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YEAR 6 READING COMPREHENSION TERM 1 MODULE 9

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Module 9

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Albert Einstein: a short biography
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Andy Bloxham

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Question
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Answer Solutions
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Number
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1 D Option D is the best fit as it expands upon the previous sentence.

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Option F is the best fit as it relates to his work as mentioned in the

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2 F
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previous paragraph.
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3 B
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Option B is the best fit as it relates to the previous sentence.
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4 C Option C is the best fit as it relates to the conclusions that he made.
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Option G is the best fit as it relates to the letter he wrote to the
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5 G
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President.
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Option A is the best fit as it provides context for the following

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6 A

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sentence.
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Most people know Einstein only for special relativity, or E = mc2,
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7 C so the author wanted to show more about Einstein’s life. Must read
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the passage as a whole to understand this.

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C is the best answer. Einstein, being a Jew, would have felt the
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brunt of Hitler’s rise to power in Nazi Germany and would have

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8 C
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been heavily discriminated against. He would not want anyone else

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to feel like he had.

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4
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9 D Einstein was tenacious (stubborn) and full of virtue (purity).

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Einstein published exactly four papers in 1905. He published a

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paper on capillary forces of a straw, the photoelectric effect,

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Brownian motion and special relativity. His most famous work was
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special relativity, but he was not awarded a Nobel Prize for it, but
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10 C was awarded a Nobel Prize for the photoelectric effect (so B is

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true). D is also true because “Wherever he went by this stage he was

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greeted like a head of state or a rock star, with crowds thronging to

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hear him and cannons fired to salute his arrival.” This is the
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treatment a celebrity receives.

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N
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N

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d

© Copyright Pre-Uni New College Reading Comprehension

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YEAR 6 READING COMPREHENSION TERM 1 MODULE 9

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The answer is that Einstein’s intelligence and talent was initially not
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recognised. “Einstein qualified and became a Swiss citizen but
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couldn’t find a teaching job so began work as an assistant in the

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Swiss Patent Office in 1901, where he was passed over for

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9
promotion because he had not got to grips with “machine
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11 D
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d technology”.” He did struggle to find a teaching job, and his life and

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contributions would have been cut short had he remained in

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Germany. The text also says nothing about him disliking working at

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the patent office, in fact it seems he quite enjoyed it since he stayed

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working there for so long.

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The answer is “none of the above”. From the text, “He began work

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at Princeton University and became a US citizen in 1940 (his third
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passport)” so we know he has had three passports and the US was

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one of them. So that leaves Option B. However, we know that
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12 D

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“Einstein qualified and became a Swiss citizen” and he was also
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born in Germany, so he must have been a German and Swiss
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passport also. Hence, Einstein had held German, Swiss and

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American passports. So the answer is ‘none of the above’.

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A – He began training as teacher in 1896.

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B – He attained his doctorate degree before 1906 (in 1905).

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C – His paper on relativity was published at the end of 1905.

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13 D
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Options A, B and C all happened prior to 1906. However, as

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mentioned in the text Einstein ‘continued working at the patent

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office until 1909’. Therefore, D is the only possible answer.
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Einstein published papers on special relativity, capillary forces and
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14 D photoelectric effect. Newtonian mechanics however was disproved

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4
by him.
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From the positive descriptions about Einstein’s character that are

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used by Oppenheimer such as “almost wholly without

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15 C sophistication and wholly without worldliness … him a wonderful

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purity” we can deduce that he had great esteem (respect and

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admiration) for Einstein.

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The final quote does not describe any of Einstein’s contributions to

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society as a scientists but merely describe the positive character

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attributes that he possessed. The value of such a description in light

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of all his contributions would be to highlight that his value as a

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human being extended beyond what he contributed through his

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work.
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© Copyright Pre-Uni New College Reading Comprehension

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YEAR 6 READING COMPREHENSION TERM 1 MODULE 9

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Special relativity is to do with physics. Students can figure this out
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by realising that Einstein is a physicist first and foremost (also by
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17 D
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looking at clues such as that he was the president of the German

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Physical Society).

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The word ‘pacifism’ means the belief that war and violence are
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18 A unjustifiable and that all disputes should be settled by peaceful

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means.

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19 A “Sowed the seeds” is an idiom (a common saying).

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The definition of ‘prestigious’ is “inspiring respect and admiration;
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20 D having high status.” So a synonym is ‘distinguished’. Powerful and

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influential are very similar, but ‘distinguished’ is the most correct.
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Worldliness is the “concern with material values or ordinary life

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21 C rather than spiritual existence.” The opposite would be spiritual

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which means “not concerned with material values or pursuits.”

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© Copyright Pre-Uni New College Reading Comprehension

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