What is the central teaching described in the passage?

Put your effort into what you control and accept what you do not. (The two piles and the archer both make the same point: care about your own judgment and effort, not the outcome.)

Which of these does the passage place in the second pile?

Our reputation. (Reputation is listed in the second pile, along with the body, the weather, other people, and results.)

The example of the archer suggests that a person should

judge herself by her preparation and release, not by where the arrow lands. (The bow, the stance, and the release are hers; the wind is not. So the fair measure is the part she controls.)

In this passage, gust means

a short, sudden rush of wind. (The gust is the uncontrolled air that pushes the arrow, which points to a sudden burst of wind.)

What Is Up To You: Level 3 Reading Comprehension Questions

Epictetus was born into slavery in the Roman Empire and later won his freedom. He taught at a school in Greece, and he wrote no books; his students wrote down his lessons. His central idea is easy to state and hard to live.

He divided the world into two piles. In the first pile are the things that are up to us: our judgments, our aims, our own effort. In the second pile is everything else: our body, our reputation, the weather, other people, the results of our work. Trouble begins, he taught, when we treat the second pile as if it were the first. We demand that a train run on time, that a stranger be fair, that an illness wait. Then we are surprised by grief.

The advice is not to stop caring. It is to move the weight of our caring onto the part we actually hold. An archer can choose the bow, the stance, and the release. A gust of wind is not hers. If she measures herself by the arrow alone, she hands her calm to the air.

Comprehension questions