PAKISTAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL JEDDAH – English Section

Academic Year Subject Name Section Date

2023– 2024 English Y7-

Comprehension Practice Total Points:

First Term _____/20
Sheet

Read the text carefully and answer the questions given at the end:
In this story the author describes a journey deep into the Amazon jungle where, to the

surprise of the explorers, they came across creatures which they believed no longer existed

We passed very slowly through the woods, partly because Lord John acted as a scout before
he would let us advance, and partly because at every second step either one or the other of the
two professors would stop, with a cry of wonder, before some flower or insect which
presented him with a new type. We may have travelled four or five kilometers, keeping to the
right of the line of a stream, when we came upon a considerable opening in the trees. A strip
of brushwood led to a tangle of rocks- in fact the whole plateau was strewn with boulders.
We were walking slowly towards these rocks, among bushes which reached our waists, when
we became aware of a low babbling and whistling sound, which filled the air with a constant
clamour and appeared to come from some spot immediately before us. Lord John held up his
hand as a signal for us to stop, and he made his way swiftly, stooping and running, to the line
of rocks. We saw him peep over them and give a gesture of amazement. Then he stood still as
if forgetting us, so utterly hypnotised was he by what he saw. Finally he waved us to come
on, holding up his hand as signal for caution. His whole manner made me feel that something
wonderful but dangerous lay before us.

Creeping to his side, we looked over the rocks. The place into which we gazed was a pit, and
may have been one of the smaller volcanic blowholes of the plateau. It was bowl-shaped, and
at the bottom, some hundreds of metres from where we lay, were pools of green-scummed
stagnant water fringed with reeds. It was a weird sight in itself but its occupants made it look
like a scene from hell. The pit was the habitat and nesting ground of pterodactyls. There were

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hundreds of them congregated within our view. All the bottom area around the water’s edge
was alive with young ones. Their hideous mothers brooded upon leathery yellowish eggs
which were still to hatch. The birds looked more like reptiles than birds. The babbling and
whistling that we had noticed before, had come from this mass of obscene reptilian life. Now
it was combined with a horrible odour which made us feel sick. But above, balanced guard-
like, each upon its own stone, tall, grey and withered, sat the males. They were absolutely
motionless save for the vigilant movement of their eyes or an occasional snap of their rat-trap
beaks as dragonflies went past them. Their huge membranous wings were closed by folding
their fore-arms, so that they sat like gigantic old women wrapped in crinkly grey shawls, their
ferocious heads protruding above them. Large and small, not less than a thousand of these
filthy creatures lay in the hollow below us. Like penguins, they lived in colonies.

Our professors would gladly have stayed there all day, so taken up were they by this rare
chance to study the life of a prehistoric age. They pointed out the bones of fish and birds
pecked clean and lying about among the rocks as proving the nature of the diet of these
creatures. I heard them congratulating each other on having cleared up the point why the
fossilized remains of this flying dragon are, even today, found in such great numbers in
certain coastal areas.
[Question/Answers]

1. State two reasons which prevented the team from moving faster than they were doing.

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2. ‘A strip of brushwood’ (line 5-6). What does this tell you about the shape of the

brushwood?

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3. From the first paragraph, write one word which means ‘Large rocks’.

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4. What is the size of the bushes?

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5. Lord John made his way, ‘stooping and running’ to the rocks. Explain why he moved

like this.

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6. ‘Finally he waved to us to come on’. Explain in your own words the reason why Lord

John did not allow them to move on immediately.

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7. ‘The explorers were gazing into a pit’. What, according to the author, could have been

the cause of the existence of this pit?

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8. What do we learn from the passage about the size of the pit?

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 9. What made the pit look like ‘a scene from hell’?

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10. What according to the writer was the reason of the whistling and babbling sound?

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11. List any two similarities between pterodactyls and ordinary birds.

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12. What have the male pterodactyls been compared to and which technique is used?

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13. What particular discovery was made about the diet of pterodactyls?

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14. ‘It was a weird sight in itself but its occupants made it look like a scene from hell.’

Identify the type of sentence and write it down.

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15. ‘We passed very slowly through the woods, partly because Lord John acted as a scout

before he would let us advance.’ What is the purpose of the underlined conjunction in the

above sentence? Choose the correct option. [1]

a. To provide a contrast.

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 b. To give a reason.

c. To argue.

16. ‘Their huge membranous wings were closed by folding their fore-arms, so that they sat

like gigantic old women wrapped in crinkly grey shawls, their ferocious heads protruding

above them.’ What effect do these lines create about the male pterodactyls? Elaborate in your

own words.

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