On Saturday morning, Eli ran to Grandma Rosa’s backyard garden. The sun was bright, and the air smelled like wet soil. Grandma was already outside, wearing her wide straw hat and holding a small packet of seeds.
“Today we’ll plant sunflower seeds,” Grandma said. She poured a few seeds into Eli’s hand. Eli counted them slowly. “One, two, three, four, five,” he whispered. Then he looked down again. “Wait—there were six!”
Eli searched the ground. He checked the stepping stones and the edge of the flower bed, but the seed was gone. “Maybe the wind blew it,” Grandma suggested. Just then, Eli noticed a tiny line in the dirt, like a trail.
He followed the trail past a watering can and under a leafy squash plant. There, near a small hole, an ant carried something much bigger than itself. Eli leaned closer. The ant wasn’t carrying a crumb—it was dragging the missing sunflower seed!
Eli laughed softly so he wouldn’t scare it. “That seed is on an adventure,” he told Grandma. Grandma smiled. “Nature is busy,” she said. Eli gently picked up the seed and placed it back in the garden row. Then he patted the soil and whispered, “Stay right here so you can grow tall.”
Mountains are some of the biggest landforms on Earth. They can be rocky, snowy, or covered with trees. People hike on mountains, live near them, and study them. But how do mountains get so tall in the first place?
One way mountains form is when parts of Earth’s crust push together. The crust is the hard outer layer of the planet. Earth’s crust is broken into huge pieces called plates. These plates move very slowly, but they are always shifting.
When two plates crash into each other, the land can fold and rise. Over many years, the rising land becomes a mountain range. Some of the world’s tallest mountains formed this way. This kind of movement happens deep underground, so we cannot see it happening day by day.
Mountains can also form from volcanoes. A volcano builds a mountain when melted rock, called magma, pushes up from inside Earth. When the magma reaches the surface, it may erupt and become lava. As lava cools, it hardens into rock. After many eruptions, the layers of rock can grow into a mountain.
Even after mountains form, they do not stay the same forever. Wind, water, and ice can break rocks into smaller pieces. This process is called erosion. Erosion can slowly change the shape of mountains, making sharp peaks rounder over time.
What lesson does Eli learn in the story?
Which statement best describes the theme of the story?
What is the main idea of the passage?
Which detail shows that Eli is careful when he counts the seeds?
Which detail best explains how Eli finds the missing seed?
Which detail best supports the lesson that nature is busy?
What is the main idea of the passage?
Which sentence best explains what Earth’s crust is?
What happens when two plates crash into each other?
Which detail from the passage shows that plate movement is hard to notice?
How does a volcano build a mountain, according to the passage?
What is erosion?