What is the passage mainly about?

Why a method of questioning matters more than a store of answers. (The whole passage builds to the third paragraph: what survives is a habit of questioning, not a set of answers.)

In Plato's account, what was the oracle at Delphi told to say?

That no one was wiser than Socrates. (Paragraph two says the friend was told that no one was wiser than Socrates.)

What does the passage suggest about the generals, poets, and craftsmen?

They could use the words well without being able to define them. (The text says they used these words every day but their answers fell apart, and that they had a skill, not a definition.)

In this passage, modest describes a conclusion that is

small and not boastful. (The conclusion is that he was wiser in one narrow way only, which is a small claim rather than a proud one.)

The Man Who Asked Questions: Level 3 Reading Comprehension Questions

Socrates walked through Athens and asked people simple questions. What is courage? What is justice? The people he asked were often confident. They were generals, poets, and craftsmen who used these words every day. But after a few careful questions, their answers fell apart. They had a skill, not a definition.

In Plato's account, a friend of Socrates went to the oracle at Delphi and was told that no one was wiser than Socrates. Socrates found this strange, because he did not believe he knew much. So he tested the claim by questioning the people who seemed wise. He came to a modest conclusion. He was wiser in one narrow way only: he did not pretend to know what he did not know.

This is why his method is still taught. It treats a question as a tool, not as a sign of weakness. A confident answer can be tested; an untested answer only feels solid. Socrates wrote nothing down. What survives is a habit of mind, carried on by his students, that asks a speaker to say clearly what a common word actually means.

Comprehension questions