Science · Level 1 · 115 words

Why Shadows Change Size

Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.

Light moves in straight lines. It cannot bend around you. When you stand in the sun, your body blocks some light, and a dark shape falls on the ground. That shape is your shadow.

Watch it change through one day. In the early morning, the sun sits low in the sky. Its light comes from the side, so your shadow stretches out long and thin. At noon, the sun is high overhead. Light comes down from above, and your shadow shrinks to a small pool at your feet. By evening, the sun is low again, and the shadow grows long on the other side.

Your body never changed. Only the angle of the light did.

Comprehension questions

Choose an answer, then check your work. Nothing is saved or sent.

4 questions
1. What is the main point of the passage?

Show answer for question 1

B. A shadow changes size because the angle of the sunlight changes, not because your body does.
The last two sentences state it directly: your body never changed, only the angle of the light did. The morning, noon, and evening scenes all exist to show that one cause.

2. A flagpole's shadow would be shortest

Show answer for question 2

D. at noon, when the sun is highest
The passage links a low sun to long shadows and a high sun to a small pool at your feet. Apply that rule to any object: the shadow is shortest when the sun is highest.

3. In this passage, "overhead" means

Show answer for question 3

A. directly above you
The word sits in the noon scene, and the next sentence says light comes down from above. The sentence right after a hard word often carries its meaning.

4. According to the passage, what does your shadow look like at noon?

Show answer for question 4

C. A small pool at your feet.
The noon sentence says the shadow shrinks to a small pool at your feet. Long and thin belongs to morning and evening, when the sun is low.

Source: Written for Fluency. Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.