PaginePaginepagineapp.comRead both texts. Compare how each develops its ideas.
The fog came in the morning of the regional cross-country meet, so thick that runners disappeared ten steps after the start.
Nadia had trained all season to beat Ellie Park, who had won every race since September. Now she couldn’t see Ellie, or the course flags, or anything but gray.
Somewhere in the second mile, she heard someone fall, then a sharp cry. She slowed. Through the fog she made out a runner on the ground holding an ankle. It was Ellie.
Nadia stood there for one long breath, hearing other runners pass. Then she knelt, pulled Ellie’s arm over her shoulder, and they walked the last mile together. They finished nearly last. The newspaper didn’t mention the race at all, but Ellie sat with Nadia on the bus home, and they talked the whole way.
Earth’s outer shell is broken into large pieces called tectonic plates. They float on a layer of hot, slowly flowing rock in the mantle and move only a few centimeters a year — about as fast as your fingernails grow.
Where plates pull apart, magma rises to form new crust, as along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Where plates push together, one may slide beneath another, forming deep ocean trenches and volcanoes, or both may crumple upward into mountains like the Himalayas.
Where plates slide past each other, stress builds until the rocks suddenly slip, causing earthquakes. California’s San Andreas Fault is a famous example.
Plate tectonics explains why earthquakes and volcanoes cluster along certain zones, such as the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean.
| Fog | Earth’s Tectonic Plates | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre and purpose | ||
| Central idea or theme | ||
| How the author develops it | ||
| Key evidence or detail |
Worksheets › Grade 8 English › Integration of Knowledge & Ideas › Integration of Knowledge & Ideas
Free Grade 8 English worksheet (Common Core RL.8.9): compare "Fog" with "Earth’s Tectonic Plates" and analyze how each develops its ideas. Skill: Compare texts and evaluate arguments. Level: Grade 8 — also suits Year 9 (UK).
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It is designed for Grade 8 (ages 13–14), but use it with any child who is ready.
Compare texts and evaluate arguments.
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Integration of Knowledge & Ideas: Compare Texts: The Interview & The Space Race (Grade 8) · Integration of Knowledge & Ideas: Evaluate an Argument: The Harlem Renaissance (Grade 8) · Integration of Knowledge & Ideas: Compare Texts: The Last Lighthouse & How Vaccines Train the Immune System (Grade 8) · Integration of Knowledge & Ideas: Evaluate an Argument: The Space Race (Grade 8)
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