Science · Level 1 · 116 words

Why You Can See Your Breath

Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.

On a cold morning, your breath is a small white cloud. On a warm day, the same breath is invisible. Your breath did not change. The air did.

The air you breathe out is warm and full of water. That water is a gas, spread too thin to see. Warm air holds this hidden water easily.

Cold air cannot. When your warm breath meets freezing air, it cools fast, and the hidden water has nowhere to stay. It gathers into tiny drops, thousands of them, each too small to feel. Light bounces off the drops, and you see a white puff.

Real clouds in the sky are made the same way: warm, wet air meeting cold.

Comprehension questions

Choose an answer, then check your work. Nothing is saved or sent.

4 questions
1. What is the main point of the passage?

Show answer for question 1

A. You see your breath when cold air turns its hidden water into tiny drops.
The passage opens with a puzzle, same breath on two days, and solves it: cold air cannot hold the hidden water, so it gathers into drops you can see.

2. Using the passage, why is your breath invisible on a warm day?

Show answer for question 2

C. The warm air keeps holding the water as a gas your eyes cannot see.
The passage says warm air holds the hidden water easily. If the water stays a spread-out gas, no drops form, and there is nothing for light to bounce off.

3. In this passage, "gathers" means

Show answer for question 3

D. comes together in one place
The hidden water gathers into tiny drops. Gas that was spread thin becomes drops, so the water is coming together, the opposite of spreading out.

4. According to the passage, why does the puff of breath look white?

Show answer for question 4

B. Light bounces off the tiny drops.
The passage states it in one sentence: light bounces off the drops, and you see a white puff. Freezing and dust are never mentioned.

Source: Written for Fluency. Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.