Reading Comprehension
Every answer is hiding in the passage. Learn to skim, scan and hunt for evidence like a detective, recognise every kind of question, and practise on four passages that get harder step by step.
1How to read a passage
Reading comprehension means reading a passage and understanding it well enough to answer questions. The golden rule: answer from the passage, not from what you already know. Good readers follow the same routine every time.
Skimming and scanning
| Skimming | Scanning | |
|---|---|---|
| Why? | to get the gist (main idea) | to find one particular fact |
| How? | read the title, the first sentence, the last sentence; glance over the rest | move your eyes (or finger) quickly and stop only at the keyword |
| Use it for | main idea and title questions | who, what, when, where, how many questions |
An option can be a true fact about the world and still be wrong, because the passage does not say it. If the question says according to the passage, the answer must come from the passage. Point to the sentence that proves your answer. No sentence = no marks.
2Six kinds of questions
Once you know what kind of question you are facing, you know exactly where and how to look.
| Type | Looks like | How to answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Fact (right there) | Who…? When…? Where…? What did…? How many…? | Scan for the keyword. The answer is written in one sentence, often in slightly different words. |
| 2. Vocabulary in context | The word shivering in the passage means… | Go to the sentence. Use the clues around it, then do the swap test with each option. |
| 3. Inference (think and search) | Why did…? How did she feel? What does this tell us about…? | The answer is not written directly. Join clues from the passage with common sense. Your answer must still be supported by the passage. |
| 4. Main idea / best title | What is the passage mainly about? Choose the best title. | Pick the option that covers the whole passage, not just one detail and not something bigger than the passage. |
| 5. True / False / sequence | Which statement is true? What happened first? | Check each option against the passage, one by one. Watch for small changed words (always/never, before/after). |
| 6. Grammar from the passage | Which word is an adjective? The opposite of quickly is…? What does it refer to? | Use your grammar lessons. For it / they / he, look at the sentence before to find who or what it means. |
A good title is like an umbrella: it must cover the whole passage. For a story where a boy spills water on his drawing but starts again and wins a prize, “Never Give Up” covers everything. “Kabir’s New Paint Box” is too narrow (a paint box is never mentioned), and “A Holiday by the Sea” is not about the passage at all.
“How did Meera feel when she found the puppy?” This is which type of question?
3Practice passage 1 · Tara’s balcony garden
Level: easy. Read the passage once for the main idea. The small numbers mark each sentence so you can point to your evidence.
Tara’s Balcony Garden
(1) Tara lives on the fourth floor of a building in Chennai. (2) She has no garden, but she has a small, sunny balcony. (3) Last June, her mother gave her five old paint tins and a packet of tomato seeds. (4) Tara filled the tins with soil, sowed the seeds and watered them every morning before school. (5) After a week, tiny green shoots peeped out of the soil. (6) By September, the plants were heavy with round, red tomatoes. (7) Tara proudly shared them with her neighbours, and now three other families on her floor grow vegetables too.
What did Tara use as flower pots?
When did Tara water the seeds?
In sentence (5), “peeped out” means:
Why do three other families now grow vegetables?
4Practice passage 2 · The banyan tree
Level: medium (science). This passage explains how something works. Picture it as you read.
The Banyan: India’s National Tree
(1) The banyan is the national tree of India. (2) It is famous for its unusual roots. (3) As a banyan grows, thin roots hang down from its branches like ropes. (4) These are called aerial roots because they grow in the air. (5) When they reach the ground, they dig into the soil and slowly become thick, woody pillars. (6) These pillars hold up the heavy branches, so the tree can keep spreading sideways. (7) A single old banyan can look like a small forest! (8) Its wide canopy gives cool shade, and in many villages people gather under it to rest and talk. (9) Birds such as mynas and barbets love its small red figs, and they carry the seeds far and wide.
Why are aerial roots given this name?
In sentence (8), the word “canopy” means:
How can a banyan keep spreading sideways?
Which word from the passage is an adjective?
Which is the best title for this passage?
5Practice passage 3 · The Missile Man
Level: medium-hard (biography). A biography tells the true story of a real person’s life, usually in time order. Watch the dates.
The Missile Man Who Loved Children
(1) Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 in Rameswaram, a small island town in Tamil Nadu. (2) His family was not rich, so young Kalam sold newspapers to help his father. (3) He was a curious boy who loved to watch birds fly over the sea and wondered how they stayed up in the air. (4) This curiosity led him to study aeronautical engineering, the science of flying machines, at the Madras Institute of Technology. (5) Later, at ISRO, he led the team that built SLV-3, India’s first satellite launch vehicle, which placed the Rohini satellite in orbit in 1980. (6) His work on missiles earned him the name “Missile Man of India”. (7) In 2002, he became the eleventh President of India. (8) Even as President, he loved meeting schoolchildren and answering their questions. (9) Dr Kalam died on 27 July 2015 while giving a lecture to students in Shillong, doing what he loved most until the very end.
Most biographies go in time order, but a writer can mention a later event first. For “what happened first?” questions, compare the dates or time words (later, then, even as President), not just which sentence comes first. Also check that each part of an option is true: “Kalam built SLV-3 all by himself” is false because he led a team.
Why did young Kalam sell newspapers?
The word “curious” in sentence (3) means:
Which statement is TRUE according to the passage?
What do sentences (8) and (9) tell us about Dr Kalam?
A book about Dr Kalam’s life written by another author is called:
6Practice passage 4 · The sparrows come home
Level: hard (story with inference). In stories, feelings and reasons are often shown, not told. Read slowly and notice what characters say and do.
The Sparrows Come Home
(1) When Mihir’s grandfather was a boy in Lucknow, noisy house sparrows hopped all over the courtyard. (2) Now Mihir could hardly spot a single one. (3) “Where have they gone, Dadaji?” he asked one evening. (4) Grandfather sighed. (5) “Old houses had holes in the walls and gaps under the roofs where sparrows built their nests. (6) New buildings are all smooth glass and concrete, so the birds have nowhere to live.” (7) That weekend, the two of them turned an old wooden box into a nest box, cut a small round hole in the front, and fixed it high under the balcony roof, out of reach of cats. (8) Mihir also kept a shallow bowl of water and a few grains on the ledge. (9) For three long weeks nothing happened, and Mihir began to lose hope. (10) Then, one morning, he was woken by cheerful chirping. (11) A pair of sparrows was carrying dry grass into the box! (12) Mihir grinned at his grandfather. (13) “They’ve come home,” he whispered.
According to Grandfather, why are there fewer sparrows now?
The word “shallow” in sentence (8) is the opposite of:
How did Mihir feel during the three weeks in sentence (9), and at the end?
In sentence (13), who does “They” refer to?
What is the main message of the story?
World Sparrow Day is celebrated every year on 20 March to remind people to protect the house sparrow. Delhi even chose the house sparrow as its state bird.
7Reading a poem
Sometimes the passage is a poem. A poem is written in lines, grouped into stanzas (like paragraphs). Read it aloud in your head; the music helps you understand it.
Monsoon Magic
Grey clouds gather, the sky turns dark,
The dogs run home from the empty park.
Pitter-patter, the raindrops fall,
Dancing on the garden wall.
The thirsty earth drinks every drop,
The frogs begin to croak and hop.
The peacock spreads its tail with pride,
And children splash and laugh outside.
- Poet
- the person who writes a poem.
- Stanza
- a group of lines in a poem. Monsoon Magic has 2 stanzas of 4 lines each.
- Rhyme
- words that end with the same sound: dark – park, drop – hop, pride – outside.
- Rhythm
- the beat of a poem, like the tap of a drum when you read it aloud.
- Sound words
- words that copy a sound: pitter-patter, croak, splash, buzz (called onomatopoeia).
- Personification
- giving a human action or feeling to a thing: the thirsty earth drinks, raindrops dancing.
- Simile
- comparing with like or as: roots hang down like ropes; as busy as a bee.
Which word in the poem rhymes with “drop”?
“The thirsty earth drinks every drop” gives the earth a human action. This is called:
8Exam time tips, videos and practice
English has only 5 questions in the UICO paper, so aim to finish the section in about 4 to 5 minutes and keep the rest of your time for maths and reasoning.
- Questions first, passage second. Glance at the questions before reading so you know what to look for.
- Don’t re-read the whole passage for every question. Scan for the keyword and read only the sentence around it.
- Eliminate. Cross out options that the passage does not mention or that change a small word (always, never, first).
- Answer every question. There is no negative marking, so never leave a bubble empty. If stuck, choose the most sensible remaining option and move on.
- Mark and return. If a question takes more than a minute, mark it, finish the rest, then come back.
Wrong options often copy a word from the passage but attach it to the wrong fact. In the Tara passage, “September” and “tomatoes” both appear, but “Tara watered the seeds only in September” is false. Match the whole idea, not just one word.
- 🎮StoryWeaver free storybooksstoryweaver.org.in · Pratham Books · pick Level 3–4 stories
- 📖Skimming and scanning a textbbc.co.uk/bitesize · practise both skills
- 📖What is inference?bbc.co.uk/bitesize · read between the lines
- 📖Retrieving and summarising informationbbc.co.uk/bitesize · find facts, sum up
- 📖What is a rhyme scheme?bbc.co.uk/bitesize · AABB, ABAB and more
- 📖Beekids.britannica.com · practise reading a non-fiction article
9Quick recap
- Answer from the passage, not from what you already know.
- Skim for the main idea (title, first and last lines); scan for a keyword to find a detail.
- Read the questions first and underline their keywords.
- Fact questions: the answer is written in one sentence, sometimes in other words.
- Vocabulary questions: use clues around the word and do the swap test.
- Inference questions: join clues; feelings are shown through actions and words.
- Best title / main idea: covers the whole passage, like an umbrella.
- Reference: look at the sentence before to see who he, she, it, they means.
- Biographies follow time order: put the dates on a timeline.
- Poems: lines, stanzas, rhyme (AABB), rhythm, sound words, personification, simile.
- Wrong options often borrow a word from the passage but twist the fact.
- About 4–5 minutes for the English section; no negative marking, so answer every question.