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3rd grade (Year 4 in England) · 16 questions · Common Core: RI.3.1, RL.3.1 · England: Y3/4 Reading (retrieval), KS2 SATs Reading
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Lady Montagu and the Smallpox Gamble
In the early eighteenth century, smallpox was one of the most feared diseases in Europe. It killed around three in every ten people it infected and left many survivors scarred or blind. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu knew its cruelty personally: the disease had killed her brother and marked her own face.
In 1717, while living in Constantinople (now Istanbul), where her husband was the British ambassador, she observed a remarkable practice. Local women would take a small amount of material from a mild smallpox sore and scratch it into the skin of a healthy person. The person usually developed a mild illness and was then protected for life. This process was called variolation.
Montagu was so impressed that she had her young son variolated. When she returned to England, she campaigned to spread the practice, despite fierce opposition. Some doctors resented being taught by a woman; others distrusted a practice from abroad. To win public confidence, Montagu had her daughter variolated in front of physicians from the royal court.
Variolation was not without risk: a small number of patients developed severe smallpox, and they could infect others. Decades later, in 1796, Edward Jenner developed a safer method using cowpox, a related but much milder disease. His method, called vaccination after the Latin word for cow, gradually replaced variolation.
Smallpox was declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. Jenner is often called the father of vaccination, but the story began with the courage of a woman who noticed what others had overlooked.
Question 1
Read "Lady Montagu and the Smallpox Gamble". Where did Montagu first observe variolation?
- A. in London
- B. at the royal court
- C. in Constantinople
- D. in Jenner's laboratory
Inside a Volcano
Deep beneath our feet, the Earth is extremely hot – hot enough to melt rock. This melted rock is called magma. Because magma is lighter than the solid rock around it, it slowly rises upward. Sometimes it collects in a huge underground pool called a magma chamber.
A volcano forms where magma finds a way to the surface. When the pressure in the magma chamber becomes too great, the magma bursts out through cracks or vents. Once it reaches the surface, it is called lava. Over time, layers of cooled lava and ash can build up to form a mountain.
Most volcanoes are found near the edges of tectonic plates, the giant slabs of rock that make up the Earth's outer layer. More than half of the world's active volcanoes surround the Pacific Ocean, in a horseshoe-shaped zone known as the Ring of Fire.
Scientists sort volcanoes into three groups. Active volcanoes have erupted recently and could erupt again. Dormant volcanoes have not erupted for a very long time but might wake up in the future. Extinct volcanoes are not expected to erupt ever again.
Although eruptions can be deadly, volcanoes also bring benefits. Volcanic ash breaks down into rich soil, which is why many farms are found on the slopes of old volcanoes. In some countries, such as Iceland, the heat from underground is used to warm homes and produce electricity.
Question 2
Read "Inside a Volcano". What is the Ring of Fire?
- A. a volcano in Iceland
- B. a ring of lava around a crater
- C. a zone of volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean
- D. the hottest layer of the Earth
The Vault at the Top of the World
On a frozen island in the Arctic Ocean, between Norway and the North Pole, a narrow concrete doorway sticks out of the side of a mountain. Behind it, a tunnel leads deep into the rock. This is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, and it holds more than a million packets of seeds from almost every country on Earth.
Why keep seeds in a mountain? Farmers all over the world depend on many different varieties of crops, such as types of rice that survive floods or kinds of wheat that resist disease. If a variety disappears because of war, natural disaster or simple accident, it may be lost for ever. The vault is a back-up copy, like saving a precious file in two places.
The location was chosen with care. The vault is high enough above sea level to stay dry even if ice caps melt. Inside, the seeds are kept at about minus 18 degrees Celsius, cold enough to keep many of them alive for decades or even centuries. The surrounding rock is permanently frozen, so even if the power failed, the seeds would stay cold.
The vault opened in 2008. In 2015, it was used for the first time: scientists who had lost access to their own seed bank during a war in Syria withdrew samples, grew new plants and later sent fresh seeds back to the vault. The back-up had worked.
No one hopes the vault will be needed often. But like a fire extinguisher in a school corridor, it is reassuring to know it is there.
Question 3
Read "The Vault at the Top of the World". When was the vault used for the first time?
- A. in 1956
- B. in 2008
- C. it has never been used
- D. in 2015
Bugs in the Code
Theo had been looking forward to Coding Club all week. Ms Rivera had promised they would make their own animated story on the classroom tablets.
Theo chose a cartoon cat and wrote the code: when the green flag is clicked, move ten steps, then turn and wave. He clicked the flag. The cat spun round and round like a washing machine and never stopped.
"It's broken!" Theo groaned, and he pushed the tablet away.
Ms Rivera sat down beside him. "It's not broken," she said. "It's got a bug. Every coder gets bugs. The trick is to be a detective." Together they read the code one block at a time. Theo had put the turn block inside a forever loop by mistake, so the cat kept turning for ever.
Theo dragged the block out of the loop and clicked the flag again. The cat walked ten steps, turned and waved. Theo cheered so loudly that the whole club looked up.
The next week, a younger girl called Ivy was close to tears because her rocket would not take off. Theo pulled up a chair. "It's not broken," he told her. "It's got a bug. Let's be detectives."
Question 4
Read "Bugs in the Code". What went wrong with Theo's cat at first?
- A. It would not move at all.
- B. It spun round and round and never stopped.
- C. It turned into a rocket.
- D. It disappeared from the screen.
Where Does a Can Go?
You finish a fizzy drink and drop the empty can into the recycling bin. That is not the end of the can's story. It is the start of a new one.
First, a truck collects the recycling and takes it to a sorting centre. There, machines separate the materials. A giant magnet pulls out steel cans. Aluminium cans (aluminum in the US) are not magnetic, so a different machine pushes them aside.
Next, the aluminium cans are squashed into huge blocks and taken to a factory. The cans are shredded into small pieces, cleaned, and melted in a furnace. The hot liquid metal is poured into moulds and cooled into long bars.
Then the bars are rolled out into thin sheets, like dough under a rolling pin. The sheets are cut and shaped into brand-new cans, filled with drinks, and sent to the shops. A recycled can can be back on a shelf in about sixty days.
Recycling aluminium is a big help to our planet. Making a can from old cans uses about 95 percent less energy than making one from new metal dug out of the ground. Aluminium can be recycled again and again without getting worse, so the can in your hand might once have been part of hundreds of other cans.
Question 5
Read "Where Does a Can Go?". How are steel cans separated from the other recycling?
- A. Workers pick them out by hand.
- B. They are melted first.
- C. They float in water.
- D. A giant magnet pulls them out.
Lady Montagu and the Smallpox Gamble
In the early eighteenth century, smallpox was one of the most feared diseases in Europe. It killed around three in every ten people it infected and left many survivors scarred or blind. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu knew its cruelty personally: the disease had killed her brother and marked her own face.
In 1717, while living in Constantinople (now Istanbul), where her husband was the British ambassador, she observed a remarkable practice. Local women would take a small amount of material from a mild smallpox sore and scratch it into the skin of a healthy person. The person usually developed a mild illness and was then protected for life. This process was called variolation.
Montagu was so impressed that she had her young son variolated. When she returned to England, she campaigned to spread the practice, despite fierce opposition. Some doctors resented being taught by a woman; others distrusted a practice from abroad. To win public confidence, Montagu had her daughter variolated in front of physicians from the royal court.
Variolation was not without risk: a small number of patients developed severe smallpox, and they could infect others. Decades later, in 1796, Edward Jenner developed a safer method using cowpox, a related but much milder disease. His method, called vaccination after the Latin word for cow, gradually replaced variolation.
Smallpox was declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. Jenner is often called the father of vaccination, but the story began with the courage of a woman who noticed what others had overlooked.
Question 6
Read "Lady Montagu and the Smallpox Gamble". What were TWO reasons some people opposed Montagu?
- A. Jenner disagreed and the king banned it.
- B. She was a woman, and the practice came from abroad.
- C. It used cowpox and caused scars.
- D. It was too expensive and too slow.
The Moon's Night Walk (a poem)
The moon puts on her silver coat
and tiptoes up the sky.
She hums a tune to sleepy owls
and winks at clouds nearby.
She paints the rooftops pearly white,
she lights the cat's way home,
she peeps into the children's rooms
to check they're not alone.
She counts the stars like sleeping sheep,
she sings the sea to rest,
she hangs a lantern on the hill
for travellers in the west.
And when the sun yawns in the east
and stretches out his rays,
the moon slips off her silver coat
and hides away for days.
But look up on a quiet night
when all the town's asleep:
she's tiptoeing across the sky
with promises to keep.
Question 7
Read "The Moon's Night Walk (a poem)". What does the moon do for the cat?
- A. lights its way home
- B. sings it to sleep
- C. wakes it up
- D. paints it white
The Fennec Fox
The fennec fox is the smallest fox in the world. It weighs about as much as a bag of sugar. It lives in the Sahara Desert in North Africa, one of the hottest places on Earth.
The first thing most people notice about the fennec fox is its enormous ears. They can be as long as 15 centimetres, which is huge for such a small animal. The ears do two important jobs. First, they let heat escape from the fox's body, helping it to stay cool. Second, they are so sensitive that the fox can hear insects moving under the sand.
The fennec fox has other ways to survive in the desert, too. Thick fur on the bottoms of its feet protects it from the burning sand. During the hottest part of the day, it rests in a cool burrow underground. It comes out to hunt at night, when the air is cooler.
Water is hard to find in the desert, but the fennec fox can go a long time without drinking. It gets most of the water it needs from the food it eats, such as insects, plants and small animals.
Question 8
Read "The Fennec Fox". What are the TWO jobs of the fox's ears?
- A. scaring enemies and climbing
- B. keeping it warm and smelling food
- C. keeping it cool and hearing prey
- D. digging and swimming
The Kite Festival
Amara had spent three weeks building her kite. She had bent the bamboo sticks, stretched the paper tight and painted a fierce golden dragon across the front. It was going to win the prize for best design at the town's kite festival. She was sure of it.
On the morning of the festival, the field was crowded with families. Kites shaped like fish, birds and boats bobbed in the breeze. Amara's little brother, Kofi, trailed behind her, clutching a small diamond kite he had made from a plastic bag and two straws.
"Mine's not very good," Kofi mumbled.
Amara ran, and her dragon rose beautifully – until a sudden gust snapped one of the bamboo sticks. The kite twisted, spun and crashed into the grass. The paper ripped right through the dragon's face.
Amara's eyes stung. Three weeks of work, ruined in three seconds.
Kofi tugged her sleeve. "You can fly mine with me," he offered.
At first Amara shook her head. Then she looked at Kofi's hopeful face and took the string. Together they ran, and the little plastic kite shot up higher than any other kite in the sky. People pointed and cheered.
That afternoon, the judges gave Kofi a ribbon for "Highest Flyer". Amara clapped louder than anyone. She realised she was smiling more than she would have if she had won the prize herself.
Question 9
Read "The Kite Festival". What made Amara's kite crash?
- A. Kofi pulled the string.
- B. A gust of wind snapped a stick.
- C. The paint was too heavy.
- D. It got caught in a tree.
Pepper's First Week: A Diary
Saturday. Today we collected Pepper from the rescue centre. She is a skinny brown dog with one floppy ear and one ear that stands straight up. In the car, she shook the whole way home, and I held her blanket so she could smell it. I felt nervous too.
Sunday. Pepper hid behind the sofa all day. Mum says rescue dogs sometimes need time to trust people because they do not know what is going to happen next. I lay on the floor and read my comic out loud so she could get used to my voice.
Tuesday. A breakthrough! When I got back from school, Pepper crept out and sniffed my shoes. Then she licked my hand. I stayed completely still, although I wanted to cheer.
Thursday. We went to the park on her lead. A bicycle rang its bell, and Pepper jumped behind my legs. I knelt down and talked to her calmly until her tail started wagging again.
Friday. Tonight Pepper fell asleep with her head on my foot. I didn't move for an hour, even though my foot went numb. I think she has decided she lives here now.
Question 10
Read "Pepper's First Week: A Diary". Where did the family get Pepper?
- A. from a pet shop
- B. from the park
- C. from a neighbour
- D. from a rescue centre
The Long Wall
The Great Wall of China is not one wall at all. It is a network of walls, trenches and watchtowers built and rebuilt over more than two thousand years by different dynasties. If all its sections were laid end to end, they would stretch over 21,000 kilometres – more than half the distance around the Earth.
The earliest walls were built from packed earth around the seventh century BCE, when rival Chinese states defended their borders from one another. In about 220 BCE, the first emperor of a united China, Qin Shi Huang, ordered many of these separate walls to be joined together to protect the north from raiding groups.
The sections that most visitors see today are far younger. They were built during the Ming dynasty, between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ming builders used bricks and stone, which is why these sections have survived so well. Watchtowers were placed close enough together for soldiers to send signals using smoke by day and fire by night.
The wall came at a terrible cost. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, prisoners and farmers were forced to work on it, often in freezing mountains or burning deserts. Many died, and stories and songs about their suffering are still told.
Did the wall work? Historians disagree. It slowed down small raids and helped control trade and travel, but determined armies could still break through or simply go around it. Today, its greatest power may be as a symbol – of human effort, of history and of a nation's identity.
Question 11
Read "The Long Wall". Why have the Ming sections survived so well?
- A. They were built with bricks and stone.
- B. They were rebuilt last year.
- C. They were built in the desert.
- D. They are the oldest sections.
A Helicopter on Mars
In February 2021, NASA's Perseverance rover landed on Mars. Tucked underneath it was a passenger: a tiny helicopter called Ingenuity. It weighed only about 1.8 kilograms, a little less than a big bag of flour.
Flying on Mars is much harder than flying on Earth. The air on Mars is extremely thin, about one hundredth as thick as the air we breathe. Helicopter blades push against the air to lift off, so with so little air, Ingenuity's blades had to spin very fast: about 2,400 times a minute.
On 19 April 2021, Ingenuity rose about three metres into the Martian sky, hovered for about forty seconds and landed again. It was the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. Engineers on Earth cheered, even though the radio signals took several minutes to reach them.
Ingenuity was only meant to make five test flights. Instead, it made 72. It scouted ahead for the rover, taking photos of rocks and slopes so that drivers on Earth could choose safe routes.
In January 2024, one of Ingenuity's blades was damaged during a landing, and the mission ended. The little helicopter still sits on Mars today, and engineers are already using what they learned to design bigger flying machines for future missions.
Question 12
Read "A Helicopter on Mars". How did Ingenuity get to Mars?
- A. tucked underneath the Perseverance rover
- B. on a separate rocket a year later
- C. carried by astronauts
- D. it flew there by itself
Question 13
The school fair raised $460. The money will buy new books for the library and a bench for the playground. What will the money buy?
- A. computers
- B. football kits
- C. books and a bench
- D. a new school bus
The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter
The storm had been building all afternoon. By the time the sun set, waves as tall as houses were hurling themselves against the rocks below Gull Point Lighthouse, and the wind screamed around the tower like a wild animal.
Nell pressed her face to the window of the little cottage. Her father had rowed to the mainland that morning to fetch the doctor for Mrs Penrose, and the sea had turned before he could return. Now, for the first time in her twelve years, Nell was alone at the lighthouse.
She knew what that meant. Every night at dusk, the great lamp at the top of the tower had to be lit. Without it, ships would have no warning of the rocks.
Nell grabbed the lantern and her father's oilskin coat, which hung down past her knees, and pushed open the door. The wind nearly knocked her flat. Bent double, she stumbled across the yard and into the tower.
There were one hundred and twelve steps to the top. Nell had climbed them hundreds of times, but never in the dark, never with the whole tower trembling. Halfway up, her lantern flickered and almost went out. She stopped, cupped her hand around the flame and whispered, "Not now. Please, not now."
At the top, her fingers were numb with cold. She trimmed the wick the way her father had shown her, filled the oil and struck a match. Nothing. A second match. Nothing. With the third, a tiny flame caught, grew and then blazed, and the great lens began to turn, sweeping its beam across the furious sea.
Far out in the darkness, a ship's horn sounded twice. Nell did not know whose ship it was. But she knew that, tonight, it would find its way home.
Question 14
Read "The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter". Why was Nell alone at the lighthouse?
- A. Her father had gone to fetch a doctor and could not get back.
- B. Her father had gone fishing.
- C. Her father was asleep.
- D. She had run away from home.
The Drone at the Marsh (a play)
CAST: NIA, a young volunteer · AMIR, her older cousin · MRS HOLT, the nature reserve warden
SCENE: A wooden bird hide at the edge of a marsh. Early morning.
(NIA peers through binoculars. AMIR carries a small drone and a controller.)
AMIR: (cheerfully) Watch this, Nia. I'll fly it over the reeds and film the whole marsh.
NIA: (lowering the binoculars) Wait! The terns are nesting out there.
AMIR: It's only a little drone. They won't even notice.
(MRS HOLT enters, holding a clipboard.)
MRS HOLT: Morning, both. Is that a drone?
AMIR: (proudly) It has a 4K camera.
MRS HOLT: (gently) Birds may think a drone is a hawk. If the parents fly off their nests, the eggs can get cold.
NIA: So filming them could hurt them.
(AMIR looks at the drone, then at the marsh. A pause.)
AMIR: (quietly) I didn't know that. Could I film the car park instead, and show people where the hide is?
MRS HOLT: (smiling) That would be very helpful.
Question 15
Read "The Drone at the Marsh (a play)". Why does Nia want Amir to wait?
- A. Mrs Holt is calling them.
- B. The terns are nesting on the marsh.
- C. It is about to rain.
- D. The drone's battery is flat.
The Climbing Wall
The climbing wall at the leisure centre was twelve metres high, and from the bottom it looked like a mountain covered in brightly coloured sweets. Jaya had watched her older cousin, Ravi, scramble to the top of it a dozen times. Today was her first turn.
The instructor clipped the rope to her harness and checked the knot twice. "Remember," she said, "use your legs, not just your arms. And don't look down until you're ready."
The first few holds were easy. Jaya climbed quickly, buoyed by Ravi's cheers. But halfway up, the holds grew smaller and farther apart. Her arms began to burn. She looked down – and immediately wished she hadn't. The floor seemed impossibly far away, and her legs began to tremble.
"I want to come down," she called.
"You can," the instructor answered calmly. "Or you can rest. Lean back into the harness. The rope's got you."
Jaya didn't believe her. But slowly, she let her weight sink back. The rope held. Her breathing steadied. She looked at the wall in front of her, not at the floor, and noticed a small yellow hold to her right that she hadn't seen before.
Ten minutes later, she slapped the top of the wall. The leisure centre erupted in cheers – or at least Ravi did, which felt like the same thing.
Question 16
Read "The Climbing Wall". What advice does the instructor give at the start?
- A. Look down every few metres.
- B. Climb as fast as possible.
- C. Use your legs and don't look down until you're ready.
- D. Only use your arms.
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