What is the main idea of the passage?

Equivalent outcomes can feel different when framed around gains or losses, so readers should translate presentations and inspect missing context. (The passage explains the effect, qualifies its reach, and gives a method for checking equivalent descriptions.)

Why restate eight completions as two noncompletions?

The conversion exposes the same result from the less emphasized side. (The final paragraph uses translation to reveal what the original frame placed outside attention.)

What does “underlying” mean in the second paragraph?

existing beneath the presentation as the basic result (The two phrasings change, while the underlying outcomes remain numerically identical.)

What does a loss frame highlight?

failure or cost (The second paragraph directly defines the focus of a loss frame.)

The Same Result in Two Frames: Level 4 Reading Comprehension Questions

A coach tells one team, “Eight of every ten players completed the course.” Another team hears, “Two of every ten players did not complete it.” The quantities describe the same result, yet the statements direct attention toward different parts of it.

Psychologists call this a framing effect when a change in presentation influences judgment without changing the underlying outcomes. A gain frame highlights success or survival. A loss frame highlights failure or cost. Wording, reference points, and which number appears first can all shape the impression a reader carries forward.

Framing does not mean people ignore facts, nor does every wording change reverse a choice. Context, knowledge, emotion, and the size of the difference matter. Some frames also supply genuinely useful information. Saying that a tool saves ten minutes may answer a different question from saying it takes fifty minutes.

A careful reader can translate a frame. Convert percentages into both success and failure, identify the comparison group, and ask what information is absent. If “eight of ten completed” sounds encouraging, restate it as “two of ten did not.” The goal is not to erase all perspective; language always selects. The goal is to notice when selection is doing persuasive work and then recover the shared result beneath it.

Comprehension questions