Reading an Informational Text
SAMPLE
Section: Reading
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Read the selection below and answer the questions that follow it.
Scent of a woman gets up bus drivers' noses
Calgary employees say they refused passenger because she wore too much perfume
OLIVER MOORE
March 28, 2007
TIP:
 Circle key ideas.
 Use a highlighter to identify
important words and information.
Natalie Kuhn likes to wear the perfume ‘Very Irresistible’, but two Calgary bus drivers think
she's anything but and have refused to continue their routes with her on board.
The city was investigating Tuesday after Ms. Kuhn complained she was singled out three times
in a week. In each case, her bus driver said she was wearing too much perfume.
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“The bus driver had told her the day before that if she showed up wearing perfume in the amount
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that she did, he'd call a supervisor, and he did,” said Calgary Transit spokesman Tony
McCallum, describing incidents on Thursday and Friday.
“The bus driver was suggesting there may be allergies, some kind of medical issue,” Mr.
McCallum said.
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But no policy allows drivers to refuse passengers because of their scent, so Ms. Kuhn, a
chiropractic assistant, was told she was free to use the bus again. She did on Monday, with a
different driver, and had a similar reaction.
5
“Everything was fine for the first eight minutes of the bus ride, and then he pulled over and
started opening all of the windows,” the 25-year-old said.
6
They began to argue, she said. With the bus parked and the other passengers waiting, Ms. Kuhn 7
called the city to complain and the driver paged his supervisor. The standoff ended, again, with a
transit employee arriving to escort Ms. Kuhn to her destination.
The incidents left her rattled. She's is now worried about taking the bus again and sobbed during
interviews while describing the situation.
8
She was quoted saying that being asked to sit near an open window at the back of the bus made
her feel like “a modern-day Rosa Parks.”
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TIP:
 Look for quotes from authorities
 Look for specific examples or
comparisons to similar issues.
Ms. Kuhn insists that no other passengers complained about the use of her favourite perfume,
which is made by Givenchy. But the situations appear to illustrate a growing unwillingness
among some members of the public to put up with other people's odours.
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Roedy Green, who said he has “a very keen sense of smell,” believes people often don't realize
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how much perfume they're putting on. The worst offenders are older people whose sense of
smell has faded, he said, leading them to pour on perfume until they match the way they
remember smelling as a youth.
He believes that attitudes to heavy perfume use are changing in much the same way that smoking12
became less acceptable.
“At one point, the etiquette was that if you didn't like the smoke, then leave,” he said from
Victoria. “Now the rule is that you don't have the right to pollute somebody else's air.”
13
The current acceptability of perfume is less clear-cut than smoking, with some tolerating it and
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others not.
The Halifax Regional Municipality went officially scent-free about seven years ago. The ban
affects all municipal buildings, including schools, libraries, courts, even City Hall, as well as
many workplaces, theatres and shops.
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Kenneth Maybee, the chairman of air-quality issues with The Lung Association, said that his
organization gets an increasing number of requests for scent-free signs and other materials. With 16
rising rates of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, irritants in the air can have a
greater effect.
“It is a subject that is coming to the fore more and more,” Mr. Maybee said. “If it affects
somebody's health it becomes more of an issue.”
Fragrance is increasingly cited as a trigger in health conditions such as asthma, allergies, and
migraine headaches. There are environmental concerns as well, as fragrances are volatile
compounds, which add to both indoor and outdoor air pollution.
Copyright The Globe and Mail, 2007. Reprinted with permission.
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Section: Reading
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Multiple-Choice
1. Natalie Kuhn was asked to leave the bus because:
When answering multiple-choice questions, be sure you:




Read each question fully,
Pay attention to line numbers when given,
Choose the best or most correct answer,
Fill in the proper letter on the Student Answer Sheet.
a
She smelled.
b
Had a medical issue.
c
She argued with the bus driver.
a
Stop
d
She was wearing too much perfume
b
Start
c
Shoot
d
Set off
2. The name of Ms. Kuhn’s perfume (paragraph 1) is:
a
Very Irresistible.
b
Simply Irresistible.
c
Very Imperceptible.
d
Simply Inconceivable.
3. Why did Ms. Kuhn say she “felt like a modern-day
Rosa Parks”?
a
She walked off the bus.
b
She wasn’t allowed on the bus.
c
She made a stand for her rights.
d
She was forced to sit at the back of the bus.
4. Why is a hyphen (-) used in the phrase “less clear-
cut than smoking”? (paragraph 14)
a
to separate ‘clear’ from ‘cut’
b
To emphasize the word ‘clear’
c
To describe how bad smoking is.
d To form a compound word that means
‘straightforward’.
5. The best meaning of the word “trigger” in paragraph
18 is:
6. Roedy Green says “the worst offenders are older
people”, because:
a
He hates older people.
b
Many older people smell bad.
c
Their sense of smell has faded.
d
They have bad taste in perfume/cologne.
7. In paragraph 15, The Halifax Regional
Municipality went ‘scent free’ meaning:
a
There is a ban on wearing fragrances in all
municipal buildings.
b
There is a ban on wearing fragrances in schools
and libraries only.
c
Anyone who works in a municipal building is
free to wear fragrances.
d
Anyone who works in a municipal building must
pay to wear fragrances.
Answering Multiple-Choice Questions
Before you answer multiple-choice questions, make sure you:
 Read each question before you look at the answers.
 Try to come up with the answer in your head before looking at the provided answers, this
way the choices given on the test won't throw you off or trick you.
 Read each answer carefully; don’t skip words.
 Eliminate answers you know are wrong.
 Read over the remaining choices before choosing your answer.
 Choose the best or most correct answer.
Which of these
two words sound
best and help
complete the
sentence?
These two words
don’t sound right
in the sentence.
When answering multiple-choice questions, be sure to:




Read each question fully BEFORE READING THE
PASSAGE,
Pay attention to paragraph or line numbers referred to in the
question
o Find the reference in the passage and re-read it.
Choose the best or most correct answer
o Rule out obviously incorrect details
Fill in the proper letter on the Student Answer Sheet.
o Make sure you have filled in the bubble completely
using pencil or blue/black pen
Answering Questions That Begin with “Explain”
1. Agree or disagree with the question: Yes or No
2. Turn the question into a statement:
Do Canadians benefit from becoming honorary citizens? Explain your
Answer using information in the selection and your own reasoning.
becomes
Canadians benefit from people becoming honorary citizens. = TOPIC SENTENCE
or
Canadians do not benefit from people becoming honorary citizens. = TOPIC
SENTENCE
3.
Most “explain” questions require TWO sources
Information IN the reading selection
Your OWN ideas
These are usually an Indirect or Making Connections
questions where you have to think about the answer.
You have 6 lines of writing for these responses.
Your answer is assessed using an Open Response rubric.
Have you given:
 Accurate (information from the article),
 Specific details (examples),
 Relevant ideas (on topic)
These are usually an Indirect or Making Connections
questions where you have to think about the answer.
You have 6 lines of writing for these responses.
Your answer is assessed using an Open Response rubric.
Have you given:
 Accurate (information from the article),
 Specific (examples),
 Relevant ideas (on topic)
Section: Responding to Explain Questions
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Written Answer
Explain how fragrance is compared to smoking in this article. Use specific details from the selection and
your own ideas to support your answer.
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Rough Notes
Use the space below for rough notes. Nothing you write in this space will be scored.
This is an area for you to insert Graphic
Organizers to help make more sense of the
reading selection. Depending on the type of
selection (informational, graphical, narrative),
organizers such as the following can be used to
visualize text information:
 Word Web
 Venn Diagram
 Sequence of Events timeline
 Cause and Effect chart
 Problem – Solution flow chart
 Plot Graph
Sample EQAO Rubric for an Explanatory Response
Please note that this particular rubric was taken from the Released 2009
OSSLT Item-Specific Rubric and Sample Student Responses for Section IX:
Dialogue. While it is contextualized to that selection, the Codes and Descriptors
can be adapted for use as general observations for an explanatory response.