFor centuries people traveled the two-hundred-mile Devil’sHighway through the Sonoran Desert from Central Americainto Mexico and the United States. Many called it an inferno.4 RALLY! EDUCATION. IT IS ILLEGAL TO COPY THIS BOOK. VISIT US AT WWW.RALLYEDUCATION.COM

NF-1At-Home Success: 1 Week to Better ReadingDay 1Others, like the ancient people called the Hohokam, made ittheir home and learned to irrigate the soil. The PapagoIndians lived in the Sonoran Desert of the United States andMexico. For hundreds of years, they roamed this land. Theylived on mountain slopes in winter. Then they traveled tothe desert during the rainy season when floods brought thewater that their plants needed.GNotes About WhatI Am ReadingCoyotes and other mammals, snakes, insects, and birds arejust some of the wildlife to be found in the Sonoran Desert.Tortoises survive in the American desert as well, eating thefruit of cactus. Tarantulas escape the heat by burrowingunderground. Yucca plants produce beautiful blooms.Saguaro cactus, a symbol of the American desert, grow tofifty feet or more and live for up to two hundred years. Theyrequire as little as five inches of rainfall a year.Saguaro cactiToday, the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts of the United Statesare still some of the most inhospitable places on Earth.Temperatures soar to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet majorAmerican cities are located in the Sonoran Desert, whereair conditioning makes modern life possible. RALLY! EDUCATION. IT IS ILLEGAL TO COPY THIS BOOK. VISIT US AT WWW.RALLYEDUCATION.COM5

GAt-Home Success: 1 Week to Better ReadingNF-1Day 1The Polar DesertsSometimes called a frozen frontier, the arctic regions aredeserts covering both poles. For most of the year, the sun isbelow the horizon. These are barren regions, where water islocked in ice.Notes About WhatI Am ReadingAt the South Pole, Antarctica receives an average of less thantwo inches of precipitation a year. Its ice sheet can be up tothree miles thick. The air is so cold and so thin that it cannothold water, much less turn it into clouds to produce rain. Itsenormous landmass—5.4 million square miles—is one anda half times the size of Canada. When the seawatersurrounding Antarctica freezes in winter, the ice shelfexpands the area by an additional 7.3 million square miles.Arid mountain peaks tower over the land. Five activevolcanoes, such as Mount Erebus, tower above the ice.The artic regions are deserts covering both poles.Humans have never lived on this frigid continent, buttoday’s scientists conduct research there at 68 sites operatedby 18 nations. The largest is McMurdo Station, which wasopened in 1956 and is operated by the United States.6 RALLY! EDUCATION. IT IS ILLEGAL TO COPY THIS BOOK. VISIT US AT WWW.RALLYEDUCATION.COM

NF-1At-Home Success: 1 Week to Better ReadingDay 1Around the North Pole lies the frozen tundra of Asia,Europe, and North America. This desert is characterized bypermanently frozen subsoil called permafrost. Thepermafrost can reach 800 to 1,400 feet deep, and there areno trees. The Arctic Ocean surrounds this “frozen frontier,”which is locked by masses of ice virtually year round. This isa life-threatening situation. Despite these harsh conditions,temperatures, and winds, people, animals, and plants havecalled the Arctic home for centuries.GNotes About WhatI Am ReadingToday, more than two million people live in this zone. Morethan twelve thousand years ago, hunters, it is thought,traveled from Asia across the Bering Strait via a bridge of iceinto, what is today, North America. They adapted and livedoff the riches of the region, eating fish, polar bears,penguins, whales, and seals, among other food sources.A Dead Land?Deserts play a major role in our everyday lives. We travel bycars fueled by oil that is found deep within desert sands inthe Middle East. We buy fruit and vegetables grown indesert lands watered by irrigation. We travel to enjoy uniquesites like the pyramids in Egypt or the Grand Canyon inArizona. We paint pictures and take photographs of colorfulsunsets. We buy jewelry and other products made out ofcopper dug from mines in the high desert of Chile in SouthAmerica. We study insects, animals, and reptiles fromdeserts around the globe. We even debate over who will useprecious water resources from desert-based rivers like theColorado River.Are deserts dead land? No! They are brimming with life,much of it fragile. They are complex ecosystems on whichthe people of the world depend. RALLY! EDUCATION. IT IS ILLEGAL TO COPY THIS BOOK. VISIT US AT WWW.RALLYEDUCATION.COM7

GAt-Home Success: 1 Week to Better ReadingNF-1Day 2x Answer the questions. You may read the passage again.Facts and Details1a. How much of the Earth’s land surface is desert?A) one-halfB) one-fifthC) one-thirdD) one-fourthx 1a. HintYou must be able to find andremember information in apassage you read. Carefullyread the second paragraph toanswer this question.1b. How large is the landmass of Antarctica?A) 5.4 million square milesB) 2,000 square milesC) 7.3 million square milesD) 12,000 square milesMain Idea2a. This passage is mostly about—x 2a. HintThe main idea is what thewhole passage is about. Thinkabout what most of the factsand details are about in thispassage.A) desert regions.B) desert flowers.C) weather patterns.D) Antarctica.2b. The fifth paragraph is mostly about—A) rainfall patterns in the American Southwest.B) why a desert region is known as an inferno.C) people in the Sonoran Desert.D) the thickness of the ice in the world’s polarareas.8 RALLY! EDUCATION. IT IS ILLEGAL TO COPY THIS BOOK. VISIT US AT WWW.RALLYEDUCATION.COM

NF-1At-Home Success: 1 Week to Better ReadingDay 2GAuthor’s Point of View and Purpose3a. The author would most likely agree withwhich statement?A) Less farming should be done in theSonoran Desert.B) Deserts are more beautiful than mostpeople imagine.x 3a. HintThe author’s point of view ishow the author feels aboutfacts in the passage. How doesthe author probably feel aboutdeserts?C) There are more desert areas that need tobe discovered.D) The polar ice caps may be used to cool buildingsin the future.3b. The author probably wrote this passage to—A) tell you about desert plants and animals.B) share feelings about deserts.C) teach you of the dangers in the desert.D) show how diverse deserts can be.Prior Knowledge4a. What has made living in deserts possible?A) lightweight clothingB) water-delivery systemsC) television and radioD) telephones and computers4b. Which country has a large desert area?x 4a. HintPrior knowledge is what youalready know about the ideasin a passage. Use what youalready know about desertconditions to answer thequestion.A) EnglandB) VietnamC) EgyptD) Brazil RALLY! EDUCATION. IT IS ILLEGAL TO COPY THIS BOOK. VISIT US AT WWW.RALLYEDUCATION.COM9