READTHEORY Passage and Questions Name Date • Reading Comprehension Assessment Directions: Read the passage Then answer the questions below The Collection “Everyone needs a hobby,” my grandpa told me when I was 14 He would know, too My grandpa seemed to have more hobbies than actual tasks Most people had hobbies to occupy their free time only He did not work though, since he was retired Instead, he occupied all his time with hobbies In the summer, he would golf in the morning and work in his garden in the afternoon In the fall, he would build wooden crafts in the garage In winter, he would read a book a day by his fireplace And in the spring, he would start growing seeds for his garden or paint a picture while sitting on his porch Lacking a Hobby I never had a hobby He would try to get me interested in his hobbies None of them ever appealed to me I hated being outside, so gardening and golf were not for me I had no skills at carpentry Books did not interest me And neither did painting Instead, I searched far and wide to find other hobbies on my own Internet searches provided me with hundreds of other hobbies Some people liked playing fantasy football Others enjoyed bicycling Some searched for metal objects in the sand A few were even amateur ghost hunters! None of these hobbies appealed to me though, so I remained without a hobby Finding a Hobby Finally, I found a website devoted to collecting things Apparently, people all over the world get interested in certain objects and make a hobby of getting and keeping those objects One person on the site had a collection of radios from the 1920s Others collected old books, baseball cards, stamps, or even dinosaur bones I realized that I too had actually had a hobby this whole time! See, since I was four, I had been amassing a collection of tin soldiers By the time I had started to look for a hobby, I already had entire armies of Civil War soldiers and at least a hundred soldiers from various other eras I had a dozen American Revolution troops, ten soldiers from Napoleon’s army, a half dozen Russian soldiers from the Crimean, and a handful of men from about twenty other conflicts I had been buying the soldiers any time I saw them And I had always researched the history of their conflicts That made me a collector, and it meant I had a hobby My grandpa did not even know I had a hobby when he set out to help me find one Strangely enough, though, he had helped me find the hobby all along See, he had bought me that first tin soldier when I was four! 1) In the first paragraph, the narrator suggests his grandpa was unique because A B C D his grandpa was retired, but most grandpas continue to work his grandpa taught his grandson how to collect objects, instead of how to garden his grandpa had a wide range of hobbies, instead of just one hobby his grandpa’s hobbies occupied all of his time, not just his free time READTHEORY Questions 2) Each of the following is a hobby the narrator’s grandpa enjoyed EXCEPT A B C D making crafts gardening ghost hunting golfing 3) As used in paragraph 4, the phrase "appealed to" could best be replaced by A B C D interested collected disgusted embarrassed 4) According to the passage, the narrator’s tin soldier collection A B C D had been building since he was four was started by his grandpa included more than a hundred soldiers all of the above 5) Which of the following statements best describes this passage? A The narrator sets out to what his grandpa suggests only to find that his grandpa does not care about it B The narrator searches for a hobby only to find he has had one all along C The narrator takes up collecting tin soldiers because his grandpa encourages him to so D The narrator tries to be like his grandpa but fails to find common interests 6) What are your hobbies? Are your hobbies more similar to the narrator’s, or to those of the narrator’s grandfather? Explain _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ READTHEORY Questions 7) What inferences can you make about the narrator of this passage? How old is he or she? What is his or her background? How you know? Explain _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 8) Many people collect items with the intention of selling them one day when their value is higher The narrator of this passage, however, never mentions any plans like these Why you think that is? Do you think the narrator will keep his or her collection forever, or will he or she sell it one day? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ READTHEORY Answers and Explanations 1) D Question Type: Inference In the first paragraph, the narrator compares his grandpa to “most people.” “Most people,” he writes, “had hobbies to occupy their free time only.” His grandpa, however, “did not work” and “occupied all his time with hobbies.” Because of this, it seems his grandpa is unique in using hobbies to occupy all of his time, not just his free time This makes choice (D) correct The narrator does say that his grandpa was retired in the first paragraph But he does not suggest that most grandpas are not retired Because of this, choice (A) is not correct The passage goes on to suggest that the grandpa helped get the narrator started on his collection, but it also states (in paragraph 2) that the narrator tried to get his grandson interested in all of his own hobbies These hobbies included gardening, so it seems his grandpa did try to teach him how to garden Because of this, choice (B) is not correct The first paragraph does suggest that the narrator’s grandpa had many hobbies However, it does not suggest that this was uncommon It never provides any information about how many hobbies most people have Because of this, choice (C) is not correct 2) C Question Type: Detail To answer this detail question, look for the part of the passage that describes the grandpa’s various hobbies This occurs in paragraph There, the narrator states a list of his grandpa’s seasonal hobbies These not include ghost hunting Ghost hunting is not mentioned until paragraph 4, and it is mentioned there as a hobby the narrator found on the internet Since the question asks for the hobby the grandpa did not necessarily enjoy, choice (C) is correct In paragraph 2, the narrator writes that the grandpa would “build wooden crafts in the garage” in the fall This question asks for the hobby the grandpa does not practice, so choice (A) is not correct In paragraph 2, the narrator writes that the grandpa would “work in his garden” in summers This question asks for the hobby the grandpa does not practice, so choice (B) is not correct In paragraph 2, the narrator writes that the grandpa would “golf in the morning” in summers This question asks for the hobby the grandpa does not practice, so choice (D) is not correct 3) A Question Type: Vocabulary appeal (verb): be attractive or interesting In paragraph 4, the narrator provides a list of hobbies he found online He states at the end of the paragraph that “none of these hobbies appealed to” him and that he “remained without a hobby.” It seems that had he found a hobby appealing, he would have found a hobby This suggests that the hobbies did not interest him That means appealed is similar in meaning to interested, making choice (A) correct The narrator does not discuss collecting things until paragraph This question asks for a word used in paragraph 4, so there is no suggestion that appealed is similar in meaning to collected That means choice (B) is not correct The fourth paragraph suggests that the hobbies the narrator found online did not appeal to him and that he “remained without a hobby” as a result Since the paragraph describes things that did NOT appeal to him, it follows that disgusted and appealed are not similar in meaning, even though the hobbies might have disgusted the narrator Choice (C) is not correct because of this, as disgusted and appealed are opposites The passage never describes anything embarrassing or not embarrassing the narrator, so there is no indication that appealed and embarrassed are similar in meaning Because of this, choice (D) is not correct 4) D Question Type: Detail To answer this detail question, look for the part of the passage that describes the narrator’s tin soldier collection This occurs in paragraph There, the narrator states that he “had been amassing a collection of tin soldiers” since he “was four.” This makes choice (A) true However, the passage ends by stating that the grandpa gave the narrator his first tin soldier, supporting choice (B) Finally, in paragraph 6, the narrator states that he had “at least hundred soldiers.” This makes choice (C) true too Because all three choices are true, choice (D) is correct 5) B Question Type: Global This passage has three sections It opens by stating that the grandpa encouraged the narrator to find a hobby Then, the middle part of the passage describes his attempts to find a hobby through his grandpa or online In the third part, the narrator describes the hobby he actually finds It is one he has “actually had… this whole time,” since the hobby is collecting tin soldiers, something he has done since he was four This means the passage could best be described as the narrator searching for a hobby only to find out he has had one all along (collecting) Because of this, choice (B) is correct The passage does suggest that the narrator looked for a hobby at his grandpa’s suggestion It does not at any point, however, suggest his grandpa did not care about the hobby after all Because of this, choice (A) is not correct The passage does state that the grandpa gave the narrator his first tin soldier, but it does not argue that his grandpa encouraged him to collect them throughout his life Additionally, the passage is more interested in describing the narrator’s search for a hobby than it is in describing the narrator’s tin soldier collection being inspired by his grandpa Because of this, choice (C) is not correct The passage does suggest that the narrator could not share a hobby with his grandpa, but this is not the main focus of the passage Instead, over half of it is devoted to describing the narrator’s search for a hobby Because of this, choice (D) is not correct  ... is mentioned there as a hobby the narrator found on the internet Since the question asks for the hobby the grandpa did not necessarily enjoy, choice (C) is correct In paragraph 2, the narrator... question, look for the part of the passage that describes the narrator’s tin soldier collection This occurs in paragraph There, the narrator states that he “had been amassing a collection of tin... stating that the grandpa encouraged the narrator to find a hobby Then, the middle part of the passage describes his attempts to find a hobby through his grandpa or online In the third part, the narrator