According to the Common Core State Standards, students should be able to read closely to determine what a text says explicitly, make logical references from it, and cite specific textual evidence to support conclusions drawn from the text. Each of the 40 short, fiction and nonfiction passages in this collection includes companion comprehension questions that target these critical reading skills and give students the repeated practice they need to build mastery in identifying main idea and details, using context clues, distinguishing between fact and opinion, and more.