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

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

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

  3. 3.Which would make the best title for the banyan passage?

    • a) The tree that looks like a forest
    • b) How to plant a seed
    • c) Birds of the forest
    • d) Meeting places in hot countries

  4. 4.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
    • rake the salt into heaps
    • what is left when the water has gone
    • turn the water to vapour
    • hold the sea water

  5. 5.In the banyan passage, "dozens of trunks holding up one enormous crown" uses the word "crown" to mean what?

    • a) The spreading top of the tree, with all its leaves
    • b) A headdress worn by a king
    • c) A ring of stones round the trunk
    • d) A kind of bird that nests in it

  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.From the banyan passage: what happens to the roots when they reach the ground? "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."

    • a) They are carried away by birds
    • b) They dry up and fall off
    • c) They thicken into new trunks
    • d) They turn back into branches

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

Answer key — Class 6 English — Reading a factual passage

  1. 1. 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.
  2. 2. a) High up on another tree
  3. 3. a) The tree that looks like a forest
  4. 4. 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
  5. 5. a) The spreading top of the tree, with all its leaves
  6. 6.
    • ropes
    • rope
  7. 7. c) They thicken into new trunks
  8. 8. a) The sun and the wind