Reading an unseen passage
Class 6 English · Comprehension · 27 questions with answers
Class 6 comprehension asks what a passage implies, what a word means from its context, and what the writer thinks. Only the first few questions can be answered by finding a line.
- Answers a directly stated question quickly and moves on
- Answers an inference question with evidence attached
- Works out a word's meaning from the sentence around it
Exercise 1 of 3 · 10 questions
Read the passage, then answer. PASSAGE: The old clock in the hall had not worked for years. Nobody in the family could quite remember when it had stopped, though everyone agreed it had been before the move. Ravi's grandmother still wound it every Sunday morning, turning the small brass key exactly seven times. When Ravi asked her why, since the hands never moved, she said that some things are worth keeping in the habit of caring for. He did not entirely understand her then. He wound it himself every Sunday after she was gone.
Write the answer · Warm-up
Here’s one done for you
How often did she wind it? → every Sunday morning. Stated directly in the third sentence, so this should take seconds. The third question is the interesting one - the honest answer is that nobody knows exactly, and writing that is better than inventing a date the passage does not give.
- 1)How often did the grandmother wind the clock?
- 2)How many times did she turn the key?
- 3)When had the clock stopped working?
- 4)What did Ravi do after his grandmother was gone?
- 5)Where in the house was the clock kept?
- 6)On which day of the week did she wind it?
- 7)What did Ravi's grandmother use to wind the clock?
- 8)For how long had the clock not worked?
- 9)What reason did the family give for the clock stopping?
- 10)What did Ravi not entirely understand at the time?
Answers
- 1) She wound it every Sunday morning.
- 2) She turned it exactly seven times.
- 3) Nobody could remember exactly, but everyone agreed it was before the move.
- 4) He wound the clock himself every Sunday.
- 5) It was in the hall.
- 6) On Sunday morning.
- 7) A key, which she turned seven times.
- 8) Long enough that nobody could remember exactly when it stopped.
- 9) That it had stopped before the family moved house.
- 10) Her answer about why she kept winding a clock that no longer worked.
Exercise 2 of 3 · 8 questions
None of these are stated. Answer, and give your evidence.
Write the answer · Guided
Here’s one done for you
Did Ravi understand at the time? → No - the passage says 'not entirely... then', and 'then' implies he does now. The single word 'then' is doing all the work. Inference questions usually turn on one specific word, so the useful instruction to a child is: find the word that made you think it, and quote it.
- 1)Did Ravi understand his grandmother's answer at the time?
- 2)What does the last sentence suggest about the grandmother?
- 3)Why might the family have kept a clock that does not work?
- 4)How does Ravi feel about his grandmother now?
- 5)Why does the writer mention that she turned the key exactly seven times?
- 6)What does the clock stand for in this passage, beyond being a clock?
- 7)Does Ravi wind the clock for the same reason his grandmother did? Explain.
- 8)What kind of person does the grandmother seem to have been?
Answers
- 1) No. The passage says he did not entirely understand her then, and the word 'then' suggests he does now.
- 2) That she has died, since it says Ravi wound it 'after she was gone' and speaks of her in the past.
- 3) Because it mattered to them for reasons other than telling the time - it had been in the family and the grandmother cared for it.
- 4) He values what she taught him, because he now continues the same habit himself without being asked.
- 5) It shows how careful and regular she was - the number matters to her even though the clock does not run.
- 6) It stands for the family's memory and for the habit of caring for something, which outlast whether it works.
- 7) Answers will differ. She wound it out of long habit and attachment; he winds it to keep her memory and her habit alive.
- 8) Patient and steady - she kept up a small act of care for years without needing a practical reason for it.
Exercise 3 of 3 · 9 questions
What does each phrase mean here? Use the passage to work it out.
Write the answer · Practice
Here’s one done for you
'wound it' → turned the key to make the mechanism work. Your child may know 'wound' only as an injury. The sentence says she wound it by turning a key, so this must be a different word with a different meaning. Working that out from the sentence is the skill - looking it up is not.
- 1)wound it
- 2)before the move
- 3)in the habit of caring for
- 4)the hall
- 5)exactly
- 6)nobody could remember
- 7)entirely
- 8)after she was gone
- 9)kept
Answers
- 1) Turned the key to make the clock's mechanism work.
- 2) Before the family shifted to a different house.
- 3) Continuing to look after something regularly, even without an obvious reason.
- 4) The main open space or passage inside the house.
- 5) Precisely that number, no more and no fewer.
- 6) So long ago that the memory of it had faded for everyone.
- 7) Completely or fully.
- 8) After she had died.
- 9) Held on to and looked after, rather than thrown away.
While your child works
- For inference, ask 'which word made you think that?' and have them quote it. Almost every inference question turns on one specific word.
- 'Nobody knows exactly' is sometimes the correct answer. Children invent a detail rather than write that, and lose the mark for it.
- Do not let them look up the vocabulary. Working it out from context is the whole exercise.