Passage Summary: To read an alphabet-based language, you have to understand sounds and how those sounds look as letters. Even though the 'whole-language' method focuses mostly on sounds, many kids taught this way still manage to learn how to read.

Reasoning: Reading an alphabetic language requires both phonemic awareness and the knowledge of how sounds are represented by letters; children taught by the whole-language method do learn to read.

Analysis: This 'Must be True' question requires us to combine two essential requirements with a successful outcome. If Skill A (phonemic awareness) and Skill B (sound-to-letter mapping) are both strictly 'essential' for reading, and we know that whole-language students are successfully reading, then those students must possess both skills. Even if the whole-language method doesn't explicitly teach Skill B, the students must have acquired it somehow. Look for an answer that confirms these successful readers have mastered the sound-to-letter relationship.