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3rd grade reading comprehension
3rd grade (Year 4 in England) · 16 questions · Common Core: RI.3.1, RL.3.1, RI.3.2, RI.4.2 · England: Y3/4 Reading (retrieval), KS2 SATs Reading, Y3/4 Reading (main ideas)
Name
Date
Score/ 16
The Mapmaker's Apprentice
Ines had worked in Master Corvo's shop for three years, and in all that time he had never let her draw a single line on a real map. She ground his inks, stretched his parchment and swept up the shavings from his quills. When she asked why she could not draw, he only said, "A mapmaker must first learn to see."
So Ines watched. She watched sailors come in, sunburnt and impatient, to buy charts of the southern coast. She watched merchants argue over which mountain pass was fastest. Most of all, she watched Master Corvo, who spent far longer listening to travellers than he did holding his pen.
One winter morning, a fisherman stumbled into the shop, soaked and shaking. A storm had pushed his boat far north, past the edge of every chart in the city. He had found a narrow channel between two islands that no map showed, and it had saved his life.
Master Corvo was in bed with a fever. The fisherman was leaving on the evening tide.
Ines hesitated only for a moment. Then she sat the fisherman by the fire and asked him questions — not just where the channel was, but how the water changed colour near the rocks, where the gulls gathered, how long it took to row from one island to the other. She wrote down every answer. Only when she had heard everything did she pick up a pen.
When Master Corvo recovered, she laid the new chart in front of him. He studied it for a long time without speaking. Then he took his own pen, signed his name in the corner, and beneath it, for the first time, he wrote hers.
Question 1
Read "The Mapmaker's Apprentice". What jobs did Ines do in the shop for three years?
- A. She drew maps of the coast.
- B. She prepared materials and cleaned up.
- C. She sailed with the fishermen.
- D. She sold charts to merchants.
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 2
Read "Lady Montagu and the Smallpox Gamble". Where did Montagu first observe variolation?
- A. in Jenner's laboratory
- B. in London
- C. at the royal court
- D. in Constantinople
Question 3
Which kind of text is this? A made-up story set in the past, with real events from history.
- A. fantasy
- B. science fiction
- C. historical fiction
- D. instructions
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 4
Read "The Vault at the Top of the World". The text calls the vault a "back-up copy". What does back-up mean here?
- A. a copy that is worse than the original
- B. a seed that grows backwards
- C. a computer game
- D. an extra copy kept safe in case the original is lost
The Lemonade Stand
Marcus wanted a new bike helmet, but it cost twenty dollars. He had only five.
"Why not set up a lemonade stand?" suggested his grandmother. She helped him squeeze a big bowl of lemons and stir in sugar and cold water. Marcus painted a sign that said LEMONADE – 50 CENTS.
On Saturday morning, Marcus put his table at the end of the driveway. For the first hour, nobody came. Cars zoomed past. Marcus began to think it was a silly idea.
Then he noticed that people were walking to the park across the road for a football match. He picked up his sign and moved the table right next to the park gate. Within ten minutes, a line had formed. By lunchtime, the jug was empty.
Marcus counted his coins. He had earned exactly fifteen dollars. With the five he already had, it was enough.
"You did it!" said Grandma.
"We did it," said Marcus. "And next time, I'll think about where the customers are before I start."
Question 5
Read "The Lemonade Stand". Who suggested the lemonade stand?
- A. a customer
- B. Marcus's friend
- C. his teacher
- D. his grandmother
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 6
Read "The Fennec Fox". Where does the fennec fox live?
- A. a rainforest
- B. the Arctic
- C. a city park
- D. the Sahara Desert
The Camera in the Hedge
For my birthday, Aunt Jo gave me a wildlife camera. It is small and green, and it takes a photo whenever something moves in front of it. I strapped it to the fence post at the bottom of our garden, pointing at a gap in the hedge.
The first morning, I ran outside in my pyjamas to check it. There were forty-two photos! Most of them were of leaves blowing in the wind. One was of our cat, Biscuit, looking very surprised.
But on the second night, something different appeared. At 11:14 p.m., a hedgehog shuffled out of the hedge. At 11:16 p.m., it was sniffing at the flower bed. At 11:20 p.m., it was gone.
I wanted to know where it went, so I read about hedgehogs in a library book. I learned that a hedgehog can walk more than a kilometre in one night, looking for beetles and worms. Walls and fences with no gaps can stop it from finding enough food.
Dad and I cut a small hole, about the size of a CD case, at the bottom of our fence. Our neighbour, Mr Okafor, made one in his fence too. Now the hedgehog can travel from garden to garden.
Last night, the camera caught the hedgehog again. This time, it was squeezing through our new hole, heading for Mr Okafor's garden. I think it was saying thank you.
Question 7
Read "The Camera in the Hedge". What was the effect of cutting the hole in the fence?
- A. Mr Okafor was cross.
- B. Biscuit the cat ran away.
- C. The hedgehog could travel from garden to garden.
- D. The camera stopped working.
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 8
Read "Where Does a Can Go?". How are steel cans separated from the other recycling?
- A. A giant magnet pulls them out.
- B. They float in water.
- C. They are melted first.
- D. Workers pick them out by hand.
Question 9
Which signal word or phrase comes just before a CAUSE (a reason)?
- A. consequently
- B. because of
- C. as a result
- D. so
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 10
Read "The Fennec Fox". What is the main idea of the whole text?
- A. The Sahara is very hot.
- B. The fennec fox is the size of a bag of sugar.
- C. Foxes eat insects.
- D. The fennec fox has special features that help it survive in the desert.
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 11
Read "The Vault at the Top of the World". What is the main idea of the text?
- A. The seed vault protects copies of crop seeds in case they are lost elsewhere.
- B. Wheat is better than rice.
- C. Norway is a cold country.
- D. The vault has a concrete door.
How Bees Make Honey
Honey bees are busy insects. They live together in a home called a hive. One hive can hold thousands of bees.
Worker bees fly from flower to flower. They suck up a sweet juice called nectar with their long tongues. They carry the nectar back to the hive in a special part of their body called a honey stomach.
Back at the hive, the bees pass the nectar to other bees. These bees put it into tiny six-sided rooms made of wax. The nectar is still runny, so the bees fan it with their wings. This dries it out and turns it thick and sticky. Now it is honey!
Last, the bees cover each room with a wax lid. The honey is saved for the winter, when there are no flowers.
Question 12
Read "How Bees Make Honey". What is nectar?
- A. a sweet juice from flowers
- B. a type of insect
- C. a bee's home
- D. a kind of wax
Question 13
LOCAL PUPILS CLEAN UP BEACH On Saturday morning, forty children from Gull Bay Primary collected over 200 kilograms of rubbish from the town beach. What kind of text is this?
- A. fable
- B. news report
- C. fantasy
- D. poem
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 14
Read "Where Does a Can Go?". The text says the metal is melted in a "furnace". What is a furnace?
- A. a giant fridge
- B. a very hot oven
- C. a type of truck
- D. a recycling bin
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 15
Read "The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter". Why was Nell alone at the lighthouse?
- A. She had run away from home.
- B. Her father was asleep.
- C. Her father had gone to fetch a doctor and could not get back.
- D. Her father had gone fishing.
Should Primary Schools Ban Homework?
Every evening, in homes across the country, the same battle takes place: tired children, frustrated parents and a worksheet that nobody wants to finish. It is time for primary schools to ban homework.
The most important reason is that, for young children, the evidence for homework is weak. Several large reviews of research have found that homework has little measurable effect on the test results of pupils under eleven. Older students may benefit, but for younger children, the hours spent on worksheets do not seem to pay off.
Second, children need time to play, rest and be with their families. Play is not a waste of time; it builds creativity, problem-solving and friendships. A child who has spent six hours concentrating at school deserves an evening to explore, read for pleasure or simply be bored – which is when imagination often kicks in.
Some people argue that homework teaches responsibility. This is a fair point. However, children can learn responsibility in many other ways: feeding a pet, helping to cook dinner or practising an instrument they have chosen themselves.
Finally, homework can be unfair. Some children have parents who can help them every night and a quiet desk to work at. Others share a small space with siblings or have parents who work late. Homework can widen the gap between these children instead of closing it.
Schools should replace homework with something simple: read every day, for fun. That is one habit worth taking home.
Question 16
Read "Should Primary Schools Ban Homework?". In paragraph 5, what does "widen the gap" mean?
- A. open the school gates
- B. make classrooms larger
- C. make homework longer
- D. make the difference between groups bigger
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