The Invention of Vita-Wonk - Reading Comprehension

 AP/ NCERT Board-Based Reading Comprehension Passages 

Grade 7 Honeycomb

Chapter 7 The Invention of Vita-Wonk

Reading Comprehension 1

 Mr Willy Wonka begins by inventing Wonka-Vite, which makes people younger. But Wonka-Vite is too strong. So some people disappear, because their age becomes Minus! One person actually becomes minus eighty-seven, which means he’s got to wait eighty-seven years before he can come back.

      Mr Willy Wonka must invent a new thing...

1. What is the problem with Wonka-Vite?

a) It doesn't work at all

b) It's too weak

c) People become too old

d) People disappear or age negatively

2. How many years does the person with a minus eighty-seven age have to wait to come back?

a) Eight years

b) Seventy-eight years

c) Eighty-seven years

d) One hundred years

3. What does Mr. Willy Wonka need to invent next after Wonka-Vite?

a) A shrinking potion

b) A teleportation device

c) A new candy

d) An aging solution

Reading Comprehension 2

     Mr Wonka said, “So once again I rolled up my sleeves and set to work. Once again I squeezed my brain, searching for the new recipe... I had to create age... to make people old... old, older, oldest... ‘Ha-ha!’ I cried, for now the ideas were beginning to come. ‘What is the oldest living thing in the world? What lives longer than anything else?’ ”

      “A tree,” Charlie said.

      “Right you are, Charlie! But what kind of a tree? Not the Douglas fir. Not the oak. Not the cedar. No, no, my boy. It is a tree called the Bristlecone pine that grows upon the slopes of Wheeler Peak in Nevada, U.S.A. You can find Bristlecone Pines on Wheeler Peak today that are over 4000 years old! This is fact, Charlie. Ask any dendrochronologist you like (and look that word up in the dictionary when you get home, will you please?). So that started me off. I jumped into the Great Glass Elevator and rushed all over the world collecting special items from the oldest living things...

 A PINT OF SAP FROM A 4000-YEAR-OLD BRISTLECONE PINE

THE TOE-NAIL CLIPPINGS FROM A 168-YEAR-OLD RUSSIAN FARMER CALLED PETROVITCH GREGOROVITCH

AN EGG LAID BY A 200-YEAR-OLD TORTOISE BELONGING TO THE KING OF TONGA

THE TAIL OF A 51-YEAR-OLD HORSE IN ARABIA

THE WHISKERS OF A 36-YEAR-OLD CAT CALLED CRUMPETS

AN OLD FLEA WHICH HAD LIVED ON CRUMPETS FOR 36 YEARS

THE TAIL OF A 207-YEAR-OLD GIANT RAT FROM TIBET

THE BLACK TEETH OF A 97-YEAR-OLD GRIMALKIN LIVING IN A CAVE ON MOUNT POPOCATEPETL

THE KNUCKLEBONES OF A 700-YEAR-OLD CATTALOO FROM PERU...”

1. What was Mr. Wonka's new challenge after Wonka-Vite?

a) Creating a shrinking potion

b) Making people younger

c) Inventing a teleportation device

d) Developing an aging solution

2. What is the oldest living thing in the world according to Mr. Wonka?

a) Oak tree

b) Douglas fir

c) Bristlecone pine

d) Cedar tree

3. Where do Bristlecone Pines, the oldest living things, grow?

a) Amazon Rainforest

b) Alps

c) Wheeler Peak in Nevada

d) Sahara Desert

4. Which item did Mr. Wonka collect from the oldest living things worldwide?

a) A Douglas fir branch

b) An oak tree acorn

c) A pint of sap from a Bristlecone pine

d) A cedar tree leaf

5. What did Mr. Wonka collect from the 168-year-old Russian farmer Petrovitch Gregorovitch?

a) A lock of hair

b) Toe-nail clippings

c) A handwritten letter

d) A piece of clothing

Reading Comprehension 3

     “All over the world, Charlie,” Mr Wonka went on “I tracked down very old and ancient animals and took an important little bit of something from each one of them — a hair or an eyebrow or sometimes it was no more than an ounce or two of the jam scraped from between its toes while it was sleeping. I tracked down THE WHISTLE-PIG, THE BOBOLINK, THE SKROCK, THE POLLYFROG, THE GIANT CURLICUE, THE STINGING SLUG AND THE VENOMOUS SQUERKLE who can spit poison right into your eye from fifty yards away. But there’s no time to tell you about them all now, Charlie. Let me just say quickly that in the end, after lots of boiling and bubbling and mixing and testing in my Inventing Room, I produced one tiny cupful of oily black liquid and gave four drops of it to a brave twenty-year-old Oompa-Loompa volunteer to see what happened.”

      “What did happen?” Charlie asked.

      “It was fantastic!” cried Mr Wonka. “The moment he swallowed it, he began wrinkling and shrivelling up all over and his hair started dropping off and his teeth started falling out and, before I knew it, he had suddenly become an old fellow of seventy-five! And thus, my dear Charlie, was Vita-Wonk invented!”

1. What did Mr. Wonka take from various ancient animals for Vita-Wonk?

a) A feather

b) A jam sample

c) Hair or eyebrow 

d) Claw

2. Which of the following creatures can spit poison into your eye?

a) Whistle-pig

b) Bobolink

c) Squerkle

d) Pollyfrog

3. What did Mr. Wonka produce after boiling, bubbling, and mixing in his Inventing Room?

a) Candy

b) Oily black liquid

c) Perfume

d) Medicine

4. How did the twenty-year-old Oompa-Loompa change after taking Vita-Wonk?

a) Grew taller

b) Became younger

c) Turned invisible

d) Aged rapidly

5. What age did the Oompa-Loompa transform into after taking Vita-Wonk?

a) Twenty

b) Forty

c) Sixty-five

d) Seventy-five