Reading Quiz: The Teens Who Feed America

1. Which is a central idea of the article?

• A. Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act to protect young workers.
• B. Hundreds of thousands of kids work long hours under dangerous conditions on U.S. farms.
• C. Reyes has been working on farms in Michigan since he was 9 years old.
• D. Worldwide, about 152 million kids ages 5 to 17 are child laborers.

2. Which detail best supports that central idea?

• A. The money Reyes earns helps his family buy food, clothes, and other necessities.
• B. Most child laborers worldwide live in poor areas of Asia or sub-Saharan Africa.
• C. Federal law restricts kids under 16 to three hours of nonfarm work on a school day.
• D. Young farmworkers often don’t get enough sleep, and they can be exposed to pesticides and use hazardous machinery.

3. When did Congress pass the Fair Labor Standards Act?

• A. 1850
• B. 1938
• C. 1975
• D. 2019

4. People who often move around for work are called ____.

• A. child laborers
• B. citizens
• C. immigrants
• D. migrants

5. What does "supplement" mean in this sentence? “These kids have to work to supplement their parents’ income.”

• A. add to
• B. decrease
• C. remove
• D. spend

6. About what percentage of child laborers worldwide work in agriculture?

• A. 10 percent
• B. 20 percent
• C. 40 percent
• D. 70 percent

7. Which of these statements is an opinion?

• A. U.S. Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard recently reintroduced a bill that would help protect young farmworkers.
• B. Kids of all ages can work on their families’ farms.
• C. Congress should raise the minimum age at which kids are allowed to work on farms.
• D. Many young migrant farmworkers, like Reyes, are the children of immigrants.

8. Details about nonfarm jobs that teens are legally allowed to do would best fit into which section of the article?

• A. “U.S. Child Labor Laws”
• B. “In the Fields, Out of School”
• C. “Low-Paying Work”
• D. “ ‘I Need to Help My Family’ ”

9. Which of these details would be most important to include in a summary of the article?

• A. Exposure to pesticides can cause dizziness and nausea.
• B. Reyes is one of about 300,000 students across the country who migrate to follow the harvest.
• C. Research shows that Americans would each need to pay just $21 more a year to increase farmworkers’ wages by 40 percent.
• D. The national minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour.

10. Why do the authors mention that many Americans have become increasingly concerned about animal welfare in the food industry?

• A. to encourage people to eat less meat
• B. to warn people against working on farms
• C. to contrast that with the lack of concern many people have about where their fruits and vegetables come from
• D. to argue for laws that set special labor rules for different kinds of farms