What is the passage mainly about?

A writer whose craft is removal, and the quiet contradiction it leaves her with (The passage defines her craft as cutting a long grievance down to a few lines, then examines the honesty problem that this creates for her.)

What did Senora Bermudez charge for a love letter?

The same as for a complaint to the water company (The first paragraph says the price was the same for a love letter as for a complaint to the water company.)

Why did she avoid writing accusations?

An accusation makes the reader defend himself instead of answering (The text contrasts them directly: an accusation invites a defense, while a description invites a reply. She wanted a reply.)

In this passage, a grievance is

a complaint about being wronged (Clients arrive with one and describe things like a brother moving a fence, so a grievance is a sense of having been wronged.)

The Letter Writer: Level 5 Reading Comprehension Questions

For thirty years Senora Bermudez wrote letters for people who could not, or would not, write their own. Her table stood at the north end of the market, between the notary and a woman selling brooms, and the price was the same for a love letter as for a complaint to the water company, which she considered a matter of principle rather than of pricing.

Her clients arrived with a grievance and left with a sentence. That was the whole craft. A man would talk for twenty minutes about the fence his brother had moved, and she would write four lines that made no accusation at all, because she had learned that an accusation invites a defense, whereas a description invites a reply.

The irony was not lost on her. She was praised throughout the market as an honest woman, and yet her entire trade consisted of making people sound better than they had sounded to her. She never resolved this. She only noticed, each evening, that the letters she was proudest of were the ones from which she had removed the most.

Comprehension questions