Class 5 English Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Class 5 English · Comprehension and inference · 15 questions with answers
Class 5 comprehension stops being a search-and-copy exercise. Roughly half these questions cannot be answered by finding a sentence, because the answer is not stated anywhere - it has to be worked out from what is. That distinction between retrieval and inference is the whole difficulty of the year, and it is marked explicitly on this sheet so a child can see which kind they are facing.
- Answer retrieval questions by locating the exact sentence.
- Answer inference questions by reasoning from evidence that is not stated directly.
- Work out an unfamiliar word's meaning from the sentence around it.
Exercise 1 of 4 · 5 questions
Read: 'Meera checked the sky for the fourth time that morning. The clouds had been gathering since dawn and the air felt heavy. She looked at the neat rows of clay pots she had spent three weeks painting, laid out across the courtyard, and then at the single sheet of plastic in the corner. It was far too small. The fair opened at noon. She began carrying the pots indoors, two at a time.' Now answer. (R) marks a retrieval question, (I) an inference question.
Write the answer · Guided
Here’s one done for you
(I) What was Meera worried about? The passage never says 'Meera was worried about rain'. But it says clouds were gathering, the air felt heavy, her painted pots were outside, and the plastic sheet was too small. Put those together and the worry is obvious. An inference answer must be supported by the passage - it is not a guess, it is a conclusion.
- 1)(R) How long had Meera spent painting the pots?
- 2)(R) What time did the fair open?
- 3)(I) What was Meera worried about?
- 4)(I) Why did she carry the pots indoors?
- 5)(I) How do we know Meera was anxious before the clouds gathered any further?
Answers
- 1) Three weeks.
- 2) Noon.
- 3) That it would rain and the clay pots she had painted would be ruined.
- 4) Because the sheet of plastic was too small to cover them, so bringing them inside was the only way to protect them.
- 5) Because she had already checked the sky four times that morning.
Exercise 2 of 4 · 4 questions
For each question, write R if the answer is stated in the passage or I if it has to be worked out.
Write the answer · Practice
Here’s one done for you
Deciding which kind of question you are facing is the skill. Retrieval means the words are there - go and find them. Inference means they are not - so reason from what is. The first item here is a useful trap: it looks like retrieval, but the passage genuinely never says, and 'the passage does not tell us' is sometimes the correct answer.
- 1)How many pots were there?
- 2)What season is it likely to be?
- 3)What had Meera been doing for three weeks?
- 4)Was Meera looking forward to the fair?
Answers
- 1) R - but the passage does not say, so this cannot be answered at all
- 2) I - the gathering clouds and heavy air suggest the monsoon
- 3) R - painting clay pots
- 4) I - she had worked three weeks for it and kept checking the time, so yes
Exercise 3 of 4 · 3 questions
Work out each word's meaning from the passage. Write your answer and the clue you used.
Write the answer · Practice
- 1)'gathering' (the clouds had been gathering)
- 2)'courtyard'
- 3)'heavy' (the air felt heavy)
Answers
- 1) Collecting or building up - clue: they had been doing it since dawn, so more and more were arriving.
- 2) An open space beside or inside a house - clue: the pots were laid out across it, outdoors.
- 3) Damp and still, the way air feels before rain - clue: it is mentioned alongside gathering clouds.
Exercise 4 of 4 · 3 questions
Answer about the passage as a whole.
Write the answer · Challenge
Here’s one done for you
A title should cover the whole passage, not one detail. 'Clay Pots' names a thing in it; 'Before the Rain' captures what the passage is actually about. For the last question, any answer is acceptable as long as it points at something in the text - 'she gets wet' with no reason is not.
- 1)Suggest a title for this passage.
- 2)In one sentence, what is the passage mainly about?
- 3)What do you think happens next? Give a reason from the passage.
Answers
- 1) Answers will differ - 'Before the Rain', 'Meera's Pots' and similar are all reasonable if they fit the passage.
- 2) A girl racing to bring her painted pots indoors before rain ruins them ahead of a fair.
- 3) Answers will differ, but must use evidence - e.g. she gets them in before the rain, because she started early and is carrying two at a time.
While your child works
- The R and I labels are the teaching point. Ask your child to say which kind a question is before answering it - once they can tell them apart, inference questions stop feeling unanswerable.
- For inference answers, always ask 'what in the passage makes you think that?' An inference must be supported. If it cannot be, it is a guess and it will not earn marks.
- 'The passage does not tell us' is sometimes the correct answer, and children rarely believe that. It is worth saying explicitly, because the alternative is inventing something.