Commonly Used Question Stems

This list includes the most frequently used question stems that appear in Achieve3000s Featured
Lessons. Please note that one student will not encounter all of the stems. Different stems are used at
different Lexile levels.
Main Idea Drawing Conclusions
The story talks mostly/mainly about
What is this article mainly about?
What is the main idea of this news story?
The authors primary point is
The central point of this passage is
What could be a different title for this article?
The best alternate headline for this article would be
What is the second paragraph mainly about?
The news story does not say
The article says all of the following except
Which question is not answered by the article?
Which of these statements is contrary to the ideas
presented in this article?
This article is placed in a category of news called
Science Scene. In which other category would this
article t best?
Reference Sources Fact and Opinion
Suppose that Paul wants to nd out about_______. He
would nd most of his information by...
This article would be most useful as a source for a
student research project on
Which of these is an opinion?
Which of these is a statement of fact?
Prediction Summarization
The reader can predict that
Which is most likely to happen next?
Which best retells the news story?
Which best summarizes the second paragraph of the
article?
Which of these is most important to include in a
summary of this article?
Which is the best summary of the news story?
Which of these should not be included in a summary of
this article?
Word or Phrase Meaning Sequencing
Synonym
Which word means almost the same as?
Which word must mean?
Which is the closest synonym?
Which two words from the article are the closest synonyms?
Antonym
Which means the opposite of?
Who is_______ is not_______?
Which two words from the article are the closest antonyms?
Which took place second?
Which happened before?
Which of these had not yet happened when this article
was written?
Which most likely happened rst?
Which must have happened last?
Which of these happened after
Which must have happened rst? [last] [second] [third]
Which of these must have happened before _______?
Which of these must have happened after _______?
Which event in the article took place rst? [second] [last]
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Commonly Used Question Stems cont.
Cause and Effect Inferences
Think about the news article. What caused...
Which statement shows one benet of?
What is one reason why
What is the cause and effect relationship that takes
place in the article?
According to the article, why did?
In light of the main ideas of this article, what
caused_______ to make such a public statement?
The reader can tell from the news story that
According to the article, the reader can infer that
The reader can infer from the article that
Supporting Evidence Compare and Contrast
What specic facts are mentioned to support the
statement?
Which sentence from the text best shows that ?
How does the textual evidence support your
conclusion?
Which evidence is most relevant?
Which statement best supports the idea that?
Which sentence best tells?
How are_______ and_______ the same?
In what way does the article contrast_____ with______?
Which of the following best describes how_______ and
_______ differ?
Based on information in the article, which best de-
scribes the difference between_______ and_______?
In what way are_______ and_______ similar?
______ and______ are similar in all of these ways except
Which of the following best describes one similarity
between_______ and_______?
How are_______ and_______ different?
Which sentence best describes a similarity between?