READTHEORY Passage and Questions Name Date • Reading Comprehension Assessment Directions: Read the passage Then answer the questions below Cooking Soup Every member of my family knows how to cook one thing very well My father knows how to barbecue chicken My older sister knows how to make very good lasagna My younger brother excels at making sugar cookies My mother is very good at making casseroles Until very recently, I did not know how to make anything But all of that changed one day last winter Brrrrrr! It was an exceptionally cold day Even by North Dakota standards, this day was rough The high temperature was -4° Yes, it was so cold that the temperature peaked below zero! Luckily, school was canceled because it was so cold So we were all at home, trying to stay warm My father suggested that hot soup would warm us up Soup is perfect for a cold day, but no one knew how to make it I knew I needed to learn to cook finally, so I volunteered I looked up soup recipes online, and I found one for beef barley that looked easy enough to make And, it turns out, it was easy! My first soup also turned out to be delicious Since that day, I’ve made soup a couple dozen times And I’ve tried everything from cream of mushroom to chicken noodle to an Indian soup called mulligatawny I am now the official soup expert of the Luthersen household The Process The secret to making good soup is patience Soup is not a meal that you can cook quickly It is something that needs to be made over several hours That way the flavors can blend together First, I like to start by making a base for the soup The base impacts every spoonful of the finished product In a soup with meat, I usually start by heating oil in the soup kettle and adding meat to it I cook the meat with onions, garlic, and sometimes spices or peppers Then, I add more vegetables on top of it: potatoes, carrots, celery, or other ingredients After those flavors start to develop, and the vegetables soften, I add stock on top of them Stock is what makes soup a soup It is the liquid that holds the ingredients I bring the stock to a boil, then reduce the temperature to a simmer That means the stove is on low, but the soup stays hot Then, I sit and wait A couple hours later, my delicious soup is ready to be eaten And it goes fast because it tastes so great! The best thing about soup though is how many kinds of soup can be made with a basic recipe The process never changes, but the soups It just depends on what meats or vegetables you want to use So, one soup recipe is worth a thousand soups! 1) According to the passage, the narrator’s older sister is skilled at making A B C D barbecued chicken lasagna sugar cookies soup READTHEORY Questions 2) As used in paragraph 1, the word excels most nearly means A B C D trains struggles fails shines 3) The information in paragraph suggests that A B C D school gets canceled often in North Dakota it often gets cold in North Dakota soup is often eaten on cold days it is unusual to be cold in North Dakota 4) The passage suggests that a soup cook should NOT be A B C D impatient hungry picky creative 5) What ingredient is added to the soup last? A B C D spices vegetables meat stock 6) According to the passage, the best thing about cooking soup is that A B C D it does not take very long to make one process can make multiple soups it can warm one up on a cold day one pot gets eaten very quickly 7) Based on the information in the passage, explain in your own words how to prepare a soup _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ READTHEORY Questions 8) In the first paragraph, the narrator describes which members of his family have which cooking responsibilities Compare the narrator’s situation to your own Who cooks in your family? Do people have specialty dishes, or does one person cook everything? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 9) Describe your personal relationship with cooking What is your favorite thing to cook? Are you good at cooking it? Would you like to learn to cook something now? How would you that? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ READTHEORY Answers and Explanations 1) B Question Type: Detail To answer this detail question, look for the part of the passage that describes what each member of the narrator’s family could cook This occurs in the first paragraph There, the narrator states that his or her “older sister knows how to make very good lasagna.” This means she is skilled at making lasagna It also means choice (B) is correct The first paragraph states that the narrator’s “father knows how to barbecue chicken.” This makes choice (A) not correct The first paragraph states that the narrator’s “younger brother excels at making sugar cookies.” This means choice (C) is not correct The entire passage describes the narrator’s ability to make soup It does not suggest that his or her older sister knew how to make soup, though Because of this, choice (D) is not correct 2) D Question Type: Vocabulary excel (verb): to be exceptionally good at something In paragraph 1, the narrator provides a list of items his or her family members know “how to cook… very well.” In that paragraph, he or she writes that his or her “younger brother excels at making casseroles.” This suggests that the brother makes cookies very well Since he “excels at making” them, it follows that excels means to be very good at something The word that is closest in meaning to excels, then, is shines This makes choice (D) correct The passage does not imply that the brother is training or learning to make cookies Rather, it implies that he makes them “very well.” This means choice (A) is not correct The passage does not imply that the brother struggles to make cookies Rather, it implies that he makes them “very well.” This means choice (B) is not correct The passage does not imply that the brother fails to make cookies Rather, it implies that he makes them “very well.” This means choice (C) is not correct 3) B Question Type: Inference In paragraph 2, the narrator describes how cold it was the day he or she learned how to make soup He or she says “it was an exceptionally cold day” and that, “even by North Dakota standards, this day was rough.” The use of the adverb exceptionally suggests that it was colder than usual but that it is often cold in North Dakota Additionally, saying “even by North Dakota standards” suggests that North Dakotans are used to it being cold outside All of this implies that it often gets cold in North Dakota, just not as cold as it was that particular day Because of this, choice (B) is correct In paragraph 2, the narrator states that “school was canceled because it was so cold.” This only suggests that North Dakota cancels school when it is extremely cold outside It does not imply that school is often canceled in the state Because of this, choice (A) is not correct It is not until paragraph that the narrator discusses eating soup on cold days This question asks about paragraph Because of this, choice (C) is not correct In fact, paragraph suggests that it is often cold in North Dakota The narrator states that the weather one day was “exceptionally cold… even by North Dakota standards.” This means that North Dakota is often cold, but that one day was colder than most Because of this, choice (D) is not correct 4) A Question Type: Global In the end of the passage, under the heading of “The Process,” the narrator describes how soup is made and who can make soup That section opens by stating that “the secret to making good soup is patience.” This means that a good soup cook would have to have patience to make soup It also means that a soup cook should not lack patience or be impatient Because of this, choice (A) is correct The passage never suggests that a soup cook should not be hungry In fact, it implies that a soup cook might want to eat his or her own soup, since it is described as “delicious” in paragraph Because of this, choice (B) is not correct The passage does not suggest that a soup cook should be picky or not picky It only states that soup recipes can be changed to make many soups This does not, however, suggest that a soup cook has to like a lot of different foods It only implies that he or she might try to make different kinds of soup Because of this, choice (C) is not correct The passage does not suggest that a soup cook should not be creative In fact, if anything, it suggests that a soup cook might actually be creative It states that “many kinds of soup can be made with a basic recipe.” This suggests that a soup cook can create a variety of soups, and a variety of soups would be created by someone who is creative Because of this, choice (D) is not correct 5) D Question Type: Detail To answer this detail question, look for the part of the passage that describes the process of cooking soups This occurs under the heading of “The Process.” There, the author states that he or she makes “a base for the soup”: he or she adds oil and meat, then vegetables These are the first few ingredients In paragraph 8, the author states that he or she then adds “stock on top of them.” He or she never mentions another ingredient being placed in the soup, so choice (D) is correct In paragraph 7, the author states that he or she adds spices to the soup after adding meat but before adding other vegetables This means spices are not the last ingredients added to soup, so choice (A) is not correct In paragraph 7, the author states that he or she adds vegetables after making a base In paragraph 8, though, he or she states that he throws stock on top of them This means vegetables are not the last ingredients added to soup, so choice (B) is not correct In paragraph 7, the author states that he or she adds meat to the soup to make a base He or she then adds vegetables and spices on top of that This means meat is not the last ingredient added to soup, so choice (C) is not correct 6) B Question Type: Detail In the final paragraph, the author states that “the best thing about soup though is how many kinds of soup can be made with a basic recipe.” This means that one process can make multiple soups It also means choice (B) is correct The fifth paragraph actually states that “soup is not a meal that you can cook quickly.” This means it is not true that it does not take very long to make, so choice (A) is not correct The third paragraph states that “soup is perfect for a cold day,” but the narrator does not imply that this is the best thing about cooking soup Rather, it might only be the best thing about eating soup Because of this, choice (C) is not READTHEORY Answers and Explanations correct The ninth paragraph states that the narrator’s soup gets eaten quickly, but it does not state that it is the best part about cooking soup Rather, that information is provided in the tenth paragraph of the passage Because of this, choice (D) is not correct