Independent School Entrance (ISEB Pre-Test and 11+ CEM style) · English

Reading comprehension

39 practice questions, each with the answer and an explanation.

Practise Reading comprehension now

Random questions from this topic, one at a time. You see the answer and the explanation straight after each one.

All 39 questions

  1. Why could Kofi not play his own violin at the concert?
  2. What does 'His stomach felt as if he had swallowed a stone' show about Kofi?
  3. Who offered Kofi another violin?
  4. What did the old woman ask of Kofi in return for the loan?
  5. What does the phrase 'its varnish worn pale where a chin had rested for decades' suggest?
  6. How did the sound of the borrowed violin compare with Kofi's own?
  7. What is suggested by 'as if it had been waiting years to be heard'?
  8. Why had beavers vanished from Britain's rivers?
  9. What does the phrase 'nature's engineer' suggest about the beaver?
  10. How can a beaver dam help to reduce flooding downstream?
  11. According to the passage, which animals move into the new wetlands?
  12. What does the farmer mean by 'I cannot grow wheat under a pond'?
  13. Which solutions do conservation groups suggest?
  14. Which sentence best sums up the view in the last paragraph?
  15. What is the 'blanket' in the first line?
  16. What does the image of 'rows of ribs' describe?
  17. Why does the poet call the gull 'a sentry nobody has posted'?
  18. The boats are compared to 'tired dogs'. What does this suggest about them?
  19. How does the poet feel about the empty shore?
  20. What does 'the water gathers its slow strength' do to the sea?
  21. According to the passage, why might a teenager find an early start hard?
  22. What evidence do supporters of later starts give?
  23. Which of these is an argument made AGAINST later starts?
  24. What does the headteacher mean by 'families have built their lives around the existing hours'?
  25. What is the 'middle path' described in the last paragraph?
  26. Which word best describes the tone of the passage?
  27. What does the verb 'drag' in 'drag themselves out of bed' suggest?
  28. What does the phrase 'with the air of a man bearing a crown' suggest about the telegram boy?
  29. Why did Mrs Pritchard turn the envelope over 'twice'?
  30. What did Edmund expect from a telegram?
  31. Why does the writer say that Edmund's 'stomach turned over'?
  32. Who sent the telegram?
  33. What does the telegram tell us about the father's journey?
  34. Why were early sailors in difficulty when they lost sight of land?
  35. What is lodestone?
  36. How did European sailors use the compass by the twelfth century?
  37. Why does a compass needle point north?
  38. What is 'variation' as navigators use the word?
  39. Why do many modern ships still carry a magnetic compass?

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