What is the main idea of the passage?

The true cost of a choice is the best alternative you give up, which is easy to overlook (The passage defines opportunity cost as the value of the best forgone option and stresses that it is hidden but real.)

Why does the passage say opportunity cost is 'slippery'?

It never appears on a receipt, so the mind tends to ignore it (The text explains the cost leaves no trace and never appears on a receipt, so people overlook it.)

How does opportunity cost change the question we should ask about a choice?

Whether it is worth more than the next best alternative (The passage says we should ask whether something is worth more than the next best thing we could do instead.)

In this passage, "forgo" most nearly means:

give up (The text says you "forgo whatever else that dollar could have bought," meaning you give up the alternatives.)

According to the passage, how does the money paid for a purchase differ from its opportunity cost?

It is visible and easy to count (The passage states "the money you paid is visible and easy to count," while the trip, the skill, and the rest you gave up "leave no trace.")

The Cost You Cannot See: Level 5 Reading Comprehension Questions

Every choice quietly closes a door. When you spend an afternoon on one activity, you give up everything else you might have done with that time. When you spend a dollar on one thing, you forgo whatever else that dollar could have bought. Economists call this hidden price the opportunity cost: the value of the best option you did not take.

What makes opportunity cost slippery is that it never appears on a receipt. The money you paid is visible and easy to count. The trip you did not take, the skill you did not learn, the rest you did not get, leave no trace, so the mind tends to ignore them. Yet they are the true measure of what a decision costs. A purchase that seems cheap may be expensive once you account for the better use of the same resources, and a free activity is never truly free if it consumes time you valued more elsewhere.

Thinking in terms of opportunity cost changes the question we ask. Instead of wondering whether something is worth its sticker price, we ask whether it is worth more than the next best thing we could do instead. This is a harder question, because it forces us to name what we are giving up. But it is also a more honest one. Resources are limited, and the real cost of having anything is the most valuable thing we surrender to get it. Decisions made without this lens often feel like bargains while quietly draining what matters most: our time, our energy, and our attention.

Comprehension questions