Grade 4 Reading Comprehension Exercises

Grade 4 Reading Comprehension Exercises

Read the passages carefully and answer the questions given below.

Passage 1

It was the ambition of an eleven year old boy named Carlos in Kansas City to be an engine-driver. Born without arms, he had been to a special school where he learned to use his feet as ‘hands’. He spent all his spare time watching trains, and one day his dreams came true. Seeing a deserted engine, the boy climbed in. He easily started it up with his feet. Soon he was travelling along at fifty miles an hour. Signalmen could not see the young driver, so they set out to stop the train. Meanwhile Carlos reached Missouri, stopped the engine himself, and then made it go backwards. When he was near home, a railway-man caught up with the engine and stopped it. At first he was very angry, but he smiled when the boy said simply, “I like trains.”

“Well, I am glad you don’t like planes!” answered the railway man.

• What had Carlos learned at a special school?
  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
• What was his ambition?
  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
• Write down one word in the passage which means ‘extra’ or ‘free’.
  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Answers

• Carlos had learned to use his feet and ‘hands’.
• Carlos’s ambition was to drive a train.
• The word is ‘spare’.

Passage 2

Science has told us so much about the moon that it is quite easy to imagine what it would be like to go there. It is not a friendly place. There is no air or water, so there can be no life of any kind. There is no variety of scenery either. For mile after mile, there are only valleys of dust with mountains around them. The sun and stars shine in a black sky. If you step out of the shadows of the mountain, it will mean moving from severe cold into great heat. These extreme temperatures break rocks away from the surface of the mountains continually. The moon is also very silent, for sound waves can only travel through air. But beyond the horizon, you see a friendly sight. Our earth is shining more brightly than the stars. From this distance, it looks like an immense ball, coloured blue and green and brown.

• Why is the moon not a friendly place?
  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
• What effect do the extremes of temperature have on the rocks?
  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
• Why is the moon very silent?
  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
• What is the friendly sight you can see from the moon?
  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
• What does the earth look like from the moon?
  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Answers

• There is no air or water on the moon, and there is no life of any kind. There is no variety of scenery either.
• The extreme temperatures continually break rocks away from the surface of the mountains.
• The moon is a silent world because there is no air on the moon. Sound waves can only travel through air.
• The friendly sight you can see from the moon is the earth.
• The earth looks like an immense ball, coloured blue, green and brown.