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Primary 6 · English · Comprehension: Inference

Comprehension: Inference questions for Primary 6 English

8 questions to work through online. Answer and you get the working straight away, then a score at the end. No sign-up, and you can retake it as often as you like.

  • The writer's attitude
  • Why a detail is included
  • What a choice of word shows
  • Reading an ending
  • What is deliberately left out
  • Following an argument
  • The writer's position
  • Judging a whole passage
0 of 8 answered
Question 1 of 8The writer's attitude
1 The pasar malam that comes to our estate every March takes two days to build and four hours to disappear. I have watched both ends of it since I was small, and the second is by far the better show. 2 The stalls are not owned by the people running them. They are rented, along with the poles, the tarpaulin and the lights, from a company that moves the whole market from estate to estate in a fixed circuit — eleven stops a year, the same order every year, worked out decades ago around the school holidays and the festivals. 3 Nobody in the market calls it a circuit. They call it the round, and a stallholder will tell you they are "doing Bedok next" as though Bedok were a fixture rather than a place. 4 I asked a woman selling curry puffs how long she had been on the round. She thought about it and said she had done the estate before mine, and the one before that, and then she laughed and said she had no idea.
Why does the writer say the taking down is "by far the better show"?
Question 2 of 8Why a detail is included

Same text as the question above.

Why does the writer tell you that the stalls, poles, tarpaulin and lights are all rented?
Question 3 of 8What a choice of word shows

Same text as the question above.

What does it show that the stallholders say "the round" rather than "the circuit"?
Question 4 of 8Reading an ending

Same text as the question above.

Why does the passage end with the curry puff seller laughing and saying she has no idea?
Question 5 of 8What is deliberately left out
1 The bin at the bus stop outside my block was removed in January. The letter from the town council explained that a study had found that bins at bus stops attract household rubbish, and that removing them reduces the total amount of waste collected. 2 What the letter did not say is what happened to the pavement. For three weeks it was worse than I have ever seen it. Then, sometime in February, it was cleaner than it had been with the bin. 3 I have thought about that a good deal. The likeliest explanation is that people who would have dropped something in a bin now carry it home, and people who would have left a bag beside a full bin have nowhere to leave it and stopped bringing it. 4 I would still rather have the bin. But I notice I have stopped saying so out loud, because the pavement is not on my side.
What is the writer suggesting by "What the letter did not say"?
Question 6 of 8Following an argument

Same text as the question above.

According to the writer's explanation, why did the pavement end up cleaner?
Question 7 of 8The writer's position

Same text as the question above.

What does the writer mean by "the pavement is not on my side"?
Question 8 of 8Judging a whole passage

Same text as the question above.

What is the writer's main point in this passage?
Answers and explanations for all 8 questions

Every answer with the reasoning behind it. Worth reading after you have tried the set — or on its own, if you are a parent marking it.

  1. Why does the writer say the taking down is "by far the better show"?

    Answer: Watching something vanish in four hours is more striking than watching it go up over two days.

    The sentence sets two days against four hours. The show is the speed of the vanishing, which is what makes it worth watching.

  2. Why does the writer tell you that the stalls, poles, tarpaulin and lights are all rented?

    Answer: To show that the market is a business run to a system, not a gathering of individuals.

    The list is followed by the circuit, the eleven stops and the fixed order. Together they build one point: this is a machine, and it was designed.

  3. What does it show that the stallholders say "the round" rather than "the circuit"?

    Answer: For them it is a way of life rather than a system somebody planned.

    A circuit is something drawn on a plan; a round is something you do. The writer sets the two words side by side to show the difference between running the market and living it.

  4. Why does the passage end with the curry puff seller laughing and saying she has no idea?

    Answer: It shows how completely the round has replaced ordinary ways of counting time.

    She counts in estates rather than years, and runs out before she runs out of memory. The laugh is recognition, not evasion.

  5. What is the writer suggesting by "What the letter did not say"?

    Answer: The council reported the benefit and left out the mess that came first.

    The phrase points at an absence. The letter gave the finding that supported the decision, and the three bad weeks were left for residents to discover.

  6. According to the writer's explanation, why did the pavement end up cleaner?

    Answer: Two groups of people changed what they did — one carried rubbish home, the other stopped bringing it.

    Paragraph 3 names both changes, and it is the two together — not either one — that the writer offers as the explanation.

  7. What does the writer mean by "the pavement is not on my side"?

    Answer: The evidence supports the decision he disagrees with.

    He treats the pavement as a witness. It gives evidence against him, which is why he has stopped arguing out loud while still holding his view.

  8. What is the writer's main point in this passage?

    Answer: Being proved wrong by the evidence does not always change what you want.

    The last paragraph holds both halves: he still wants the bin, and he has stopped saying so. The passage is about that gap, not about bins.