WIAT Reading Comprehension & Decoding Skills 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A student reads: 'The CEO's decision was both lauded and criticized.' What does 'lauded' mean?
- Praised highly (Correct answer)
- Investigated carefully
- Questioned publicly
- Reversed quickly
Correct answer: Praised highly
To laud means to praise enthusiastically, so 'lauded' means the decision received strong approval.
Question 2: Which text structure is used in a passage that explains why deforestation occurs and what results from it?
- Cause and effect (Correct answer)
- Compare and contrast
- Problem and solution
- Chronological order
Correct answer: Cause and effect
A passage explaining why something happens and its outcomes uses cause-and-effect text structure.
Question 3: A student struggles to read 'photograph' but can read 'photo' and 'graph' separately. What decoding strategy should be taught?
- Breaking compound words and multisyllabic words into known parts (Correct answer)
- Memorizing the whole word as a sight word
- Skipping the word and re-reading the sentence
- Replacing it with a shorter synonym
Correct answer: Breaking compound words and multisyllabic words into known parts
Teaching students to identify and blend known morphemes or syllable units helps decode longer, unfamiliar words.
Question 4: In reading assessment, 'word attack skills' refers to:
- Strategies used to decode unfamiliar words (Correct answer)
- Speed at which familiar words are recognized
- Comprehension of word meaning in context
- Ability to spell words correctly from memory
Correct answer: Strategies used to decode unfamiliar words
Word attack skills encompass phonics, structural analysis, and other strategies used to decode words the reader hasn't seen before.
Question 5: A passage ends: 'History has shown us that empires, however powerful, are ultimately transient.' What does 'transient' mean?
- Temporary and short-lived (Correct answer)
- Powerful and dominant
- Mysterious and unknown
- Large and expanding
Correct answer: Temporary and short-lived
Transient means lasting only a short time; here it contrasts with how powerful empires appear to be.
Question 6: Which reading comprehension question type requires a student to go BEYOND the text to answer?
- An inferential question (Correct answer)
- A literal recall question
- A vocabulary definition question
- A text detail question
Correct answer: An inferential question
Inferential questions require readers to use clues from the text combined with their own reasoning to reach conclusions not explicitly stated.
Question 7: A student reads 'audible' and 'inaudible.' Understanding that 'in-' means 'not,' what can the student conclude about 'inaudible'?
- Cannot be heard (Correct answer)
- Heard very clearly
- Heard from far away
- Heard only by some people
Correct answer: Cannot be heard
The prefix 'in-' negates the root 'audible' (able to be heard), making 'inaudible' mean not able to be heard.
WIAT Reading Comprehension & Decoding Skills 4
A student reads: 'The CEO's decision was both lauded and criticized.' What does 'lauded' mean?