What is the main idea of the passage?

Giving a feeling a careful, tentative name can clarify its possible cause without making the feeling disappear. (The passage presents labels as useful clues while warning that they remain revisable guesses.)

Why might the word “disappointment” be more useful than “bad”?

It points toward a hope that may not have been met. (The second paragraph links disappointment with asking which hope was not met.)

What does “verdict” mean in the phrase “not a final verdict”?

a fixed conclusion or judgment (The label is described as a working guess rather than a fixed final conclusion.)

What can hunger sometimes be mistaken for?

anger at a friend (The final paragraph gives the example of a hungry person calling irritation anger at a friend.)

Putting a Name on a Feeling: Level 1 Reading Comprehension Questions

A feeling can arrive before its name. Your shoulders tighten, thoughts race, or you want to leave. Saying only “I feel bad” gives little guidance. A precise label can separate worry from anger, embarrassment, disappointment, or tiredness.

Naming a feeling does not make it vanish. It can make the experience easier to examine. If the feeling is disappointment, the mind can ask what hope was not met. If it is embarrassment, the concern may be how other people saw an event. Different names point toward different causes.

Labels can also be wrong. A hungry person may call simple irritation anger at a friend. That is why a useful label remains a working guess, not a final verdict. The goal is not to force every feeling into a neat box. It is to replace one blurred signal with a clearer question: what, exactly, is happening here?

Comprehension questions