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Year 6 English — Reading a factual passage

Answer questions about a factual passage by finding what it actually says, including the order of what happens and what it leaves out.

Name: ________________________

  1. 1.Read this passage. "Salt has been taken from the sea for thousands of years, and the method has hardly changed. Sea water is let into shallow pans dug near the shore. The sun and the wind do the rest of the work: the water slowly turns to vapour and rises, leaving the salt behind as a white crust. Workers rake the crust into heaps and leave it to drain. Nothing is added and no fire is used, which is why the same pans can be used year after year." What makes the water leave the pans?

    • a) Pumps built under the pans
    • b) The sun and the wind
    • c) Rain washes it out
    • d) Workers pour it away

  2. 2.Match each thing in the salt passage to the part it plays.

    • the shallow pans
    • the sun and the wind
    • the workers
    • the white crust
    • turn the water to vapour
    • rake the salt into heaps
    • what is left when the water has gone
    • hold the sea water

  3. 3.Read this passage. "A banyan tree does not grow the way most trees do. It begins life high up on another tree, where a bird has dropped its seed. Roots come down from its branches like thin ropes, and when they reach the ground they thicken into new trunks. In time a single banyan can look like a small forest, with dozens of trunks holding up one enormous crown. In many hot countries the shade of an old banyan is used as a meeting place." Where does a banyan tree begin its life?

    • a) In a dry river bed
    • b) On the ground, from a buried seed
    • c) High up on another tree
    • d) Inside a hollow trunk

  4. 4.Which of these does the salt passage NOT tell you?

    • a) What makes the water rise
    • b) How much salt one pan makes
    • c) Where the pans are dug
    • d) How the salt is gathered up

  5. 5.Put the stages of a banyan's growth in the order the passage gives them.

    • A bird drops a seed high up on another tree.
    • Roots come down from the branches like thin ropes.
    • The roots reach the ground and thicken into trunks.
    • One tree comes to look like a small forest.

  6. 6.In the banyan passage the roots are compared to something: "Roots come down from its branches like thin ropes." Write the one word they are compared to.

  7. 7.Put the steps of making sea salt in the order the passage gives them.

    • Workers rake the crust into heaps.
    • Sea water is let into shallow pans.
    • The water turns to vapour and rises.
    • A white crust of salt is left behind.

  8. 8.From the salt passage: "the water slowly turns to vapour and rises, leaving the salt behind as a white crust." Write the one word the passage uses for the salt left behind.

Answer key — Year 6 English — Reading a factual passage

  1. 1. b) The sun and the wind
  2. 2. the shallow pans → hold the sea water; the sun and the wind → turn the water to vapour; the workers → rake the salt into heaps; the white crust → what is left when the water has gone
  3. 3. c) High up on another tree
  4. 4. b) How much salt one pan makes
  5. 5. 1. A bird drops a seed high up on another tree. 2. Roots come down from the branches like thin ropes. 3. The roots reach the ground and thicken into trunks. 4. One tree comes to look like a small forest.
  6. 6.
    • ropes
    • rope
  7. 7. 1. Sea water is let into shallow pans. 2. The water turns to vapour and rises. 3. A white crust of salt is left behind. 4. Workers rake the crust into heaps.
  8. 8. crust