Reading Comprehension 2022

WHAT IS READING COMPREHENSION AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT?

“Real reading has to do with thinking, learning, and expanding a reader’s knowledge and
horizons. It has to do with building on past knowledge, mastering new information, and
connecting with the minds of those you’ve never met.”

Zimmerman, S. and Hutchins, C. (2003) Seven keys to comprehension: How to help your kids
read it and get it! New York: Three Rivers Press.

Reading comprehension is the ability to read text, process it and understand its meaning. It relies
on two, interconnected abilities: word reading (being able to decode the symbols on the page)
and language comprehension (being able to understand the meaning of the words and sentences).

When we make sense of a text, however, we don’t just remember the exact words and phrases
we read. Rather, we form a mental model of what the text describes by integrating the sense of
the words and sentences into a meaningful whole, like a film that plays in our head.

Good comprehension is vital if reading is to have a purpose, if a reader is to engage with and
learn from a text and, ultimately, if a reader is to enjoy what they’re reading.

For more information about the nature of comprehension, an excellent introduction is provided
by Understanding and Teaching Reading Comprehension: A handbook by Jane Oakhill, Kate
Cain and Carsten Elbro (Routledge, 2014).

Reading Comprehension Exercise#1

I'm Tomas and I live in Vienna with my parents and my sisters. I'm the youngest in my family. I
turned 13 last month. My sisters are Martina, 16, and Betta, 19. Betta's very serious and she
always tells me what to do, I guess because she's the oldest. I go to a nice school not too far from
our home and I really enjoy it. I have a lot of friends there and I enjoy studying. My best subject
is Geography, probably because it's the easiest too! My most difficult subject is Math - I'm
terrible and I don't like my teacher. I love playing sports, especially basketball. I'm the tallest

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player on the school team and I usually play really well. It's the happiest part of my day. My
coach says that one day I could play professional basketball! On the weekend I spend a lot of
time with my friends Ralf and Kurt. We do everything together and they are the most important
people in my life, apart from my family of course!

1. Tomas is older than Martina.

True
False

2. Betta is the oldest.

True
False

3. Geography is the easiest subject.

True
False

4. English is more difficult than Math.

True
False

5. Tomas is the tallest on the team.

True
False

6. Kurt is more important than Betta.

True
False

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Reading Comprehension Exercise#2

Today, millions of people want to learn or improve their English but it is difficult to find the best
method. Is it better to study in Britain or America or to study in your own country?

The advantages of going to Britain seem obvious. Firstly, you will be able to listen to the
language all the time you are in the country. You will be surrounded completely by the language
wherever you go. Another advantage is that you have to speak the language if you are with other
people. In Italy, it is always possible, in the class, to speak Italian if you want to and the learning
is slower.

On the other hand, there are also advantages to staying at home to study. You don't have to make
big changes to your life. As well as this, it is also a lot cheaper than going to Britain but it is
never possible to achieve the results of living in the UK. If you have a good teacher in Italy, I
think you can learn in a more concentrated way than being in Britain without going to a school.

So, in conclusion, I think that if you have enough time and enough money, the best choice is to
spend some time in the UK. This is simply not possible for most people, so being here in Italy is
the only viable option. The most important thing to do in this situation is to maximise your
opportunities: to speak only English in class and to try to use English whenever possible outside
the class.

1. What is the article about?

How many people learn English
The best way to learn English.
English schools in England and America.

2. What is one of the advantages of going to the UK to learn English?

There are no Italians in Britain.
You will have to speak English and not your language.
The language schools are better.

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3. What is one of the advantages of staying in your country to learn English?

The teachers aren't very good in Britain.
You have to work too hard in Britain.
Your life can continue more or less as it was before.

4. People who don't have a lot of time and money should...

Learn English in Britain.
Try and speak English in class more often.
Go to Italy to learn English.

Reading Comprehension Exercise#3

Below is a text with blanks. Select the appropriate answer choice for each blank.

C. S. Lewis, or Jack Lewis, as he preferred to be called, was born in Belfast, Ireland (now
Northern Ireland) on November 29, 1898. He was the second son of Albert Lewis, a lawyer, and
Flora Hamilton Lewis. His older brother, Warren Hamilton Lewis, who was known as Warnie,
had been born three years____________ (ago, earlier, previous, subsequently) in 1895.
Lewis's early childhood was relatively happy and carefree. In those days Northern Ireland was
not yet ___________________ (plagued, bothered, pestered, doubted) by bitter civil strife,
and the Lewises were comfortably off. The family home, called Little Lea, was a large, gabled
house with dark, narrow passages and an overgrown garden, which Warnie and Jack played in
and _________________ (watched, instigated, explored, inspired) together. There was also a
library that was crammed with books - two of Jack's favorites were Treasure Island by Robert
Louis Stevenson and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
This somewhat idyllic boyhood came to an end for Lewis when his mother became ill and died
of cancer in 1908. Barely a month after her death the two boys were sent away from home to go
to boarding school in England.
Lewis hated the school, with its strict rules and hard, ___________________ (unsympathetic,
careless, desensitized, deliberative) headmaster, and he missed Belfast terribly. Fortunately for
him, the school closed in 1910, and he was able to return to Ireland.
After a year, however, he was sent back to England to study. This time, the _________________
(essence, understanding, suffering, experience) proved to be mostly positive. As a teenager,
Lewis learned to love poetry, especially the works of Virgil and Homer. He also developed an
interest in modern languages, mastering French, German, and Italian.