aReading Problem Solving 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A passage describes a girl who cannot decide which book to read next. She lists the good and bad points of each choice. What strategy is she using?
- Pros and cons analysis (Correct answer)
- Random selection
- Asking the librarian to decide
- Skipping both books
Correct answer: Pros and cons analysis
Listing advantages and disadvantages of each option is a pros and cons analysis, a common decision-making strategy.
Question 2: In a story, a student cannot understand a difficult word in a passage. He looks at the sentences around the word for clues. What reading strategy is this?
- Using context clues to figure out meaning (Correct answer)
- Looking the word up in a dictionary first
- Skipping the word and moving on
- Asking the teacher to read the passage aloud
Correct answer: Using context clues to figure out meaning
Using surrounding sentences to infer word meaning is called using context clues, a key reading comprehension strategy.
Question 3: A reading passage shows a team that cannot finish their project because they have too many tasks. They assign each member a specific job. This solves the problem by:
- Reducing the number of tasks
- Distributing work so everyone contributes efficiently (Correct answer)
- Letting one person do all the work
- Deciding to cancel the project
Correct answer: Distributing work so everyone contributes efficiently
Dividing tasks among team members distributes the workload and allows the group to work efficiently toward their goal.
Question 4: A character in a story keeps making the same mistake. A mentor tells him to 'learn from the experience.' What does this advice mean in terms of problem-solving?
- Ignore the mistake and try again the same way
- Reflect on what went wrong and adjust the approach (Correct answer)
- Ask someone else to do the task
- Stop trying altogether
Correct answer: Reflect on what went wrong and adjust the approach
Learning from a mistake means analyzing what went wrong and changing your approach, which is a core problem-solving skill.
Question 5: In a nonfiction article about community problem-solving, residents hold a meeting to discuss a neighborhood issue. What is the primary benefit of this approach?
- It lets one person make all the decisions
- It gathers multiple perspectives to find the best solution (Correct answer)
- It avoids dealing with the problem directly
- It makes the problem more complicated
Correct answer: It gathers multiple perspectives to find the best solution
A group meeting brings together different viewpoints, which can lead to more creative and effective solutions.
Question 6: A student reads a story where a character tries three different solutions before finding one that works. What does this tell you about problem-solving?
- Good problem-solvers always find the answer on the first try
- Problem-solving often requires persistence and multiple attempts (Correct answer)
- If the first solution fails, the problem cannot be solved
- It is better to give up than to try again
Correct answer: Problem-solving often requires persistence and multiple attempts
Trying multiple solutions shows that persistence is an important part of effective problem-solving.
Question 7: A passage describes a student who sets a goal to read ten books. After two months she has only read four. She adjusts her daily reading time. This is an example of:
- Giving up on her goal
- Evaluating progress and modifying a plan (Correct answer)
- Starting over with a new goal
- Asking someone else to read for her
Correct answer: Evaluating progress and modifying a plan
Checking progress and changing your plan when needed is an important part of goal-oriented problem-solving.
aReading Problem Solving 3
A passage describes a girl who cannot decide which book to read next.
She lists the good and bad points of each choice.
What strategy is she using?