Reading and Writing 2

Unit 5 Checkpoint 1

Name: ________________________________
Date: _________________________________

Read the text. Choose the correct answers.

Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most famous artists in the world. He was famous because of
his colorful style of painting, which was very different from other paintings in the 1800s. But
he was also famous because he was a little bit crazy. One famous painting that he made of
himself shows him with a bandage on his ear because he cut his own ear off.
Some people think that he was a good painter because he was crazy. But researchers are
considering another possibility: maybe Van Gogh was crazy because he was a painter. We
know now that many of the new brightly colored paints that Van Gogh used were poisonous.
The plants and other ingredients in the paint could make people very sick or even kill them.
We will never have a full explanation about why Van Gogh was crazy. But his paints were
probably a factor in his sickness.
Van Gogh's bright yellow sunflowers usually make people happy. But we might interpret
them differently now.

1. “But his paints were probably a factor in his sickness.” This sentence means _____.
A. his paints were one of the reasons he was sick
B. his paints made him feel better
C. paint always makes people feel sick
D. sickness causes people to become artists

2. “We will never have a full explanation about why Van Gogh was so crazy.” This sentence
means _____.
A. we will not be able to get medicine for sicknesses like Van Gogh had
B. we can't know which color caused Van Gogh's sickness
C. we will never understand why people become crazy.
D. we will never know all of the reasons that Van Gogh was crazy

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Reading and Writing 2
Unit 5 Checkpoint 1

3. Which sentence gives the best main idea for the reading?
A. Paints can be very dangerous, so we should all be careful.
B. Vincent Van Gogh was not a healthy man.
C. Van Gogh's paints probably made him crazy because they were poisonous.
D. Van Gogh used beautiful colors that were very new at the time.

4. Van Gogh's paints were poisonous because _____.

A. the plants and other ingredients in the paint were dangerous
B. they were very old
C. they were too bright
D. someone put dangerous things in the paints

5. In this sentence, the author uses the specific example of “bright yellow sunflowers” to
represent a bigger idea. Choose the big idea that the phrase represents.
Van Gogh's bright yellow sunflowers usually make people happy.
A. all of the bright colors in his paintings
B. all of his yellow paintings
C. all of his paintings of flowers
D. all paintings from the late 1800s by all artists

6. Scan the text to find the years when Van Gogh worked. What did you look for?
A. name: Van Gogh
B. numbers
C. the word: year
D. names of colors

Copyright © 2020 by Pearson Education, Inc. Photocopying for classroom use is permitted.