The Bowls She Breaks
Written by Studio AM.
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Ilse makes bowls for a living, and she breaks about a third of them herself. Customers find this strange. The bowls she destroys look perfectly good to them: even in shape, smoothly glazed, strong enough to hold soup. She breaks them on the stone step behind the workshop.
Before a bowl reaches the shop, Ilse turns it in her hands and sets it on a flat table. A rough rim can feel uncomfortable against a lip. A base that rocks slightly may annoy someone at every meal. She cannot know who will use each bowl, so she checks it as carefully as she would one for her own kitchen.
There is one exception, on a shelf above the kiln. It is a bowl with a crooked rim, made the week her father died. It is the worst thing she has produced since she was a student. She has been offered money for it twice, and both times she has said that it is not for sale.
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Questions
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Question 1 of 4
What is the central point of the passage?
The answer is C: Ilse checks bowls carefully for buyers but keeps one flawed bowl for herself.
Ilse rejects bowls with small flaws that may trouble their users. The crooked bowl is different: she keeps it but will not sell it.
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Question 2 of 4
About how many of her bowls does Ilse break?
The answer is A: About one in three.
The first sentence says she breaks about a third of them herself.
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Question 3 of 4
Why does Ilse keep the crooked bowl instead of breaking it?
The answer is B: Its value to her is personal, not a matter of craft quality.
The bowl dates from the week her father died. Keeping it despite its poor shape suggests a personal connection matters more than its quality.
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Question 4 of 4
What does 'exception' mean in 'There is one exception'?
The answer is D: a case that does not follow the usual rule
Her rule is that flawed bowls get broken. This bowl is flawed and is not broken, so it is a case outside the rule.
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