Reading Fluency

Practice Phrasing: “A Universe of Stars”

Phrasing is how you use your voice to group words together. Use this passage to practice reading with proper phrasing. Print a copy of this passage from InsideNG.com to help you monitor your progress.

If you stand outside on a clear, dark night, far away from any city lights, you may see a pale band of light stretching across the sky. The band of light is the Milky Way. The glow is from a huge number of stars.

Long ago, people could use only their eyes to study the sky. Over time, more powerful tools have allowed us to look farther and farther out into the universe. We’ve learned so much about space, but there is much more left to explore.

In the night sky, stars look like tiny diamonds fastened to the ceiling. They seem peaceful, timeless, and unchanging. In reality, stars are huge. They are scattered through vast distances in space. They’re not timeless but are always changing, and those changes can be violent.