8th Grade Reading Comprehension Passages
Reading Passages, Questions & Answers - Eighth Grade
Below you’ll find 8th grade reading comprehension passages along with questions and answers and related vocabulary activities. Great for reading skills development for middle and rising high school students.
Robert Louis Stevenson, a native of Scotland, took a train trip from New York to San Francisco in 1879. This is from the beginning of his trip. —————————————————– Tuesday.-When I awoke, it was already day; the train was standing idle; I was in the last carriage, and, seeing some others…
On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot by an assassin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. He died the next day. Lincoln died just days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, essentially ending the American Civil War. Lincoln’s assassination stunned and…
If you’re hiking and you spot a rusty old can, you may be tempted to pick it up for proper disposal. While that sentiment is worthy of admiration, it might not always be proper, or even legal. Laws protect archaeological resources on public lands and even in rivers, lakes, and…
On April 18, 1906, a massive earthquake shook Northern California, including San Francisco, the fourth largest city in the U.S. at that time. Novelist and journalist Jack London was hired by Collier’s, the National Weekly magazine to report on the event. The beginning of his report is below. ——————————— THE…
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugarplums…
This passage from Act IV, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet takes place in Friar Lawrence’s cell, or room. Juliet has come to the friar in a panic; her parents demand she marry Count Paris, but she is already secretly married to Romeo. Romeo, however, has been banished to Mantua…
Her name was Ms. Finch. Preposterously short with an angry, blunt brown bob and owlish eyeglasses dwarfing her petite face, she was old enough to be retired but clearly cantankerous enough to not go quietly into the night. Brian felt himself withering underneath her hawkish stare as he slipped into…
Devils Tower in Wyoming was named the first United States National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt. His proclamation establishing the monument is below. —————————- BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas, It is provided by section two of the Act of Congress approved June 8,…
This poem be Edgar Allan Poe contains a riddle. Poe challenges his readers to solve the riddle to find out who the valentine was written about. —————————— For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes, Brightly expressive as the twins of Loeda, Shall find her own sweet name,…
A Christmas Carol is the classic story of rich and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge hates Christmas, hates happiness, hates kindness, and hates people. He is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of Marley, his dead business partner. Marley tells Scrooge that three spirits will visit Scrooge that night. It…
= Partner Site