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11th grade reading comprehension

11th grade (Year 12 in England) · 16 questions · Common Core: RI.11-12.7, RST.11-12.7, RI.11-12.9, RI.11-12.6 · England: SAT Reading and Writing (Command of Evidence: Quantitative), ACT Science-style reading, SAT Reading and Writing (Cross-Text Connections)

Name

Date

Score/ 16

1
Question 1
Is the proposed answer correct? To test a new memory app, researchers randomly assigned 200 students either to use the app or to use a version with the memory games removed. After a month, the app group recalled more words. Why is this design fairly strong evidence that the app helps? → Random assignment and a comparison group make other explanations less likely.
- A. yes, it is correct
- B. no, it is not correct
2
Question 2
Which narrative technique matches this description? A story told through letters, diary entries, emails or other documents.
- A. in medias res
- B. epistolary
- C. frame narrative
- D. multiple narrators
3
Question 3
In a study, students who explained a concept aloud to a classmate later remembered it better than students who reread their notes for the same length of time. This finding suggests that ___ Which choice most logically completes the text?
- A. actively explaining material may strengthen memory more than passive review.
- B. classmates are a distraction while studying.
- C. memory does not depend on study methods.
- D. rereading notes is the most effective study method.
4
Question 4
For a research project, is this usually a primary or a secondary source? a review of a new film
- A. primary source
- B. secondary source

Cooling the City (with data)

On hot summer afternoons, the centres of large cities can be several degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside. This "urban heat island" effect occurs because dark surfaces such as asphalt and roofing absorb sunlight and release it slowly as heat, while buildings trap warm air and reduce the cooling effect of wind. A lack of vegetation makes the problem worse: trees and plants cool the air by providing shade and releasing water vapour. In a recent study, researchers measured the average afternoon surface temperature in July across four neighbourhoods of one city, alongside the percentage of each area covered by trees. Their results are summarised below. Neighbourhood | Tree cover (%) | Average July afternoon surface temperature (°C) Northgate | 8 | 41 Riverside | 15 | 38 Elm Park | 27 | 34 Hillcrest | 35 | 32 The researchers caution that tree cover is not the only factor: Riverside, for instance, is next to a large river, which may have cooled it independently. Nevertheless, they conclude that expanding urban tree cover is a promising strategy for reducing extreme heat, particularly in neighbourhoods where many residents lack air conditioning.

5
Question 5
Read "Cooling the City (with data)". What is the difference in average temperature between Northgate and Hillcrest?
- A. 3 °C
- B. 27 °C
- C. 7 °C
- D. 9 °C

Question 6
Type the drama term (in English) that matches this description. A speech in which a character, alone on stage, speaks their thoughts aloud.
Answer
7
Question 7
Text 1: Some economists argue that a four-day week raises productivity because rested workers focus better. Text 2: Other researchers caution that productivity gains seen in office trials may not apply to hospitals or factories, where hours relate directly to output. How would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the economists in Text 1?
- A. By noting that their findings may not apply to every kind of workplace.
- B. By claiming rested workers focus worse.
- C. By agreeing that all workplaces should adopt a four-day week.
- D. By arguing offices should work longer hours.
8
Question 8
Read the question and choose. Two reliable sources disagree about a statistic. What is the best response?
- A. leave out the topic
- B. pick the number that supports your argument
- C. average the two numbers without explanation
- D. check how each figure was measured and report the disagreement fairly
9
Question 9
Table: Average daily screen time (hours) Age 8–10: 2.5 · Age 11–13: 4.0 · Age 14–16: 5.5 Which statement is supported by the table?
- A. Average screen time increases with age group.
- B. Teenagers aged 14–16 use screens less than 4 hours.
- C. Screen time is the same for all ages.
- D. Children aged 8–10 use screens the most.
10
Question 10
Which drama term matches this description? Instructions in a script about movement, setting, sound or how lines are spoken.
- A. soliloquy
- B. aside
- C. catharsis
- D. stage directions

The Quiet Infrastructure

When we speak of infrastructure, we tend to picture concrete and steel: bridges, railways, power lines. We rarely think of the public library. Yet libraries are a form of infrastructure as essential, in their way, as any road – and, because their work is quiet, they are easier to neglect. Consider what a library actually provides. It offers free access not only to books but to the internet, to printers, to warm and safe space, to help with forms and applications, to activities for toddlers and to company for the isolated elderly. For a student without a quiet room at home, it is a study hall. For a job-seeker without a computer, it is an office. For a newly arrived family, it may be the first public institution that welcomes them without asking anything in return. Critics argue that, in an age of smartphones, these functions are obsolete. Information is everywhere; why fund buildings full of paper? But the argument confuses access to information with access to opportunity. A phone cannot print a CV, provide a warm room on a winter afternoon or offer the patient guidance of a librarian who can tell a reliable source from a persuasive fake. Moreover, millions of people still lack reliable internet at home. To assume that everyone is connected is to design policy for the comfortable and forget the rest. None of this means libraries should stand still. The best have already transformed themselves into community hubs, hosting coding clubs, repair cafés and citizenship classes. But transformation requires investment, and investment requires us to recognise libraries for what they are: not a nostalgic luxury, but part of the foundation on which a fair society is built. A bridge that collapses makes headlines. A library that closes rarely does. Its users simply scatter, each a little more alone than before. That silence is precisely why we should pay attention.

11
Question 11
Read "The Quiet Infrastructure". What is the function of the list in paragraph 2?
- A. to describe the layout of a library
- B. to compare libraries with bridges
- C. to criticise library users
- D. to show the wide range of people libraries serve

The Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln, 1863)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

12
Question 12
Read "The Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln, 1863)". How does the speech move through time across its three paragraphs?
- A. from a personal story to a list of statistics
- B. from the nation's past founding, to the present war and ceremony, to the future task
- C. from the future to the past
- D. it stays entirely in the present

13
Question 13
Honeybees perform a 'waggle dance' to tell other bees where food is. The angle of the dance shows the direction of the food relative to the sun, and the length of the waggle shows the distance. Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
- A. Honeybees communicate the location of food through a dance.
- B. Honeybees like the sun.
- C. Bees dance for fun.
- D. Food is often far from the hive.
14
Question 14
Is the proposed answer correct? A historian argues that a medieval town grew rich mainly through the wool trade. Which finding would most directly WEAKEN this argument? → Tax records show that wool made up less than 5% of the town's trade income.
- A. yes, it is correct
- B. no, it is not correct

Beavers Come Home

Four hundred years after they were hunted to extinction in Britain, beavers are back. Small populations now live wild in parts of Scotland and England, and several other European countries have reintroduced them too. Ecologists describe beavers as "ecosystem engineers". By building dams, they create ponds and wetlands that slow the flow of water, trap sediment and provide homes for insects, amphibians and birds. In one Devon study, the amount of water flowing downstream during heavy rain was noticeably lower below beaver dams than above them, suggesting that dams can help reduce flooding. Not everyone is delighted. Some farmers report flooded fields and felled trees, and they worry about the cost. Their concerns are real, and schemes in some areas now compensate landowners or move beavers whose dams cause serious damage. Supporters argue that the benefits outweigh the costs. Wetlands created by beavers can store water during droughts, improve water quality and attract visitors. Yet researchers caution that results vary from river to river, and long-term data are still limited. What is clear is that the return of beavers forces us to ask a broader question: how much room are we willing to make for wild animals in a crowded country?

15
Question 15
Read "Beavers Come Home". Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
- A. Reintroduced beavers bring environmental benefits but also costs, and the full picture is still being studied.
- B. Beavers should be removed from Britain again.
- C. Beavers only live in Scotland.
- D. Farmers are always opposed to wildlife.

Two Texts on Memory

TEXT 1 For much of the twentieth century, many people imagined memory as a kind of recording device. An experience, according to this view, was stored somewhere in the brain like a film on a shelf; remembering meant taking the film down and playing it again. Forgetting was simply the film fading with age. This model was appealing because it matched how memory often feels: vivid, detailed and certain. TEXT 2 Decades of experiments have undermined the idea that memories are fixed recordings. In one well-known type of study, participants watch a video of a car accident and are later asked how fast the cars were going when they "smashed" or when they "hit" each other. Those who heard "smashed" not only gave higher speed estimates but were more likely, a week later, to report seeing broken glass – although there was none in the video. Such findings suggest that each act of remembering is partly an act of reconstruction, shaped by later information, expectation and language. A memory can feel certain and still be wrong.

16
Question 16
Read "Two Texts on Memory". What is the function of the final sentence of Text 2?
- A. to support the recording model
- B. to introduce a new experiment
- C. to state a key implication of the research
- D. to describe the video in detail

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Answer key: 11th grade reading comprehension

1. A. yes, it is correct
2. B. epistolary
3. A. actively explaining material may strengthen memory more than passive review.
4. B. secondary source
5. D. 9 °C
6. soliloquy
7. A. By noting that their findings may not apply to every kind of workplace.
8. D. check how each figure was measured and report the disagreement fairly
9. A. Average screen time increases with age group.
10. D. stage directions
11. D. to show the wide range of people libraries serve
12. B. from the nation's past founding, to the present war and ceremony, to the future task
13. A. Honeybees communicate the location of food through a dance.
14. A. yes, it is correct
15. A. Reintroduced beavers bring environmental benefits but also costs, and the full picture is still being studied.
16. C. to state a key implication of the research