eurekami
9th grade reading comprehension
9th grade (Year 10 in England) · 16 questions · Common Core: RL.9-10.1, RI.9-10.1, RI.9-10.2, RL.9-10.2 · England: GCSE English Language Paper 1 Q1, SAT Reading and Writing (Information and Ideas), GCSE English Language
Name
Date
Score/ 16
Question 1
Which fallacy matches this description? Bringing in an irrelevant point to distract from the real issue.
- A. straw man
- B. post hoc (false cause)
- C. circular reasoning
- D. red herring
Rethinking Screen Time
Few debates generate as much anxiety among parents as the question of screen time. Headlines warn that smartphones are "destroying a generation", while technology companies insist that their products connect and empower young people. The truth, as so often, is more complicated than either side admits.
Part of the problem is that "screen time" is a crude measure. An hour spent video-calling a grandparent, coding a game or researching a school project is not the same as an hour spent scrolling through an endless feed of short videos. Researchers increasingly argue that what young people do on screens matters more than how long they spend on them.
That said, quantity is not irrelevant. Several large studies have linked very heavy use – more than five or six hours a day of recreational screen time – to poorer sleep and lower wellbeing. Screens can displace other activities that support health: exercise, face-to-face friendship and, crucially, sleep. Light from devices and the stimulation of social media late at night can delay sleep for teenagers, whose body clocks already push them towards later bedtimes.
It is worth noting, however, that most of these studies show correlation, not causation. Teenagers who are already unhappy may turn to their phones more, rather than their phones making them unhappy. Untangling cause and effect is notoriously difficult.
What, then, should families do? Rather than fixating on a single number, experts suggest asking three questions. Is screen use getting in the way of sleep? Is it crowding out exercise and real-world relationships? And does the young person feel in control of it, or controlled by it? If the answers are reassuring, the exact number of minutes may matter less than we fear.
Question 2
Read "Rethinking Screen Time". Which statement would the writer most likely agree with?
- A. Screen time is the main cause of unhappiness.
- B. All screen time should be banned for teenagers.
- C. A teenager who sleeps well and has active friendships may not need strict screen limits.
- D. Only the number of minutes matters.
Question 3
Type the structural feature (in English) that matches this description. The focus narrows from a wide view to a small detail.
Answer
Who Has Seen the Wind? (Christina Rossetti, 1872)
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
Question 4
Read "Who Has Seen the Wind? (Christina Rossetti, 1872)". What is the effect of the word 'trembling' to describe the leaves?
- A. it makes the leaves seem delicate and alive as they move
- B. it makes the scene noisy and violent
- C. it shows the leaves are cold and ill
- D. it suggests the leaves are falling off
The Flood
The river had been rising for three days, but in the village nobody spoke of it. People hung out washing, argued about football and queued at the bakery as if the brown water swelling beneath the bridge were simply another neighbour, loud but harmless.
Nadia noticed. From her bedroom window she watched the river swallow the lowest step of the old jetty, then the second, then the third. At night she lay awake listening to it muttering against the stones, a low, endless grumble that seemed to grow hungrier by the hour.
On the fourth morning, the sky was the colour of a bruise. Rain did not fall so much as hang in the air, soaking everything it touched. Nadia's grandmother, who had lived in the village for seventy years, stood at the door, sniffing the wind like an old dog. "Pack a bag," she said quietly. "Now."
They were halfway up the hill when they heard it.
A roar. A crack. Then silence, which was worse.
Below them, the bridge had gone. Where it had stood, the river surged on, carrying fence posts, garden chairs and a single red umbrella, spinning slowly, like a flower.
Question 5
Read "The Flood". Why does the writer place 'They were halfway up the hill when they heard it.' in its own paragraph?
- A. to introduce a new character
- B. to change to a different setting entirely
- C. to isolate the moment and build suspense before the disaster
- D. to slow down and describe the hill
Question 6
Which technique matches this description? Placing two contrasting things side by side to highlight the difference.
- A. personification
- B. simile
- C. juxtaposition
- D. pathetic fallacy
Question 7
Is the proposed answer correct? "The classroom was a furnace." What does the metaphor suggest about the room? → it was well organised
- A. yes, it is correct
- B. no, it is not correct
Rethinking Screen Time
Few debates generate as much anxiety among parents as the question of screen time. Headlines warn that smartphones are "destroying a generation", while technology companies insist that their products connect and empower young people. The truth, as so often, is more complicated than either side admits.
Part of the problem is that "screen time" is a crude measure. An hour spent video-calling a grandparent, coding a game or researching a school project is not the same as an hour spent scrolling through an endless feed of short videos. Researchers increasingly argue that what young people do on screens matters more than how long they spend on them.
That said, quantity is not irrelevant. Several large studies have linked very heavy use – more than five or six hours a day of recreational screen time – to poorer sleep and lower wellbeing. Screens can displace other activities that support health: exercise, face-to-face friendship and, crucially, sleep. Light from devices and the stimulation of social media late at night can delay sleep for teenagers, whose body clocks already push them towards later bedtimes.
It is worth noting, however, that most of these studies show correlation, not causation. Teenagers who are already unhappy may turn to their phones more, rather than their phones making them unhappy. Untangling cause and effect is notoriously difficult.
What, then, should families do? Rather than fixating on a single number, experts suggest asking three questions. Is screen use getting in the way of sleep? Is it crowding out exercise and real-world relationships? And does the young person feel in control of it, or controlled by it? If the answers are reassuring, the exact number of minutes may matter less than we fear.
Question 8
Read "Rethinking Screen Time". Why does the writer say "screen time" is "a crude measure"?
- A. It treats very different activities as if they were the same.
- B. It is impossible to count hours.
- C. Screens are bad in every case.
- D. Parents exaggerate the numbers.
The Gardener's Ledger
My father kept two books. The first was the ledger in which he recorded every coin that passed through the shop: the price of flour, the cost of the new awning, the debts that customers swore they would settle by Friday. He wrote in it every evening, in a small, upright hand, and he never let anyone else touch it.
The second book I did not discover until after he died. It was a cheap school exercise book, its cover soft with handling, hidden at the back of the shed behind the seed trays. Inside, in the same upright hand, he had recorded something quite different: the date the first snowdrop appeared each year; the night a fox had dug up the tulips; the morning, in 1987, when "M. laughed at the robin on the spade and said it was the bravest bird in England." M. was my mother. I had never heard my father mention her laugh.
For forty years, it seemed, he had been keeping accounts of another kind – of small, unprofitable things that added up to a life. The shop ledger balanced to the penny. The garden book did not balance at all. There were gaps of months, sometimes years. In 1993, the year my mother died, there is only one entry: "Rain."
I used to think my father was a man who cared only for what could be counted. I sat in that cold shed until the light went, reading his small, careful sentences, and understood that I had been reading the wrong book.
Question 9
Read "The Gardener's Ledger". What does the single entry "Rain." in 1993 most likely suggest?
- A. that the father stopped gardening for good
- B. the father's overwhelming grief after his wife's death
- C. that 1993 was a very dry year
- D. that he had forgotten to write
The Flood
The river had been rising for three days, but in the village nobody spoke of it. People hung out washing, argued about football and queued at the bakery as if the brown water swelling beneath the bridge were simply another neighbour, loud but harmless.
Nadia noticed. From her bedroom window she watched the river swallow the lowest step of the old jetty, then the second, then the third. At night she lay awake listening to it muttering against the stones, a low, endless grumble that seemed to grow hungrier by the hour.
On the fourth morning, the sky was the colour of a bruise. Rain did not fall so much as hang in the air, soaking everything it touched. Nadia's grandmother, who had lived in the village for seventy years, stood at the door, sniffing the wind like an old dog. "Pack a bag," she said quietly. "Now."
They were halfway up the hill when they heard it.
A roar. A crack. Then silence, which was worse.
Below them, the bridge had gone. Where it had stood, the river surged on, carrying fence posts, garden chairs and a single red umbrella, spinning slowly, like a flower.
Question 10
Read "The Flood". What is the effect of the personification 'muttering' and 'grow hungrier' in paragraph 2?
- A. it suggests the river is lost
- B. it makes the river seem like a threatening creature that is growing more dangerous
- C. it shows the river is drying up
- D. it makes the river seem calm and friendly
Question 11
Which structural feature does this description of an extract show? Long, flowing sentences describe the calm beach; then short, sharp sentences follow as the wave hits: 'Water. Screams. Darkness.'
- A. shift in focus
- B. withholding information
- C. change in pace
- D. cyclical structure
Rethinking Screen Time
Few debates generate as much anxiety among parents as the question of screen time. Headlines warn that smartphones are "destroying a generation", while technology companies insist that their products connect and empower young people. The truth, as so often, is more complicated than either side admits.
Part of the problem is that "screen time" is a crude measure. An hour spent video-calling a grandparent, coding a game or researching a school project is not the same as an hour spent scrolling through an endless feed of short videos. Researchers increasingly argue that what young people do on screens matters more than how long they spend on them.
That said, quantity is not irrelevant. Several large studies have linked very heavy use – more than five or six hours a day of recreational screen time – to poorer sleep and lower wellbeing. Screens can displace other activities that support health: exercise, face-to-face friendship and, crucially, sleep. Light from devices and the stimulation of social media late at night can delay sleep for teenagers, whose body clocks already push them towards later bedtimes.
It is worth noting, however, that most of these studies show correlation, not causation. Teenagers who are already unhappy may turn to their phones more, rather than their phones making them unhappy. Untangling cause and effect is notoriously difficult.
What, then, should families do? Rather than fixating on a single number, experts suggest asking three questions. Is screen use getting in the way of sleep? Is it crowding out exercise and real-world relationships? And does the young person feel in control of it, or controlled by it? If the answers are reassuring, the exact number of minutes may matter less than we fear.
Question 12
Read "Rethinking Screen Time". Which choice best states the central idea of the text?
- A. Screen time has no effect on teenagers.
- B. Technology companies are always honest.
- C. The effects of screen time depend on how screens are used, not just how long, though heavy use can cause problems.
- D. Smartphones are destroying a generation.
Question 13
In which quotation is the word in capitals this word class: adjective?
- A. "she moved SILENTLY"
- B. "the JAGGED rocks"
- C. "the wind SHRIEKED"
Question 14
Is the proposed answer correct? Claim: "Our town should build a skate park." Which sentence is a COUNTERCLAIM? → Some residents worry that a skate park would bring noise late at night.
- A. yes, it is correct
- B. no, it is not correct
The Flood
The river had been rising for three days, but in the village nobody spoke of it. People hung out washing, argued about football and queued at the bakery as if the brown water swelling beneath the bridge were simply another neighbour, loud but harmless.
Nadia noticed. From her bedroom window she watched the river swallow the lowest step of the old jetty, then the second, then the third. At night she lay awake listening to it muttering against the stones, a low, endless grumble that seemed to grow hungrier by the hour.
On the fourth morning, the sky was the colour of a bruise. Rain did not fall so much as hang in the air, soaking everything it touched. Nadia's grandmother, who had lived in the village for seventy years, stood at the door, sniffing the wind like an old dog. "Pack a bag," she said quietly. "Now."
They were halfway up the hill when they heard it.
A roar. A crack. Then silence, which was worse.
Below them, the bridge had gone. Where it had stood, the river surged on, carrying fence posts, garden chairs and a single red umbrella, spinning slowly, like a flower.
Question 15
Read "The Flood". How does the final image of the 'single red umbrella, spinning slowly, like a flower' affect the ending?
- A. It focuses on one small, oddly beautiful detail, contrasting calm with the destruction.
- B. It explains who owned the umbrella.
- C. It introduces a happy ending.
- D. It shows the flood was not serious.
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.
Question 16
Read "Inheritance". What does deleting the photographs "both times" suggest?
- A. His camera is broken.
- B. He has already found a buyer.
- C. He is more attached to the piano than he admits.
- D. He wants to keep the piano as an investment.
Write your answers right on the page. · Free from eurekami.com