Grade 5 Reading Comprehension Exercises

• Passage-1: My Nephew
• Passage-2: Bu-cola
• Passage-3: Yusri and Yusra
• Passage-4: Mother
• Passage-5: Pangolins
• Passage-6: Earthquakes
• Passage-7: When Your Time Comes
• Passage-8: Collecting Fossils
• Passage-9: The Bicycle
• Passage-10: The Egg and the Bottle
• Passage-11: Sasha’s Night Alone
• Passage-12: About The Cat
• Passage-13: Isle Of Jormuguar
• Passage-14: Shoes: Taking One Step at A Time

Passage 1 - My Nephew

Read the passage given below, and answer the questions that follow.

This year I decided to do something to regain my reputation as a kindly uncle. My nephew, Tony, had never forgiven me for the dictionary I had given him as a birthday present the previous year. His parents had no reason to be grateful to me either, because the year before, I had presented their dear son with a pot of glue and some funny pictures. Instead of sticking them into a book, Tony had naturally covered every wall in the house with them. This year, therefore, I decided to let him choose for himself.

We sent into a big toy shop but Tony was highly critical of everything he saw. In vain did I show him toy after toy; he was not tempted. Then I saw his eyes light up; he had discovered something he really did approve of; a large tin drum. I was quite pleased until I thought of what Tony’s mother would say when she saw it. Nobody would get any sleep for months! I led Tony away quickly, saying that the drum was too expensive. If that was how I felt, Tony replied jokingly, then I would buy him the big model railway in the shop window. Now that was really costly, so I quickly changed the subject.

Tony asked for permission to go off on his own and I made use of the opportunity to sit down and rest my aching feet. After fifteen minutes, there was still no sign of Tony. I began to get worried and got up to look for him. I asked a young lady if she had seen a little boy wearing a grey suit. She looked about her helplessly and pointed out that there were so many little boys in grey suits. I was just beginning to despair, when I saw a strange figure dressed in peculiar purple clothes. The figure was wearing a false beard and had a cave-man’s axe in one hand, and a space gun in the other. It was, of course, Tony who informed me at once that he was the first cave man to fly into space.

• Why had Tony never forgiven his uncle?
• What had Tony done with the funny pictures his uncle had given him?
• Why did Tony’s uncle decide not to buy the tin drum?
• “Tony was highly critical of everything he saw.” What does the author mean?
• Why is ‘really’ in italics, in the second paragraph?
• Why did the young lady look helpless?

Answers

• Tony’s uncle had given him a dictionary as a gift, and Tony did not like it,
• Tony had stuck the pictures on the walls of the house.
• Tony’s uncle thought that Tony’s mother would not approve of the gift since Tony would keep beating the drum disturbing everyone in the house/so that no one would be able to sleep.
• The author means that Tony did not like anything he saw.
• The word ‘really’ is in italics to show that the toy did cost a lot, and Tony’s uncle was not kidding as he earlier was in the case of the toy drum.
• There were many little boys in grey suits, so the young lady could not help Tony’s uncle who asked her to look for a little boy in a grey suit.