🔍 Comprehension
📖 Reading Passage
Read aloud
—:—
'Coat of Many Colors' is, on its surface, a song about a coat. Beneath that surface, it is one of the clearest examples in popular music of how a small, specific story can carry an enormous emotional weight. Dolly Parton wrote it in 1969 about her own childhood in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The events are autobiographical: a poor family, a mother who sewed a coat from a box of donated rags, a daughter who wore that coat to school and was laughed at for it. What lifts the song from a sad memory into something richer is its central allusion. As the mother stitches the patchwork pieces together, she tells her daughter the biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. In a single quiet gesture, she gives the rags meaning — connecting a humble garment to an ancient, treasured tale. The coat is no longer just a coat. It is something stitched together with both fabric and story. The song does not pretend the children's ridicule did not hurt. It also does not allow that ridicule to have the last word. The narrator's response is an act of dignity: she insists that her family was poor in money but rich in love, and that one is worth more than the other. The form of the song is a ballad — the oldest narrative form in music — and Dolly chooses ballad form deliberately. She is not chasing cleverness. She is telling a story that matters, and trusting that heartfelt sentiment, honestly delivered, will reach the listener more powerfully than any literary trick.
1. According to the passage, what is the central allusion in the song?
A
A reference to a famous Hollywood film
B
A reference to the biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors
C
A reference to a Tennessee folk legend
D
A reference to a popular nursery rhyme
2. Why does the passage describe the song as 'autobiographical'?
A
Because it was written to be performed by other singers
B
Because it tells a real story from Dolly Parton's own childhood
C
Because it was written about a fictional girl in another country
D
Because it was based on a novel she had just finished reading
3. What does the mother's act of telling the Joseph story while she sews achieve, according to the passage?
A
It distracts the child from the cold weather outside
B
It connects a humble patchwork garment to an ancient story, giving the rags deeper meaning
C
It convinces the child the coat is too special to wear
D
It teaches the child a new song to perform at school
4. How does the narrator respond to the children's ridicule?
A
She agrees with them and stops wearing the coat
B
She insists, with dignity, that being rich in love matters more than being rich in money
C
She runs home and refuses to return to school
D
She demands her mother make her a different coat
5. Why does the passage suggest Dolly Parton chose the ballad form for this song?
A
Because ballads are the easiest songs to write
B
Because she wanted to tell a story that matters and trust honest, heartfelt sentiment to carry it
C
Because ballads are always cheerful in tone
D
Because she wanted to avoid telling a story altogether
6. Think about 'Coat of Many Colors' alongside Charlotte's Web. What do these two stories together suggest about how love and language can transform something the world dismisses?
A
That love and words have no real effect on how the world sees something
B
That what others judge as worthless — a runt pig, a coat of rags — can be made genuinely precious when someone who loves it gives it meaning through patient words and care
C
That only beautiful things deserve love in the first place
D
That children always agree with the world's first judgement of a thing