Which sentence is the best summary of the article? (The Whooping Crane)
Basic Understanding of a Variety of Texts · TELPAS Grades 4–5 reading. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.
Reporting category 2: find the main idea and key details, and follow what happens in stories and informational texts.
Read the passage. Then answer the questions.
The Whooping Crane
The whooping crane is the tallest bird in North America. It can stand nearly five feet tall. It has snowy white feathers, a red patch on its head, and black tips on its wings that show when it flies. Its name comes from its loud call, which can be heard from far away.
Every fall, many whooping cranes fly more than two thousand miles from their nesting grounds in northern Canada to the Texas coast. They spend the winter in the salt marshes of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and the land around it. There, they wade through shallow water and eat blue crabs, clams, and berries.
Whooping cranes once came very close to disappearing. Many of the wetlands where they lived were drained to make room for farms and towns. Many birds were also hunted. By the early 1940s, fewer than thirty wild whooping cranes were left in the world.
People worked hard to save them. Laws protected the birds from hunters, and their winter home on the Texas coast became a protected refuge. Scientists began counting the cranes every winter to see how they were doing. Slowly, the number grew.
Today, there are several hundred whooping cranes in the wild. They are still rare, but each winter, visitors to the Texas coast may be lucky enough to see these tall white birds stepping slowly through the marsh.
The question
Choose the best answer.
Which sentence is the best summary of the article?
- Whooping cranes are tall white birds that eat blue crabs, clams, and berries in Texas.
- Scientists in Texas count the whooping cranes in the marsh every winter.
- Whooping cranes almost disappeared, but with people's help their numbers have grown.Correct answer
- Whooping cranes are loud birds that stay in northern Canada all year long.
Why “Whooping cranes almost disappeared, but with people's help their numbers have grown.” is correct
A good summary covers the whole text, not one part. Most of the article describes how the cranes nearly disappeared and how people helped them recover. Two of the wrong choices are true details, so the student has to judge which sentence covers the most important ideas, not just which one is true.
Why the other answers are wrong
- Whooping cranes are tall white birds that eat blue crabs, clams, and berries in Texas. — This is true, but it tells only one part of the article and leaves out the main story of how the cranes were saved.
- Scientists in Texas count the whooping cranes in the marsh every winter. — This is one detail from paragraph 4, not a summary of the whole article.
- Whooping cranes are loud birds that stay in northern Canada all year long. — This is wrong; the cranes fly to Texas for the winter.
Practice more of this
More reading practice for Grades 4–5, or see the TELPAS practice test for 4th and 5th 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.