Name the passage, the barrier, and the outward stretch
Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.
A culvert in the students' landscape model carried water beneath a miniature railway embankment, connecting channels on its opposite sides. The tank's glass divider was impermeable to the colored water in the stated trial, allowing none to pass through the partition. Distention of a volunteer's coat pocket became visible when bulky model supports pushed the fabric outward from inside. The presenter connected each word with a different observable relationship: a constructed passage under a barrier, resistance to a substance passing through, and expansion produced by outward stretching.
The culvert was the water-carrying passage beneath the embankment, rather than the railway track resting above it. Calling the divider impermeable to water described the tested barrier property without claiming that it blocked every possible substance under every condition. The pocket's distention disappeared when the bulky supports were removed and the fabric returned to its usual shape. Students sketched the relevant parts and changes beside each label, using observations of this model and its materials rather than treating a technical-sounding word as a complete explanation by itself.
Before you move on
Look away from the passage. Can you explain each focus word in your own words?
Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.