Welcome to your reading comprehension activity! Today you will read a short passage and use your thinking skills to understand the story.
As you read, look for important details, new words, and the main idea. After reading, answer the questions by using information from the story and your own ideas. Do your best and enjoy reading!
Barack Obama — Reading Comprehension Practice
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Read the biography, then try the questions. Every answer is in the text above them, so if you are not sure, go back and look rather than guessing. Some of these words are hard — that is what the explanations are for.
Barack Obama
44th President of the United States
Born: August 4, 1961 — Honolulu, Hawaii
Barack Obama made history on November 4, 2008, when he was elected as the 44th President of the United States — the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office. His victory was celebrated around the world.
Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was from Kenya, and his mother was from Kansas. He was raised by his mother and grandparents and learned early on the value of hard work and education.
He graduated from Columbia University and then earned a law degree from Harvard Law School, where he became the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review.
As president, Obama worked to improve healthcare with the Affordable Care Act, helped rescue the economy after the 2008 financial crisis, and ordered the mission that found Osama bin Laden.
Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. After two terms as president, he has continued to work on issues like voting rights, climate change, and youth leadership through his foundation.
Question 1
What made Obama’s election in 2008 historic?
The first African American to hold the office — in 2008, the 44th president. The passage says the victory was celebrated around the world, not only at home.
Question 2
Where were Obama’s parents from?
Kenya and Kansas. Read that one slowly — two of the options use the right countries the wrong way round, which is the sort of detail that rewards going back to the text.
Question 3
What was Obama the first Black person to be president of, at Harvard?
The Harvard Law Review, a journal run by law students. He had already graduated from Columbia University before that.
Question 4
Which healthcare law did Obama work on as president?
The Affordable Care Act. The passage lists three things from his presidency: healthcare, rescuing the economy after the 2008 crisis, and the bin Laden mission.
Question 5 — select all that apply
Select every issue the passage says Obama has worked on since leaving office, then press Check.
Voting rights, climate change and youth leadership, through his foundation. The question says since leaving office — the Affordable Care Act was while he was president, so it would not count.
Question 6 — put them in order
Click these in the order the passage tells them.
This is the order the passage gives, not the order things happened — it opens with the 2008 election and only then goes back to his birth. Watch for that whenever you read a biography.
Think about it — from the worksheet
Why is Barack Obama’s election in 2008 considered a historic moment for the United States?
Name two things Obama accomplished as President of the United States.
What has Obama done after leaving the White House to continue helping people?