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Year 10 English — Reading across paragraphs

Answer a question whose evidence is split between two paragraphs, and follow a reference back across the break.

Name: ________________________

  1. 1.Paragraph 1: "The committee met the villagers and the engineers on Monday. It had asked the engineers to bring the plans." Paragraph 2: "They had brought drawings of the new bridge." Who does "They" mean?

    • a) the drawings
    • b) the committee
    • c) the villagers
    • d) the engineers

  2. 2.Paragraph 1 ends: "The road had been blocked for a week." Paragraph 2 begins: "____, the supplies reached the camp on Thursday." Which opening fits?

    • a) In other words
    • b) For example
    • c) Because of this
    • d) In spite of this

  3. 3.Paragraph 1: "The train was due at nine." Paragraph 2: "By half past ten the platform was still empty." At the moment the second paragraph describes, how many minutes overdue was the train? Write the number.

  4. 4.A passage runs in three paragraphs: the first describes the village before the flood, the second the night of the flood, the third the rebuilding. Sort each question by the paragraph that answers it.

    Groups: Paragraph 1 · Paragraph 2 · Paragraph 3

    • How many houses stood in the village?
    • How long did the repairs take?
    • How did the families get out?
    • What crops were grown there?
    • Who paid for the new bridge?
    • At what hour did the water reach the road?

  5. 5.Read: "Kamala keeps bees on her roof. Her neighbours' mango tree fruited heavily this year, for the first time in a decade." Sort each statement by what the passage does with it.

    Groups: Stated in the passage · Not stated — you joined the two facts yourself

    • The bees helped the tree to fruit.
    • The roof is close enough to the tree to matter.
    • Kamala keeps bees.
    • The tree had not fruited well for ten years.
    • The mango tree fruited heavily this year.
    • The bees are on her roof.

  6. 6.Read: "The old cinema closed in 1998. For twenty years the building stood empty. In 2018 a bookshop opened in it, and the owner kept the red velvet seats up in the balcony." Match each question to its answer.

    • How long did the building stand empty?
    • What is in the building now?
    • What was kept from the cinema?
    • Where in the building were they kept?
    • the red velvet seats
    • twenty years
    • in the balcony
    • a bookshop

  7. 7.Paragraph 1: "Sunita had never once left the district." Paragraph 3: "She stepped off the train and stood quite still, looking up." What does the third paragraph gain from the first?

    • a) It tells you how long the journey took.
    • b) It tells you that everything she is looking at is new to her.
    • c) It tells you what the weather was like.
    • d) It tells you that she had bought a ticket.

  8. 8.Read: "Anil arrived at the ground in his school shoes. The other boys were already lacing their boots. He watched from the bench all afternoon." Sort each statement by what the passage does with it.

    Groups: Stated in the passage · Not stated — you worked it out

    • Anil wore school shoes.
    • Anil would rather have been playing.
    • Anil did not play that afternoon.
    • The other boys were lacing their boots.
    • Anil had no boots with him.
    • Anil watched from the bench.

Answer key — Year 10 English — Reading across paragraphs

  1. 1. d) the engineers
  2. 2. d) In spite of this
  3. 3. 90
  4. 4. How many houses stood in the village? → Paragraph 1; At what hour did the water reach the road? → Paragraph 2; Who paid for the new bridge? → Paragraph 3; What crops were grown there? → Paragraph 1; How did the families get out? → Paragraph 2; How long did the repairs take? → Paragraph 3
  5. 5. Kamala keeps bees. → Stated in the passage; The bees are on her roof. → Stated in the passage; The mango tree fruited heavily this year. → Stated in the passage; The tree had not fruited well for ten years. → Not stated — you joined the two facts yourself; The bees helped the tree to fruit. → Not stated — you joined the two facts yourself; The roof is close enough to the tree to matter. → Not stated — you joined the two facts yourself
  6. 6. How long did the building stand empty? → twenty years; What is in the building now? → a bookshop; What was kept from the cinema? → the red velvet seats; Where in the building were they kept? → in the balcony
  7. 7. b) It tells you that everything she is looking at is new to her.
  8. 8. Anil wore school shoes. → Stated in the passage; The other boys were lacing their boots. → Stated in the passage; Anil watched from the bench. → Stated in the passage; Anil had no boots with him. → Not stated — you worked it out; Anil did not play that afternoon. → Not stated — you worked it out; Anil would rather have been playing. → Not stated — you worked it out