KS2 SATs-Style Reading Comprehension 4
A non-fiction reading comprehension of the kind that appears as one of the three texts on the KS2 Paper 1 reading test is built around an original short information text rather than a list of exam facts. Information texts test a different skill set from stories: retrieving specific facts such as names, numbers and dates, following an explanation of how or why something happens, working out an unfamiliar or technical word from the sentence around it, and noticing the effect of choices a writer makes even in factual writing. Practice questions follow the same one, two and three mark format used in the real test, giving a child the chance to practise retrieval, explanation and language questions on a single connected non-fiction text rather than in isolation.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Skim the whole text first to find out what it is generally about and how it moves from one idea to the next, since information texts usually build an explanation step by step rather than telling a story in time order.
- Use each sentence's opening words to work out what that part is mainly about before hunting for detail inside it, since information texts often group related facts together.
- For retrieval questions asking for a name, a number or a date, scan for the exact detail rather than re-reading the whole text from the start.
- For find-and-copy questions, copy the words exactly as printed, including any capital letters or numbers, and only as many words as the question asks for.
- For how or why questions, look for the explanation the text itself gives, rather than using outside knowledge, even if the child happens to know more about the topic already.
- For questions about a technical or unfamiliar word, use the sentence it sits in to work out the meaning, since information texts often explain a difficult word in the same sentence or the one before it.
- Do not confuse a fact the text states with an opinion; information texts are usually written in a neutral, factual voice, and a question may ask a child to identify a word or phrase that shows the writer's own view.
Worked example
Read the extract below, then answer the question that follows. Extract: Honeybees cannot phone home or send a text message, yet a single bee can tell the rest of its hive exactly where to find food, sometimes more than two kilometres away. It does this with movement alone. When a worker bee finds a good source of nectar, it flies back to the hive and performs what scientists call the waggle dance. The bee walks in a straight line, shaking its body from side to side, then loops back round to repeat the pattern. The direction of the straight line tells the other bees which way to fly, measured against the position of the sun. The length of time the bee spends waggling tells them how far to go, since a longer waggle means a longer journey. Other bees crowd around to watch and copy the movements before setting off themselves. Remarkably, the dance still works inside a dark hive, where nothing can be seen. The watching bees follow the dancer using touch and the sounds of its wingbeats rather than sight. The waggle dance was first properly described by the Austrian scientist Karl von Frisch in the twentieth century, and his discovery eventually earned him a Nobel Prize. Question: Using the extract, explain how other bees are able to follow the waggle dance's directions even though it takes place inside a dark hive. (3 marks)
- Reread the question: it asks HOW other bees follow the dance in the dark, so the answer needs the method the text gives, not just the fact that they do follow it.
- Find the part of the text that deals with the dark hive: 'the dance still works inside a dark hive, where nothing can be seen'.
- Locate the specific explanation that follows it: 'The watching bees follow the dancer using touch and the sounds of its wingbeats rather than sight.'
- Break the explanation into its separate points, since it gives two different senses: touch, and the sound made by the dancer's wings.
- Notice what the text explicitly rules out too, 'rather than sight', which is useful precision since the question is specifically about how the bees manage without seeing the dance.
- Write the final answer in full sentences: the watching bees cannot see the dance because the hive is dark, so instead they follow it by feeling the dancer's movements through touch and by sensing the sound of its wingbeats, rather than by watching it.
Practice questions
Type your answer and press Check to be marked straight away, or reveal the answer and mark yourself.
Q1Find and copy the name scientists give to the movements a bee performs to share information about food.Show answer
Answer: the waggle dance.
Q2According to the extract, how far away can the food source be that a bee is able to tell the rest of the hive about?Show answer
Answer: More than two kilometres away.
Q3Find and copy two details from the extract that describe what the bee's body does during the dance.Show answer
Answer: 'walks in a straight line' and 'shaking its body from side to side' (either order).
Q4How does the direction of the bee's straight-line movement help the other bees, according to the extract?Show answer
Answer: It tells them which way to fly, based on the position of the sun.
Q5How does the length of the waggle tell the other bees something useful?Show answer
Answer: The length of time the bee spends waggling shows how far away the food is; a longer waggle means a longer journey.
Q6Why do you think other bees 'crowd around to watch and copy the movements' rather than watching from a distance?Show answer
Answer: Being close lets them follow the exact direction and timing of the dance precisely, which they need to copy accurately before flying off to find the food themselves.
Q7Find and copy the name of the scientist credited with first properly describing the waggle dance, and the country he was from.Show answer
Answer: Karl von Frisch, Austrian.
Q8What did Karl von Frisch's discovery eventually earn him, according to the extract?Show answer
Answer: A Nobel Prize.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a KS1 and KS2 SATs exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
The writer introduces one fact about the dance with the word 'Remarkably'. Using evidence from the whole extract, explain two reasons why a reader might agree that it is remarkable that bees can follow the dance in the dark.
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Look at the opening sentence: 'Honeybees cannot phone home or send a text message, yet a single bee can tell the rest of its hive exactly where to find food, sometimes more than two kilometres away.' Why might the writer have chosen to start the extract by mentioning phones and text messages, when the extract is actually about bees, not technology?
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Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the ks2 sats-style reading comprehension 4 worksheet pack - 7 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
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