Back to the lesson and practice
ActivityPractice worksheet
Do it🖨️ On paper✏️ On screen
New copyMake a new one

Works with a finger, a stylus or a mouse. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

Write your answers with a finger, mouse or stylus. Switch to Scroll to move around the page. A stylus always writes.

eurekami

12th grade reading comprehension

12th grade (Year 13 in England) · 16 questions · Common Core: RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.3, RL.11-12.5, RI.11-12.8 · England: GCSE English Language Paper 1 Q4, A-level English Literature, GCSE English Language Paper 2 Q4

Name

Date

Score/ 16

  1. Question 1

    Which literary movement does this description most closely match? A young woman explores a crumbling castle at midnight, hearing footsteps in locked rooms and finding a portrait whose eyes seem to follow her.

    • A. Transcendentalism
    • B. Postmodernism
    • C. Gothic
    • D. Realism

  2. Question 2

    Which fallacy matches this description? Continuing with something because of what has already been invested, even when it no longer makes sense.

    • A. appeal to nature
    • B. loaded question
    • C. sunk cost fallacy
    • D. moving the goalposts

  3. Question 3

    Type the fallacy (in English) that matches this description. Dismissing criticism by pointing out that the critic does the same thing.

    Answer

  4. Question 4

    Which metrical term matches this stress pattern? (Capitals show stressed syllables.) GAR-den, TI-ger, HAP-py

    • A. trochee
    • B. iamb
    • C. anapest
    • D. spondee

  5. Question 5

    "Either we ban cars from the town centre completely, or the air will never be clean." What flaw does this argument contain?

    • A. a personal anecdote
    • B. a false choice between only two options
    • C. a reliable statistic
    • D. a balanced counterargument

  6. Question 6

    Which part of a Toulmin argument is this sentence? In most cases, a protected lane will make the high street safer.

    • A. claim
    • B. qualifier
    • C. warrant
    • D. backing

Inheritance

When my aunt died she left me her piano, which was the one thing in her house I had never wanted. It was an upright of dark, scarred wood, too large for any room it had ever stood in, and it had been out of tune for as long as I could remember. As a child, I had been made to sit at it every Thursday while she counted the beats aloud in a voice like a ruler rapping a desk. I had hated it with the pure, uncomplicated hatred of a nine-year-old. The removal men groaned it up the three flights to my flat and left it in the hall, where it blocked the light from the only window. For a month I edged around it sideways, as one edges around a guest who has outstayed their welcome. I told friends I would sell it. I photographed it twice for the listing and deleted the pictures both times. It was during a power cut in February that I finally lifted the lid. I could not have said why. The flat was cold and dark and silent, and perhaps I simply wanted to hear something. I pressed middle C. It was flat, of course – everything about that piano was slightly flat – but the note hung in the hall far longer than I expected, and something in the slowness of its fading undid me. I played the only piece I still knew, a dull exercise in C major that my aunt had made me repeat a hundred times. My fingers found it before my mind did. Halfway through, I realised I was counting under my breath, in her rhythm, in her voice. I have not had the piano tuned. People ask me why, and I tell them I haven't got round to it, which is true in the way that most convenient answers are true. The other reason is harder to explain. Every flat note is exactly as she left it. I am not ready to correct her yet.

  1. Question 7

    Read "Inheritance". What does the narrator's realisation that he is counting "in her voice" reveal?

    • A. He has forgotten the piece.
    • B. His aunt's influence has become part of him, despite his earlier resentment.
    • C. He has hired a teacher.
    • D. He is imitating her to mock her.

  1. Question 8

    Which part of the Toulmin model matches this description? The assumption that links the evidence to the claim, often unstated.

    • A. claim
    • B. rebuttal
    • C. backing
    • D. warrant

  2. Question 9

    Which metrical term matches this description? A foot with one stressed then two unstressed syllables: DUM-da-da.

    • A. anapest
    • B. iambic pentameter
    • C. iamb
    • D. dactyl

Inheritance

When my aunt died she left me her piano, which was the one thing in her house I had never wanted. It was an upright of dark, scarred wood, too large for any room it had ever stood in, and it had been out of tune for as long as I could remember. As a child, I had been made to sit at it every Thursday while she counted the beats aloud in a voice like a ruler rapping a desk. I had hated it with the pure, uncomplicated hatred of a nine-year-old. The removal men groaned it up the three flights to my flat and left it in the hall, where it blocked the light from the only window. For a month I edged around it sideways, as one edges around a guest who has outstayed their welcome. I told friends I would sell it. I photographed it twice for the listing and deleted the pictures both times. It was during a power cut in February that I finally lifted the lid. I could not have said why. The flat was cold and dark and silent, and perhaps I simply wanted to hear something. I pressed middle C. It was flat, of course – everything about that piano was slightly flat – but the note hung in the hall far longer than I expected, and something in the slowness of its fading undid me. I played the only piece I still knew, a dull exercise in C major that my aunt had made me repeat a hundred times. My fingers found it before my mind did. Halfway through, I realised I was counting under my breath, in her rhythm, in her voice. I have not had the piano tuned. People ask me why, and I tell them I haven't got round to it, which is true in the way that most convenient answers are true. The other reason is harder to explain. Every flat note is exactly as she left it. I am not ready to correct her yet.

  1. Question 10

    Read "Inheritance". What is the best interpretation of "I am not ready to correct her yet"?

    • A. He cannot afford a piano tuner.
    • B. He plans to become a piano tuner.
    • C. He thinks his aunt played badly.
    • D. Tuning the piano would feel like erasing a trace of her, and he is still grieving.

Two Views on AI and Art

Text 1. When photography was invented, some painters declared that art was dead. Instead, painting changed: freed from the need to record reality, artists explored colour, emotion and abstraction. Image-generating AI may play a similar role. Used as a tool, it can help people sketch ideas quickly, test compositions and bring visual thinking to those who never trained as artists. The question is not whether AI will end art, but what new kinds of art people will make with it. Text 2. Comparisons with photography are tempting but misleading. A camera records the world; many AI image tools are trained on millions of existing artworks, often without their creators' permission or payment. Until artists can choose whether their work is used, and are fairly credited, it is hard to call this simply a new tool. The problem is not the technology itself but the way it has been built.

  1. Question 11

    Read "Two Views on AI and Art". What does Text 2 identify as the main problem?

    • A. that photography is better than painting
    • B. how the tools were built, using artists' work without permission or credit
    • C. that computers are expensive
    • D. that the images are low quality

  1. Question 12

    Is the proposed answer correct? An audio message 'from your cousin' urgently asks for money, but the voice sounds slightly odd. What should you do? → send the money quickly

    • A. yes, it is correct
    • B. no, it is not correct

  2. Question 13

    Type the comic or satirical technique (in English) that matches this description. Using humour, irony or exaggeration to criticise people, institutions or society.

    Answer

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.

  1. Question 14

    Read "The Quiet Infrastructure". According to the writer, what mistake do critics make?

    • A. They ignore the needs of bridges.
    • B. They confuse access to information with access to opportunity.
    • C. They think libraries are too modern.
    • D. They overestimate the cost of books.

  1. Question 15

    The story ends with the protagonist on a train, unsure whether she is leaving home or returning to it. What is the effect of this ambiguous ending?

    • A. It proves she is going on holiday.
    • B. It invites readers to reflect on what 'home' means rather than giving a neat answer.
    • C. It shows the writer forgot to finish.
    • D. It reveals the train has broken down.

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.

  1. Question 16

    Read "The Quiet Infrastructure". What is the writer's central claim?

    • A. Bridges are more important than libraries.
    • B. Libraries are essential infrastructure that deserve investment.
    • C. Libraries should be replaced by smartphones.
    • D. Libraries should never change.

Write your answers right on the page. · Free from eurekami.com

All done? Check your answers
  1. Gothic
  2. sunk cost fallacy
  3. tu quoque
  4. trochee
  5. a false choice between only two options
  6. qualifier
  7. His aunt's influence has become part of him, despite his earlier resentment.
  8. warrant
  9. dactyl
  10. Tuning the piano would feel like erasing a trace of her, and he is still grieving.
  11. how the tools were built, using artists' work without permission or credit
  12. no, it is not correct
  13. satire
  14. They confuse access to information with access to opportunity.
  15. It invites readers to reflect on what 'home' means rather than giving a neat answer.
  16. Libraries are essential infrastructure that deserve investment.