Comprehension: Literal questions for Primary 6 English
10 questions to work through online, 4 of them written out the way the paper asks. 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.
Finding a detail
Finding a reason
Gathering two details
Understanding a change over time
Answering in your own words
Answering with a figure
0 of 10 answered
Question 1 of 10Finding a detail
1 The first zebra crossings in Singapore were painted in 1954, and pedestrians did not trust them. A survey taken that year found that most people continued to cross wherever they had always crossed, and a traffic engineer wrote that the paint had "changed the road and not the habit".
2 What changed the habit was not education but the belisha beacon — the orange globe on a striped pole that stands at each end of the crossing. Once the beacons went up in 1958, use of the crossings roughly tripled within a year.
3 The beacons worked because they were visible to drivers from a distance, and pedestrians could see that they were visible. A crossing you can be sure the driver has seen is a crossing you are willing to step onto.
4 Today the stripes are wider than they were in 1954, and there are fewer of them per crossing. Both changes came from the same finding: from a moving car, fewer and wider reads faster than many and narrow.
Question 2 of 10Finding a reason
Same text as the question above.
Question 3 of 10Gathering two details
Same text as the question above.
Question 4 of 10Finding a detail
1 In 1991 two divers exploring a flooded cave near Marseille surfaced in an air pocket and found the walls covered in handprints. The cave mouth is thirty-seven metres below sea level, and there is no other way in.
2 The paintings are about 27,000 years old. When they were made, the sea was more than a hundred metres lower and the cave stood on a dry hillside a long walk from the water.
3 Only a handful of people have been inside. The entry tunnel is 175 metres long, and a diver must carry enough air for the return, in the dark, with no room to turn round.
4 France has since built a full-size copy of the cave above ground, so that the paintings can be seen without the dive. The copy took four years to make and reproduces the walls to within a few millimetres.
Question 5 of 10Understanding a change over time
Same text as the question above.
Question 6 of 10Finding a detail
Same text as the question above.
Question 7 of 10Answering in your own words
1 The first zebra crossings in Singapore were painted in 1954, and pedestrians did not trust them. A survey taken that year found that most people continued to cross wherever they had always crossed, and a traffic engineer wrote that the paint had "changed the road and not the habit".
2 What changed the habit was not education but the belisha beacon — the orange globe on a striped pole that stands at each end of the crossing. Once the beacons went up in 1958, use of the crossings roughly tripled within a year.
3 The beacons worked because they were visible to drivers from a distance, and pedestrians could see that they were visible. A crossing you can be sure the driver has seen is a crossing you are willing to step onto.
4 Today the stripes are wider than they were in 1954, and there are fewer of them per crossing. Both changes came from the same finding: from a moving car, fewer and wider reads faster than many and narrow.
Question 8 of 10Answering with a figure
Same text as the question above.
Question 9 of 10Answering in your own words
1 In 1991 two divers exploring a flooded cave near Marseille surfaced in an air pocket and found the walls covered in handprints. The cave mouth is thirty-seven metres below sea level, and there is no other way in.
2 The paintings are about 27,000 years old. When they were made, the sea was more than a hundred metres lower and the cave stood on a dry hillside a long walk from the water.
3 Only a handful of people have been inside. The entry tunnel is 175 metres long, and a diver must carry enough air for the return, in the dark, with no room to turn round.
4 France has since built a full-size copy of the cave above ground, so that the paintings can be seen without the dive. The copy took four years to make and reproduces the walls to within a few millimetres.
Question 10 of 10Answering with a figure
Same text as the question above.
Answers and explanations for all 10 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.
What did the 1954 survey find?
Answer: Most people still crossed wherever they always had.
Paragraph 1 reports the survey directly: most people continued to cross wherever they had always crossed.
According to paragraph 3, why did the beacons work?
Answer: Pedestrians could see that drivers were able to see the crossing.
Paragraph 3 turns on both halves: the beacons were visible to drivers, and pedestrians could see that they were.
What two changes have been made to the stripes since 1954?
Answer: They are wider, and there are fewer of them.
Paragraph 4 gives both: wider stripes, and fewer of them per crossing.
How deep below sea level is the mouth of the cave?
Answer: 37 m
Paragraph 1 gives the depth of the cave mouth as 37 m below sea level.
Why was the cave not underwater when the paintings were made?
Answer: The sea was more than a hundred metres lower then.
Paragraph 2 explains it: with the sea more than a hundred metres lower, the cave stood on a dry hillside.
Why has France built a copy of the cave?
Answer: So the paintings can be seen without making the dive.
Paragraph 4 says the copy was built so the paintings can be seen without the dive.
Write one word for the blank.
The engineer's phrase means the paint changed the road but not people's ______ .
Answer: habit
The engineer wrote that the paint had changed the road and not the habit — the crossing was there, and people carried on as before.
Write the year.
The belisha beacons were installed in ______ .
Answer: 1958
Paragraph 2 says the beacons went up in 1958, and use of the crossings tripled within a year.
Write one word for the blank.
A diver entering the cave must carry enough ______ for the journey back as well.
Answer: air
Paragraph 3 says a diver must carry enough air for the return, in the dark, with no room to turn round.
Write the number.
The copy of the cave took ______ years to build.
Answer: four
Paragraph 4 says the copy took four years to make.