Reading Comprehension: Strawberries Passage

Farmers around us grew a lot of strawberries and frequently hired kids to pick for them. My siblings and I would ride our bikes a long way to Crandall’s farm to pick berries to earn spending money. A dime for every 80 quart we picked.

• first person narrator describing the experience of picking strawberries as it happens.

• first person narrator describing events from the past that influenced her beliefs about gifts.

• third person narrator describing how each member of a family feels about gifts of nature.

• third person narrator describing a young girl’s thoughts about the importance of strawberries in her family’s celebrations.

Based on the passage, the word they in line 7 refers to:

• the fields of the narrator’s childhood.

• people who present the narrator with gifts.

• wild strawberries.

• the narrator’s parents.

The main purpose of the second paragraph (lines 10–21) is to:

• explain why the narrator’s father encouraged his children to give strawberries as gifts.

• describe what the first strawberries looked like to the narrator’s ancestors.

• provide a cultural context for the significance of strawberries to the narrator’s family.

• emphasize the importance of plants in traditional Potawatomi stories.

Based on the passage, which action was part of the narrator’s attempt to “give back to the strawberries”?

• She refrained from picking strawberries before they were ready.

• She weeded out patches of ground where the plants would take root.

• She made the strawberries into a gift for her father.

• She honored the legend of Skywoman by continuing to tell the story.

It can most reasonably be inferred from the passage that the narrator learned about the growth cycle of strawberries by:

• observing the runners and roots of the plants.

• listening to her father talk about berry seasons.

• planting berries with her siblings to earn money.

• reading about how to help strawberries grow

The quotation in line 6 is most likely included to:

• demonstrate what the narrator typically says to a person giving her a gift.

• represent the narrator’s surprise and gratitude when finding strawberries.

• clarify how the narrator believes a person should react when given a gift.

• explain what the narrator’s father often said when given strawberries.

As it is used in line 20, the word recognize most nearly means:

• diagnose.

• concede.

• notice.

• acknowledge.

In the passage, the narrator states that as a child, she experienced her world as a:

• gift economy based on gifts from the earth.

• wage economy in which her family struggled.

• playground she visited on rare but wonderful occasions.

• classroom filled with friends and neighbors.

According to the passage, picking the strawberries for their father’s shortcake took the narrator and her siblings a long time because:

• they kept eating the strawberries they picked.

• the strawberry patches had many bugs.

• their father expected only the ripest strawberries.

• they could gather the strawberries only on Saturdays.

According to the passage, runners appeared on berry plants in the field when:

• the Strawberry Moon first appeared.

• a patch of ground was cleared for them.

• berry season was over.

• the berry plant was dying.