Reading Comprehension Success in 20 Minutes a Day, 3rd Edition

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B E I N G S T R U C T U R A L LY S O U N D : P U T T I N G I T A L L T O G E T H E R
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8 4
5.
Which two organizational strategies does this
writer use?
a.
chronological order
b.
order of importance
c.
compare and contrast
d.
cause and effect
6.
The author organizes his ideas in order of
a.
decreasing importance (most important to
least important).
b.
increasing importance (least important to
most important).
7.
Underline the sentence in this passage that
expresses the main idea.
8.
The sentence you underlined is a(n)
a.
fact.
b.
opinion.
Answers
5.
b, c.
The author uses order of importance in com-
paring the old procedure to the new one.
6.
a.
The author organizes his ideas in order of
decreasing importance. He starts with the most
important change (“First, the most important dif-
ference is . . .”) and moves downward to the second
and third most important changes.
7.
The sentence that expresses the main idea of all
four paragraphs is the second sentence in the first
paragraph: “These changes make it much easier
for in-house employees to fill vacancies.” Although
the first sentence tells us what all the paragraphs
will be about (the changes in the procedure), it is
the second sentence that expresses an opinion—
how the author feels about this subject—and
therefore, it is the main idea.

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8.
b.
This sentence expresses an opinion, not a fact.
There have indeed been changes—that is a fact—
but whether those changes make things easier for
most employees is debatable. There may be some
things about the old procedure that we don’t know.
Perhaps, for example, they opened the job to both
in-house employees and the general public at the
same time, but they interviewed all in-house
employees first anyway. Because of our limited
information about the old procedure, we cannot
accept the idea that the change is better as fact.
If you missed some of these questions, now it’s up
to you to figure out which lessons to review.