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Primary 5 · English · Comprehension: Inference

Comprehension: Inference questions for Primary 5 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.

  • Inferring from what is not said
  • What a detail implies
  • Putting two paragraphs together
  • Reading a character
  • Inferring a purpose
  • Reading a comparison
  • Inferring a difficulty
  • Reading a short last line
0 of 8 answered
Question 1 of 8Inferring from what is not said
1 My aunt has run the same drinks stall for twenty-six years. She opens at half past five and is usually sold out of soya milk by nine. 2 Last year a coffee chain opened in the new mall across the road, and for two months she said nothing about it at all. She stopped ordering the extra crate on Fridays. She began closing at two instead of four. 3 Then in March she put up a small sign: MADE FRESH AT 5.30 A.M. EVERY DAY. She had never advertised anything in her life. My cousin printed it on her computer, and my aunt made her print it again smaller. 4 By June the Friday crate was back. She still closes at two. When I asked her about the sign she said it was a waste of paper, and that she only put it up because my cousin had already printed it.
What does paragraph 2 tell you about how the aunt was affected by the new coffee chain?
Question 2 of 8What a detail implies

Same text as the question above.

Why did the aunt make her cousin print the sign again smaller?
Question 3 of 8Putting two paragraphs together

Same text as the question above.

What does the return of the Friday crate by June suggest?
Question 4 of 8Reading a character

Same text as the question above.

Why does the writer end with the aunt calling the sign "a waste of paper"?
Question 5 of 8Inferring a purpose
1 In a cold room under the National Parks headquarters there are forty thousand seeds in labelled envelopes. Most will never be planted. They are there in case the plants they came from stop growing anywhere else. 2 The seeds are dried to a fifth of their normal moisture and held at minus twenty degrees. At that temperature a seed's clock does not stop, but it runs so slowly that a seed collected this year may still sprout in a century. 3 Not every plant can be banked. Some tropical seeds die the moment they are dried — durian and mangosteen among them — so for those species the only bank is a living collection, which needs land, water and gardeners for as long as the species is meant to last. 4 The room has a generator, and the generator has a second generator.
Why are the seeds kept even though most will never be planted?
Question 6 of 8Reading a comparison

Same text as the question above.

What does "a seed's clock does not stop, but it runs so slowly" mean?
Question 7 of 8Inferring a difficulty

Same text as the question above.

Why is a living collection harder to maintain than a seed bank?
Question 8 of 8Reading a short last line

Same text as the question above.

Why does the writer end with the generator and its second generator?
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. What does paragraph 2 tell you about how the aunt was affected by the new coffee chain?

    Answer: It hurt her trade, though she never admitted it.

    She "said nothing about it at all" — and then the paragraph lists three things she quietly changed. The actions are the evidence her words withhold.

  2. Why did the aunt make her cousin print the sign again smaller?

    Answer: She was uncomfortable about advertising and wanted it to draw less attention.

    Paragraph 3 sets up that she had never advertised. Asking for it smaller is doing the thing while making it as small as she can bear.

  3. What does the return of the Friday crate by June suggest?

    Answer: Business had recovered after the sign went up.

    The extra Friday crate was dropped in paragraph 2 when trade fell. Its return in paragraph 4 is the writer's way of showing trade came back.

  4. Why does the writer end with the aunt calling the sign "a waste of paper"?

    Answer: It shows she will not take credit for the one thing that worked.

    The facts say the sign worked. She hands the credit to her cousin's printing rather than to herself, which is the point of ending on her words.

  5. Why are the seeds kept even though most will never be planted?

    Answer: As insurance, in case those plants disappear in the wild.

    Paragraph 1 gives the purpose directly: they are there in case the plants they came from stop growing anywhere else.

  6. What does "a seed's clock does not stop, but it runs so slowly" mean?

    Answer: The seed is still ageing, just far more slowly than it would outside.

    The clock is a comparison for ageing. Not stopping means it continues; running slowly means a seed can last a hundred years and still sprout.

  7. Why is a living collection harder to maintain than a seed bank?

    Answer: It needs land, water and people for as long as the species is meant to last.

    Paragraph 3 lists exactly what a living collection needs, and the phrase for as long as the species is meant to last is what makes it a commitment rather than a store.

  8. Why does the writer end with the generator and its second generator?

    Answer: To show how seriously the loss of the collection is treated.

    A backup for the backup is what you build when losing the thing is unthinkable. The line is short because it is meant to land on its own.