What is the main idea of the passage?

Alma Thomas transformed years of teaching and close observation into abstract paintings built from vivid color and rhythm. (The passage connects her long preparation and observed sources with a distinctive nonliteral painting practice.)

Why does the passage say Thomas did not copy the garden exactly?

Observed sights inspired her, but she transformed them into abstract arrangements of color. (The second paragraph contrasts sources such as leaves with color and rhythm becoming subjects themselves.)

What does “literal” mean in the last sentence?

showing a subject just as it appears (The passage contrasts a direct picture with Thomas's new abstract visual language.)

What appeared outside Thomas's window?

a garden (The first paragraph identifies the garden she watched.)

Alma Thomas Finds Her Colors: Level 1 Reading Comprehension Questions

Alma Thomas taught art in Washington, D.C., schools for many years. She also painted, studied museums, and watched the garden outside her window. After retiring from teaching, she devoted more time to her own art.

Thomas built many paintings from short strokes of bright color separated by small spaces. Garden leaves, flowers, changing light, and images of space exploration helped spark her ideas. She did not copy those sights exactly. Color and rhythm became subjects of their own.

Her career grew through long attention rather than one sudden beginning. Teaching, looking, experimenting, and painting all fed the work she made later. Thomas showed that careful observation can lead beyond a literal picture and into a new visual language.

Comprehension questions