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Primary 4 · English · Comprehension: Literal

Comprehension: Literal 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.

  • Finding a detail
  • Finding two details
  • Picking the sentence that says it
  • Finding a reason
0 of 8 answered
Question 1 of 8Finding a detail
1 My grandmother grew up in a kampong in Punggol, in a house her father built from wood and attap. There were nine of them in three rooms, and she says nobody thought of it as crowded until they moved. 2 Every morning before school she carried two pails to the standpipe at the end of the lane and filled them for the day. The queue was longest at six, so she went at half past five and was usually back before her brothers were awake. 3 What she misses is not the house. It is the durian tree behind it, and the fact that when it fruited, half the lane came to sit under it. When the family moved to a flat in 1977, the tree stayed, and she went back twice to look at it before the land was cleared. 4 She kept one thing from the kampong: a tin biscuit box with a picture of a rose on the lid. Her mother had used it for sewing thread. It sits on top of my grandmother's wardrobe today, and it still holds thread.
In paragraph 2, why did Grandmother go to the standpipe at half past five?
Question 2 of 8Finding two details

Same text as the question above.

What two things does Grandmother miss about the kampong?
Question 3 of 8Finding a detail

Same text as the question above.

What had the biscuit box been used for in the kampong?
Question 4 of 8Picking the sentence that says it

Same text as the question above.

Which sentence tells you that the kampong house was not as uncomfortable as it sounds?
Question 5 of 8Finding two details
1 A mangrove tree solves a problem that would kill most plants: it lives with its roots in salt water. Some kinds strain the salt out at the root, so little of it ever reaches the leaves. Others let the salt in and then push it out through the leaf, where it dries into crystals you can taste. 2 The roots have a second problem to deal with. Mud holds almost no air, so the tree grows roots that stand up out of the ground like pencils and breathe through small holes in their surface. At high tide these are covered, and the tree waits. 3 Mangroves are worth more than the wood in them. A belt of mangrove takes the force out of a wave before it reaches the shore, and the tangle of roots is where young fish shelter from bigger fish. Sungei Buloh, in the north-west of Singapore, protects one of the last stretches we have.
According to paragraph 1, what are the two ways a mangrove deals with salt?
Question 6 of 8Finding a reason

Same text as the question above.

Why does a mangrove grow roots that stand up out of the ground?
Question 7 of 8Finding a detail

Same text as the question above.

What happens to the standing roots at high tide?
Question 8 of 8Finding a detail

Same text as the question above.

According to paragraph 3, what does a belt of mangrove do for the shore?
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. In paragraph 2, why did Grandmother go to the standpipe at half past five?

    Answer: The queue was at its longest at six o'clock.

    Paragraph 2 says the queue was longest at six, so she went half an hour earlier.

  2. What two things does Grandmother miss about the kampong?

    Answer: The durian tree, and the neighbours gathering under it.

    Paragraph 3 names both: the durian tree, and half the lane coming to sit under it when it fruited.

  3. What had the biscuit box been used for in the kampong?

    Answer: holding sewing thread

    Paragraph 4 says her mother had used the tin for sewing thread, and it still holds thread today.

  4. Which sentence tells you that the kampong house was not as uncomfortable as it sounds?

    Answer: There were nine of them in three rooms, and she says nobody thought of it as crowded until they moved.

    Nine people in three rooms sounds crowded, and the sentence says outright that nobody thought of it that way.

  5. According to paragraph 1, what are the two ways a mangrove deals with salt?

    Answer: It strains the salt out at the root, or pushes it out through the leaf.

    Paragraph 1 gives both methods: straining the salt out at the root, and pushing it through the leaf where it dries into crystals.

  6. Why does a mangrove grow roots that stand up out of the ground?

    Answer: Mud holds almost no air, so those roots breathe for the tree.

    Paragraph 2 gives the reason: mud holds almost no air, so the roots stand up and breathe through small holes.

  7. What happens to the standing roots at high tide?

    Answer: They are covered, and the tree waits.

    Paragraph 2 says that at high tide the standing roots are covered and the tree waits.

  8. According to paragraph 3, what does a belt of mangrove do for the shore?

    Answer: It takes the force out of a wave before the wave reaches the shore.

    Paragraph 3 says a belt of mangrove takes the force out of a wave before it reaches the shore.