What does the line Andres adds at the end of his card suggest?
Analyze and Evaluate Information and Ideas · TELPAS Grades 10–12 reading. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.
Reporting category 3: make inferences, draw conclusions, and think about why the author wrote a text and how it is built.
Read the story. Then answer the questions.
The Recipe Card
Andres had cooked his grandmother's chicken mole a hundred times, but he had never measured anything. Abuela Gloria didn't believe in measuring. She tossed in chiles by the handful, poured broth until the pot "looked right," and eyeballed the chocolate. When he asked her how much cumin went in, she shrugged and said, "Enough."
That worked fine at home. It did not work in Chef Barrera's culinary arts class. "For the regional competition, every team turns in a written recipe," she announced on Monday. "Exact amounts. The judges will cook from your card, and if they can't make your dish taste the way yours does, you lose points."
Andres's stomach dropped. He could make the mole with his eyes closed. He could not write it down.
On Saturday, he showed up at his grandmother's kitchen with a set of measuring cups, a notebook, and a small kitchen scale. "I'm going to follow you around," he said. "Every time you grab something, I'm going to measure it before it goes in."
Abuela Gloria laughed at him, but she let him do it. Her handful of dried chiles turned out to be six. Her "enough" cumin was a teaspoon and a half. When she poured the broth, he stopped her and measured: four and a half cups. By evening his notebook was stained with sauce, and his recipe card was finished.
At the competition, Andres followed his card exactly, step by step, the way the judges would. When the mole was done, he tasted it. It was close. It was very close. But it wasn't Abuela's.
He thought about the card, and then about his grandmother's hands moving over the pot. He added a pinch of salt, tasted again, and smiled.
That night, before he handed in the final copy of his recipe, he added one more line at the bottom of the card: Taste it. Then trust yourself.
The question
Choose the best answer.
What does the line Andres adds at the end of his card suggest?
- He has decided that all the measurements he wrote down were useless.
- He believes his grandmother's way of cooking is the only right way to cook.
- He has learned that even an exact recipe needs a cook's own judgment.Correct answer
- He is worried that the judges will not be able to follow his recipe card.
Why “He has learned that even an exact recipe needs a cook's own judgment.” is correct
This asks for an inference about how a character has changed. The card made the dish close but not quite right, and a pinch of salt added by taste fixed it. The new line, "Taste it. Then trust yourself," combines his grandmother's way with the exact recipe. The wrong answers each keep only one side.
Why the other answers are wrong
- He has decided that all the measurements he wrote down were useless. — Following the card got the mole "very close," so the measurements helped; he only adjusted at the end.
- He believes his grandmother's way of cooking is the only right way to cook. — He kept every exact amount on the card; he adds tasting to the recipe instead of replacing it.
- He is worried that the judges will not be able to follow his recipe card. — The line gives advice, and he smiles after tasting; nothing shows he is worried.
Practice more of this
More reading practice for Grades 10–12, or see the TELPAS practice test for 10th–12th grade.
This is an independent study resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Texas Education Agency or the official TELPAS program. All questions here are original practice material written to match the published test design.