READTHEORY Passage and Questions Name Date • Reading Comprehension Assessment Directions: Read the passage Then answer the questions below The First Restaurant Experts estimate that there are more than million restaurants in the world today So it might surprise you to learn that restaurants as we know them have only existed for a few centuries Before 1765, there were no restaurants That is, there were no places that provided the restaurant experience There was nowhere in which a server brought you food and drink that you picked off of a menu In fact, there were no menus anywhere! There were places travelers could eat centuries before that The countryside was full of inns that would serve food And there were taverns where one could get a drink The wealthy could also eat personally catered meals supplied by private chefs But there was nothing that could be called a “restaurant.” A Boulanger changed that In 1765, he opened a place in Paris that sold soups On his sign, he used the term “restaurants” to describe what he was selling See, soups were considered “restorative,” so he called them “restaurants.” Eventually, people started buying Boulanger’s soups even when not ill And over time, people began to use the term “restaurant” to refer to the place soup was sold rather than the soup itself More “restaurants” opened up in France, and people began to purchase soups more regularly Then, restaurants in Paris began to serve food other than soups In the 1780s, menus started to appear By the 1800s, there were many types of restaurants The United States offered coffee shops and oyster houses Paris began creating elegant restaurants for the rich The British began to copy the French, and the restaurant concept was spread throughout the British Empire A slow start gave way to rapid growth Urban areas around the world are cluttered with eateries today The European Union estimates that there are 1.6 million restaurants in Europe In America, there are nearly a half million restaurants Today, diners have literally millions of options from which to choose 1) According to the passage, about how many restaurants are there in the world today? A B C D a half million 1.6 million million more than million 2) Information presented in the first two paragraphs suggest that the author most likely sees a restaurant as A B C D a place that is very uncommon in the world something other than just a place to eat food a thing that had to be invented by the French something other than a place that has a menu 3) The first thing to be called a restaurant A only served soups B was created by the British READTHEORY Questions C was invented in the 1780s D included a menu 4) This passage is most concerned with A B C D how people eat out around the world how restaurants invented menus the history of British taverns the history of restaurants 5) Based on the information in the passage, describe the origin of the modern restaurant in your own words _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 6) Today, we take the existence of restaurants for granted, but only a few hundred years ago, they did not exist What other modern practices or businesses we take for granted? What products we use constantly, but would never be recognized by our ancestors? Why? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ READTHEORY Questions _ _ 7) Think of your favorite restaurant What you know about the origins of that restaurant? Who you think started it? Do you know how long has it been around? How many locations does it have, and where? Why is it your favorite? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 8) Imagine that the concept of the “restaurant” had never been developed How would society be different? How would your own life and diet be different? Explain _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ READTHEORY Answers and Explanations 1) D Question Type: Detail To answer this detail question, look for the part of the passage that discusses how many restaurants there are in the world today This occurs in the first sentence of the passage There, the author writes that “experts estimate that there are more than million restaurants in the world today.” This makes choice (D) correct The final paragraph states that “there are nearly a half million restaurants” in the US today However, this question asks about the number of restaurants in the world, not how many there are in the US Because of this, choice (A) is not correct The final paragraph states that “the European Union estimates that there are 1.6 million restaurants in Europe” today However, this question asks about the number of restaurants in the world, not how many there are in Europe Because of this, choice (B) is not correct The first sentence of the passage states that “experts estimate that there are more than million restaurants in the world today.” This means there are not million restaurants but, rather, MORE than million Because of this, choice (C) is not correct 2) B Question Type: Inference In the first paragraph, the author states that “there were no places that provided the restaurant experience.” However, in the second paragraph, he or she states that “there were places travelers could eat” and that there were ways for rich people to eat prepared food “But there was nothing that could be called a ‘restaurant,’” the author states This suggests that the author sees a difference between a restaurant and simply a place to eat food Because of this, choice (B) is correct In the first two paragraphs, the author makes clear that restaurants are actually very common in the world He or she writes that “there are more than million restaurants in the world today.” This makes restaurants very common, not very uncommon Because of this, choice (A) is not correct The author does not mention the French inventing the restaurant until the third paragraph This question asks about paragraphs and 2, so choice(C) is not correct The author mentions the first eateries in the world not having a menu But he or she also makes it clear that the first eateries were not like today’s restaurants One way they were not similar is that “there were no menus” in those eateries This suggests that the author believes a restaurant is a place that has a menu, not something other than a place that has a menu Because of this, choice (D) is not correct 3) A Question Type: Detail To answer this detail question, look for the part of the passage that describes the first restaurant in the world This occurs in the third paragraph There, the author states that the first restaurant was created by A Boulanger, who used the term “restaurants” to refer to the soups he sold His “soups were considered ‘restorative’ so he called them ‘restaurants.’” Slowly, “more ‘restaurants’ opened up in France,” allowing people to “purchase soups more regularly.” All of this makes it clear that the first restaurant in the world only served soups Because of this, choice (A) is correct The third paragraph states that the first restaurant in the world opened in Paris “in 1765” and was opened by A Boulanger This means the British did not create the first restaurant, so choice (B) is not correct The fourth paragraph states that “menus started to appear” in the 1780s, but the third paragraph states that the first restaurant opened in Paris “in 1765.” This means choice (C) is not correct The fourth paragraph states that “menus started to appear” in the 1780s, but the third paragraph states that the first restaurant opened in Paris “in 1765.” This means the first restaurant did not have a menu It also means choice (D) is not correct 4) D Question Type: Global This passage is all about the history of restaurants The first paragraph states that “restaurants as we know them have only existed for a few centuries.” And the rest of the passage goes on to discuss that history It traces the restaurant concept back to Paris in the 1760s and follows the history of the restaurant through to the present Because of this, choice (D) is correct The passage suggests that people eat out all around the world, but it is mostly interested in tracing the origins and beginnings of restaurants It does not discuss much about the present, other than how many restaurants exist in the world Because of this, choice (A) is not correct The passage suggests that restaurants invented menus, but it does not go into any detail on the subject Instead, it mostly describes how restaurants themselves came to be created Because of this, choice (B) is not correct The passage only mentions taverns or the British in passing In no way does the passage focus on either subject Because of this, choice (C) is not correct  ... detail question, look for the part of the passage that describes the first restaurant in the world This occurs in the third paragraph There, the author states that the first restaurant was created... clear that the first restaurant in the world only served soups Because of this, choice (A) is correct The third paragraph states that the first restaurant in the world opened in Paris “in 1 765 ” and... occurs in the first sentence of the passage There, the author writes that “experts estimate that there are more than million restaurants in the world today.” This makes choice (D) correct The final