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Passage and Questions

Name________________
Date________________

• Reading Comprehension Assessment
Directions: Read the passage. Then answer the questions below.

Loving Mondays
Most people do not like Mondays. They hate ending the
weekend and returning to work. That is because work means the end
of free time. Some people hate Mondays so much that they ruin part of
their weekends! My parents, for example, whine all of Sunday that the
weekend is ending. But that means they just waste one of their few free
days complaining about how they won’t be free the next day. It is so
foolish!
Those of us in Mrs. Shantayanan’s class (we always call her
“Mrs. S” because her name is so long), though, don’t hate Mondays.
We actually love them! That is because every Monday, Mrs. S. begins
class with the best part of the week: our weekend show and tell.
A Monday Tradition
According to Mrs. S., she’s been doing weekend show and tell since 1992. That was her first year
of teaching. She said everyone always seemed so unhappy to return to school. So, after winter break,
she decided to ask the students to tell everyone what they did over break. Everyone loved it, so she
started doing it after weekends too. Pretty soon, everyone was looking forward to Mondays.
Showing and Telling
At the weekend show and tell, five students get up and tell the class what they did over the
weekend. The five students are picked ahead of time. Mrs. S. keeps a list to see who has already showed
for the month. Each of us gets to share once per month.

Most shares just involve the student saying what he or she did all weekend. But the best shares
are the ones that involve showing too. For instance, a few weeks ago, one student got a puppy over the
weekend. He even brought it into class so we could all see it!
Most shares are not that exciting. This can be a downside to the weekend show and tell.
Sometimes, the presenters didn’t do anything that fun over the weekend. Then the shares can seem kind
of boring. Or, worse, it can make the presenter feel bad.
But Mrs. S. told us that we should not feel like we are boring anyone. She says that the less
interesting weekends are her favorite to hear. This is because they are most like her own, she says. I
guess when you have been hearing about weekends for 20 years, you do not feel pressure to do
something that interesting!
1) Unlike the rest of the passage, the first paragraph mostly describes
A.
B.
C.
D.

the narrator’s viewpoint
why people do not like Mondays
what happens in the narrator’s class
who the narrator’s teacher is

2) As used in paragraph 1, the word complaining has a similar meaning to
A.
B.
C.
D.

enjoying
celebrating
whining

describing


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Questions

3) According to the passage, Mrs. S. has been doing weekend show and tell since
A.
B.
C.
D.

1982
1992
2002
2012

4) According to the narrator, what is the downside of weekend show and tells?
A.
B.
C.
D.

Sometimes, students do not have anything interesting to share.
Most students do the same things as each other on the weekend.
A lot of the students refuse to participate in the activity.
Mrs. S. has already heard all the good weekend stories.

5) It can be supposed from the passage that Mrs. S.

A.
B.
C.
D.

has never done anything fun in her free time
dislikes Monday just as much as the narrator’s parents do
will soon quit doing the weekend show and tells
does not usually do anything exciting on her weekends

6) How do you feel about Mondays? Do you "hate them" like the author says most people do? Why or
why not?
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7) What do you think about the "Monday Tradition" as described in this passage? Do you think it is an
effective way to enjoy Mondays? Explain.
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Answers and Explanations

1) B
Question Type: Global
In the first paragraph, the narrator states that “most people do not like Mondays” and lists the reasons they do not like them. The
rest of the passage, though, explains why the narrator and his or her classmates love Mondays and look forward to them. Therefore,
choice (B) is correct. The entire passage is from the narrator’s viewpoint, so choice (A) is not correct, since the question asks about
how the first paragraph is different from the other paragraphs, not how it is similar. The first paragraph does not describe anything
about the narrator’s class. It is the rest of the passage that discusses the narrator’s class, not the first paragraph. Because of this,
choice (C) is not correct. The narrator’s teacher is not mentioned until the second paragraph. This means that choice (D) is not
correct.
2) C
Question Type: Vocabulary

complaining (verb): expressing annoyance or dissatisfaction about something.
In the first paragraph, the narrator states that his or her parents “whine all of Sunday that the weekend is ending,” which means
“they just waste one of their few free days complaining about how they won’t be free the next day.” We can use context clues—hints
from known words or phrases around the unknown word or phrase—to figure out what the word complaining most nearly means.
Since the narrator states that his or her parents whine and that it means they are complaining, it follows that whining and
complaining are similar in meaning. It also means choice (C) is correct. In the first paragraph, the narrator states that his or her
parents “whine all of Sunday that the weekend is ending,” which means “they just waste one of their few free days complaining
about how they won’t be free the next day.” This suggests that the narrator does not believe his or her parents are enjoying their
Sunday, so complaining and enjoying are probably not similar in meaning. Because of this, choice (A) is not correct. In the first
paragraph, the narrator states that his or her parents “whine all of Sunday that the weekend is ending,” which means “they just
waste one of their few free days complaining about how they won’t be free the next day.” This suggests that the narrator does not
believe his or her parents are wasting their Sunday, not celebrating it, so complaining and celebrating are probably not similar in
meaning. Because of this, choice (B) is not correct. In the first paragraph, the narrator states that his or her parents “whine all of
Sunday that the weekend is ending,” which means “they just waste one of their few free days complaining about how they won’t be
free the next day.” The narrator never suggests that his or her parents are explaining or describing anything, so complaining and
describing are not similar in meaning. Because of this, choice (D) is not correct.
3) B
Question Type: Detail
To answer this detail question correctly, we need to find the part of the passage in which the narrator describes how long Mrs. S.
has been doing weekend show and tell on Mondays. In the beginning of paragraph 3, the narrator writes that “she’s been doing
weekend show and tell since 1992.” Therefore, choice (B) is correct, and Mrs. S. has been hearing about weekends during the
weekend show and tell for twenty years. The passage does not provide information to support choices (A), (C), and (D). Therefore
they are incorrect.
4) A
Question Type: Detail
To answer this detail question correctly, we need to find where in the passage the author discusses the downside of the weekend
show and tells. This happens in paragraph 6, where the narrator states that there “can be a downside to the weekend show and
tell.” He or she goes on to state that “sometimes, the presenters didn’t do anything that fun over the weekend” which makes their
shares “seem kind of boring.” This means that choice (A) is correct, and the downside of weekend show and tells is that sometimes
there is nothing interesting for the students to share. The passage does not suggest that most students have similar weekends.

Because of this, choice (B) is not correct. The passage states that give students participate in the weekend show and tell per week,
but it does not say that anyone refuses to participate. Instead, the narrator only states that students take turns sharing. Because of
this, choice (C) is not correct. Though the passage ends by stating that Mrs. S. has heard a lot of good weekend stories in her
twenty years of hearing them, it does not say that she cannot possibly hear any other good ones. Additionally, it does not say that
she has heard all the good weekend stories in existence. Choice (D) is not correct because it is too extreme.
5) D
Question Type: Inference
In the final paragraph, the narrator states that Mrs. S.’s favorite weekends to hear about are the “less interesting” ones, “because
they are the most like her own.” This suggests that Mrs. S. does not do very interesting things on her weekends, if the less exciting
shares are more like her own weekends, so choice (D) is correct. Though the final paragraph suggests that Mrs. S. does not usually
have exciting weekends (the narrator states that she prefers hearing about “less interesting weekends… because they are the most
like her own”), it does not suggest that Mrs. S. has never had a fun weekend or that she never has fun in her free time. Choice (A) is
not correct because it is too extreme. The passage does not provide enough information about Mrs. S. to say she never has done
anything fun in her life. The passage makes it very clear that everyone in Mrs. S.’s class likes Monday, and it never suggests that
Mrs. S. is not included in that group. Because of this, choice (B) is not correct. The passage suggests that Mrs. S.’s weekend show
and tells are very popular. It never gives any information that might suggest that Mrs. S. wants to quit doing them or will soon quit
doing them. Because of this, choice (C) is not correct.