America's Best-Loved Truck - Reading Worksheet 1

1. Focus on the first two paragraphs.
a. Which part of the title does the first sentence of the article illustrate? Why?
b. Spot the numbers!
Underline or highlight all the numbers in the first two paragraphs. What does each number refer to? Work with a partner. Try to explain the meaning using words from the sentence.
c. Use clues to guess meaning.
With a partner, answer the following questions for each word:
Soaring:

• What kind of vehicle is mentioned?
• Are people buying more or fewer of them? So what might soaring mean?

Rolling out:

• What are car companies doing with electric trucks?
• Is this something they have always done, or something new? So what might rolling out mean?
• Find the phrase later in the paragraph that has a similar meaning.

d. Now, use the words.
Pick either soaring or rolling out and write a new sentence using it.
Example: “Electric bike sales are soaring in my city.”
e. Focus on the final sentence of paragraph 2.
What is being compared in this sentence? Rephrase the main idea in simpler words.

2. Read the following sentence: “But creating a new market for pickup trucks, even electric ones, has its own climate problems.” (l. 4)
a. What does “But” at the beginning of a sentence signal?
b. What idea was developed before this sentence? What do you expect now?

3. Now, read paragraph 3.
a. Can you find the action in the sentence that shows what the “decision” is about?
b. What will happen if someone makes this decision? Who does “they” refer to?
c. Now, look at the word “However.”  What does this word tell you about the sentence? Does it agree with the previous idea or change it?
d. What word do you recognize inside “electrification”?
Conclude: “Electrification” is probably about using more …
e. What do you notice in the way the word “cure-all” is formed? What kind of thing is a “cure”? Find a synonym in English. What might a “cure-all” do?
Conclude: “Electrification alone isn’t a cure-all” means ...