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Primary 4 · English · Comprehension: Inference

Comprehension: Inference questions for Primary 4 English

8 questions to work through online. Answer and you get the working straight away, then a score at the end. No sign-up, and you can retake it as often as you like.

  • Why a detail is there
  • Inferring a feeling
  • What an action shows
  • Reading the ending
  • Inferring a reason
  • What a quotation implies
  • Inferring from an action
  • Reading the last line
0 of 8 answered
Question 1 of 8Why a detail is there
1 Wei Ling had told everyone she would go in off the block. She had said it at recess, twice at lunch, and again on the bus. 2 Now she stood on it with her toes over the edge, and the water was a very long way down. Behind her, Coach Halim was talking to somebody about a timetable. The girl in the next lane went, and the splash reached Wei Ling's feet. 3 "In your own time," said Coach Halim, without turning round. 4 She thought about the bus, and about Monday, and about having to say she had climbed down the ladder instead. Then she bent her knees. 5 The water was colder than she expected, and she came up laughing.
Why does the writer tell you that Wei Ling had said it at recess, at lunch and on the bus?
Question 2 of 8Inferring a feeling

Same text as the question above.

How did Wei Ling feel on the block in paragraph 2?
Question 3 of 8What an action shows

Same text as the question above.

Why did Coach Halim say "In your own time" without turning round?
Question 4 of 8Reading the ending

Same text as the question above.

What does "she came up laughing" tell you?
Question 5 of 8Inferring a reason
1 The reading corner on the fourth floor was rebuilt last year, and the librarians made one small change that nobody wrote about. They took the clock off the wall. 2 Before, the average visitor stayed nineteen minutes. Now it is thirty-four. Nothing else in the corner is different: the same chairs, the same shelves, the same view of the car park. 3 Mr Chandran, who has worked there since 2009, is not surprised. "People used to look up at it every few minutes," he says. "Then they would look at the door." 4 The library has since taken the clocks out of two other reading areas. There is still one in the lobby, where people are on their way somewhere.
Why did visitors stay longer after the clock was taken down?
Question 6 of 8What a quotation implies

Same text as the question above.

What does Mr Chandran mean by "Then they would look at the door"?
Question 7 of 8Inferring from an action

Same text as the question above.

What does taking the clocks out of two other reading areas tell you?
Question 8 of 8Reading the last line

Same text as the question above.

Why is there still a clock in the lobby?
Answers and explanations for all 8 questions

Every answer with the reasoning behind it. Worth reading after you have tried the set — or on its own, if you are a parent marking it.

  1. Why does the writer tell you that Wei Ling had said it at recess, at lunch and on the bus?

    Answer: To show how hard it would be for her to back out now.

    Three tellings mean three sets of people who would know. Paragraph 4 makes it explicit: she thinks about having to say she climbed down instead.

  2. How did Wei Ling feel on the block in paragraph 2?

    Answer: afraid

    The water being a very long way down is her view of it, not a measurement. That, and the fact that she does not move, is fear.

  3. Why did Coach Halim say "In your own time" without turning round?

    Answer: To let her know he had noticed, without making her feel watched.

    He speaks so she knows she has as long as she needs, and keeps his back turned so she is not performing for him.

  4. What does "she came up laughing" tell you?

    Answer: The dive turned out to be far less frightening than the wait.

    Four paragraphs build the fear and the dive itself takes one line. Laughing on the way up is relief that it was nothing like the wait.

  5. Why did visitors stay longer after the clock was taken down?

    Answer: Without a clock in sight, they stopped noticing how long they had been there.

    Paragraph 2 rules out every other difference, and Mr Chandran describes the chain: look at the clock, then look at the door.

  6. What does Mr Chandran mean by "Then they would look at the door"?

    Answer: Checking the time started them thinking about leaving.

    He puts the two glances in order to show the clock is what put leaving into their heads.

  7. What does taking the clocks out of two other reading areas tell you?

    Answer: The library believed the change had worked and was worth repeating.

    You repeat a change somewhere else only when you think it worked — and paragraph 2 gives the figures that would convince them.

  8. Why is there still a clock in the lobby?

    Answer: People there are passing through, and they need to know the time.

    The last line draws the distinction: in a reading corner the time gets in the way, and in a lobby, where people are on their way somewhere, it is the thing they need.