Key Ingredients

1. List 3 details that you found above that help the story.

• The money he had promised to pay would cover all expenses: the room, the minibar, room service should they order it, the train ticket that had brought her from New York and, naturally, her time.
• A 47-page affidavit from an F.B.I. agent investigating a prostitution ring described the man at the hotel as “Client 9” and included considerable detail about him, the prostitute and his payment methods. 
• But a law enforcement official and another person briefed on the case have identified Client 9 as Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New York.

2. There are details that you might not include in a regular news story, please list at least 2 of them.

This was at the Mayflower, one of Washington’s choicer hotels. Her client for the evening, a return customer, had booked Room 871. 
3. Do you want to keep reading?

Yes

4. List 3 descriptive details that you found above that help the story.

She lay on a torn, moldy mattress on the floor. She was curled on her side, long legs tucked into her emaciated chest. Her ribs and collarbone jutted out; one skinny arm was slung over her face; her black hair was matted, crawling with lice.

5. There are details that you might not include in a regular news story, please list at least 2 of them.

Her ribs and collarbone jutted out; one skinny arm was slung over her face; her black hair was matted, crawling with lice. Insect bites, rashes and sores pocked her skin.

6. What conditions exist regarding this child that the author describes to you?

She was curled on her side, long legs tucked into her emaciated chest. Her ribs and collarbone jutted out; one skinny arm was slung over her face; her black hair was matted, crawling with lice. Insect bites, rashes and sores pocked her skin. Though she looked old enough to be in school, she was naked — except for a swollen diaper.

7. Do you want to keep reading?

I would like to know what happened to her.

8. How does the quote help the transition statement above it?

The quote explained what happened and gave more details about the fire.

9. Do you want to keep reading?

Yes

10. List 3 descriptive details that you found above that help the story.

On the morning of July 4, 2007, ranch hands were fixing a water pipe on private land in a narrow canyon off the road to Zaca Lake, about 15 miles north of Solvang. Sparks from a metal grinder jumped into some dry grass. Soon flames were rushing through the brush toward Zaca Ridge.

11. There are details you might not include in a regular news story, please list at least 2 of them.

By the next day, nearly 1,000 firefighters were trying to box the fire into a small area. But late that afternoon, the Zaca made a run, moving east into Los Padres National Forest. By July 7, Forest Service officials realized they were facing a potential monster.

12. What was the anecdote that the author used in the story.

The anecdote in the story is the fire coming to life and spreading.

13. What was the ironical part of this story regarding how the fire started.

It was ironic that the workers were fixing a water pipe that caused the fire to start and the water from theater pipe could had been used to put out the fire.

14. Do you want to keep reading?

Yes

15. List 3 pieces of background information found in these 3 paragraphs.

A decade ago, the agency spent $307 million on fire suppression. In California, state wildfire spending has shot up 150% in the last decade, to more than $1 billion a year. Wildfire costs are busting the Forest Service budget. 

16. Which one do you think is most crucial?

Fire is chewing through so much Forest Service money that Congress is considering a separate federal account to cover the cost of catastrophic blazes.

17. Do you want to keep reading?

Yes