E 4 E

ReadTheory
Level 3

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Reading Comprehension 6

Directions: Read the passage. Then answer the questions below.

Passage

There is a small fire station in town. At this station, the firefighters are volunteers. That means they work for free. The fire station gets some money from the government to take care of the building and the fire truck. But the fire station has a problem. Last winter, a pipe in the fire station froze. Then it burst. Water went everywhere. There is a lot of damage. Now the building cannot be used. What is worse, the fire station does not have enough money for the repairs needed to fix the damage. The people in town are worried about what will happen if there is a fire and no working fire station. But they will figure out a way to solve the problem. They always do! Questions

1) The main problem in the town is that A. B. C. D. the firefighters do not make any money a pipe in the fire station froze last winter people cannot fix the fire station people in town are worried

2) As used in the passage, which accurately describes something that has damage? A. B. C. D. A library is closed on Sundays. People cannot check out books that day. A hose is used to water the garden. The water goes all over the plants. An old washing machine still works. It is almost 20 years old. A stack of books fell on a computer. Now it will not turn on.

3) According to the author, the water went everywhere because the pipe A. B. C. D. froze burst leaked broke

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4) In the passage, the author writes, But they will figure out a way to solve the problem. In this sentence, the phrase solve the problem most likely means A. B. C. D. get more money fix the fire station make sure no fires happen make sure no pipes freeze

5) The feeling at the end of the passage can best be described as A. B. C. D. hopeful worried upset excited

6) Based on information in the passage, it can be understood that the people in town will be most likely to A. B. C. D. give money to the firefighters build a new fire station help fix the fire station themselves ask the firefighters to work for free

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Answers and Explanations

1) C Near the beginning of the passage, the author explains that the fire station has a problem. Then the author tells us that a pipe in the fire station froze and then burst, so there is a lot of damage and now the building cannot be used. Finally, t he author writes, What is worse, the fire station does not have enough money for the repairs needed to fix the damage. This means that the wo rst part of the problem, or the main problem, is that the fire station does not have enough money to fix the damage, so the people cannot fix the fire station. Therefore (C) is correct. While it is true that the firefighters do not make any money because they work for free, the author does not tell us that this is a problem. This eliminates (A). It is true that a pipe in the fire station froze last winter. However, the fact that the pipe froze is not the main problem. The author explains that this is what caused the main problem, because the pipe burst and water went everywhere. The main problem now, though, is that the fire station does not have enough money to fix the damage. This means (B) is incorrect. The author tells us, The people in town are worried about what will happen if there is a fire but no working fire station. This explains the peoples feelings about the problem. But their feelings are not the problem. This eliminates (D). 2) D damage (noun): physical harm that makes something no longer valuable, useful, or able to complete its normal function; injury. In the passage, the author writes, Last winter, a pipe in the fire station froze. Then it burst. Water went everywhere. There is a lot of damage. Now the building cannot be used. This tells us that damage is something that happened to the fire station when the pipe burst and water went everywhere. The damage means that the building cannot be used. In the next sentence, we learn that the fire station does not have enough money for the repairs needed to fix the damage. This tells us that the damage must be fixed, or repaired. Next, we learn that because of the damage, the town has no working fire station. From this information, we can understand that damage is some kind of physical harm or injury that keeps something from working as it normally would. If a stack of books fell on a computer and now it will not turn on, the computer has been harmed. It does not work as it normally would, and it needs to be fixed, just like the fire station. This accurately describes something that has damage. Therefore (D) is correct. A library that is closed on Sundays does not have any harm or damage that needs to be fixed and that keeps it from working normally. Being closed is not the same thing as having damage. This makes (A) incorrect. A hose that is used to spray water all over the plants does not have damage. Although water in the fire station caused damage, water does not cause harm to plants. In fact, plants need water to grow normally. This eliminates (B). If a washing machine still works even though it is almost 20 years old, then it does not have damage. Being old is not the same thing as having damage. This means (C) is incorrect. 3) B In the passage, the author writes, Last winter, a pipe in the fire station froze. Then it burst. Water went everywhere. Thi s tells us the chain of events that caused the water to go everywhere. First, the pipe froze. Because it was frozen, it burst. Because it burst, water went everywhere. This means that water went everywhere because the pipe burst. Therefore (B) is correct. Although the pipe did freeze, this is not what caused the water to go everywhere. If the pipe froze but did not burst, the water would have stayed in the pipe. This eliminates (A). Although pipes can sometimes leak, in the passage the author tells us that the pipe burst. He or she does not say it leaked. This makes (C) incorrect. A pipe can break, and this can be similar to a pipe bursting. But the word burst tells us that the pipe exploded, likely because of the pressure from the frozen ice. A pipe can break for many different reasons, such as old age or a mistake in the design, but a broken pipe does not always explode. This means burst is a more specific word than break. Therefore (D) is not the best choice. 4) B In the passage, the author describes the problem, which is that the fire station does not have enough money for the repairs needed to fix the damage. Then the author describes how people feel about this problem: they are worried about what will happen i f there is a fire but no working fire station. Finally, the author writes, But they will figure out a way to solve the problem. Si nce the problem is that they cannot fix the fire station, to solve the problem, the people will have to find a way to fix the fire station. This tells us that the phrase solve the problem most likely means fix the fire station. Therefore (B) is correct. Although getting more money is one way to fix the fire station, it is not the only way to fix it. This means it is not the only way to solve the problem. It is too specific. This makes (A) incorrect. Although the author tells us people are worried about more fires, making sure that no fires happen will not solve the problem. This problem is that the fire station is not fixed. This means (C) is incorrect. It is true that a pipe freezing caused the problem in the first place. But it will not solve the problem to make sure that no pipes freeze. The problem is that the fire station is not fixed. This makes (D) incorrect. 5) A Throughout most of the passage, the author describes a problem, and he or she even tells us that people are worried about i t. But the feeling changes in the last two lines. The author writes, But they will figure out a way to solve the problem. They always do! Even though there is a problem, the author is hopeful that the people will find a way to solve the problem. He or she writes They always do! to show us that the people have solved problems in the past, so we can hope that they will be able to so lve this problem, too. This means that the feeling at the end of the passage can best be described as hopeful. Therefore (A) is correct. Although the feeling can be described as worried earlier in the passage, at the end of the passage the feeling changes to hopeful. This means (B) is incorrect. Although people may be upset about the problem at the fire station, the passage itself does not have an upset feeling at the end. This means (C) is incorrect. The last line in the passage has an exclamation point at the end. Exclamation points are generally used to show importance or strong feelings, especially excitement. However, in this case, the excitement is specifically because the author hopes that the people will find a way to solve their problem. This means that hopeful is a better choice than excited. Therefore (D) is incorrect. 6) C

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In the passage, the author explains the main problem with the fire station: There is a lot of damage. Now the building canno t be used. What is worse, the fire station does not have enough money for the repairs needed to fix the damage. Next, the author writes, The people in town are worried about what will happen if there is a fire but no working fire station. This tells us that th e people want to have a fire station that is working again. Finally, the author writes, But they will figure out a way to solve the problem. They always do! From this we can understand that the people in town are likely to solve their problem. Since their problem is tha t the fire station is damaged and they do not have the money to fix it, we can understand that, of the choices given, the people in town will be most likely to help fix the fire station themselves. This would be a way for the people in town to solve the problem: they could help fix it themselves instead of paying someone to do it. Therefore (C) is correct. Giving money to the firefighters would not help repair the damage to the fire station, so (A) is incorrect. The author does not suggest that the fire station is so damaged that it cannot be fixed or that the people must build a new one. Also, it may be more expensive to build a new fire station than to fix the fire station that is damaged. If they do not have the money to fix the fire station, the people likely do not have the money to build a new one, either. This means (B) is not the best choice. In the passage, we learn that the firefighters are volunteers and that means they work for free. Since the firefighters already work for free, asking the firefighters to work for free woul d not solve the problem of not having enough money to fix the fire station. Therefore (D) is incorrect.

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