The following are comprehension passages that I developed. A suggestion I would make for other teachers wanting to create their own would be to look on the internet for novels online and you can read as many as you want before selecting passages that contain whatever elements you want students to identify.
It was late summer of 1995, and our children were away at camp. I was looking forward to a quiet, peaceful weekend at home, but my wife, Margaret, had other ideas. "Tom, let's go camping in the Adirondacks."
Without a second thought, I answered, "You know I love camping."
"Great," said Margaret, "I'll let Beverly and Henry know we'll be there."
I groaned. I'd been tricked.
Margaret and Beverly had shared an apartment in college, and a couple of years after Margaret and I were married, Beverly and Henry tied the knot. We get together two or three times a year, typically to see a play, or go skiing; only once before did we meet on a camping trip. Whatever the venue, we usually end up with a "guys" conversation, and a "gals" conversation. Henry is a professor of archaeology, at the State University of New York at Binghamton. I like him just fine, but I like him the way I like beer: in moderation. You see, Henry's a story-teller, and a good one. But his stories always take hours to tell. If he had lived in ancient Greece, he probably could have rivaled Homer in the ability to regale audiences with long, complex narratives, full of adventure and intrigue. But he refuses to write down his tales, and while once people were satisfied to sit down for several hours and listen to a story-teller, times have changed. With stories recorded in print, on cassette, and on video, the reader or listener or viewer can set the pace at which he receives the story. It becomes a simple matter to break for a meal, a nap, or any other reason, without missing any of the narrative.
I enjoy Nature's trees, the animals and birds, and the relative silence and solitude of a quiet, out-of-the-way campsite. But if I have to spend the entire time in conversation, breaking the silence and scaring away the animals and birds, what's the point of camping? We may as well be back in the city, in an air conditioned room. I should have remembered that the only camping trip my wife had really enjoyed was the one in which she had been able to spend every waking moment talking with Beverly. While I had hoped to find a tranquil retreat, I instead was nominated as the sounding board for one of Henry's long narratives. The upshot was that, while admittedly entertained, I saw not a single deer, nor do I recall any squirrels or birds. I was surprised that the trees and Mt. Marcy herself didn't beat a retreat, upon hearing Henry's loud voice, rolling through the forest.
1. Why did Tom go camping?
2. Did Tom like camping? How do we know?
3. How had Tom been 'tricked'?
4. How did Margaret know Beverly?
5. Why do you think there always ended up being 'guys' and 'gals' conversations?
6. Why does Tom compare the way he likes Henry with the way he likes beer?
7. How does Tom feel about Henry's stories?
8. Do you think Tom would have enjoyed the camping trip? What might he have been able to do in order to enjoy it more?
9. What is the tone of this passage? How is this indicated?
10. Which of these words best describes Tom's attitude about Henry and the camping trip;
indifferent, annoyed, frustrated, positive, negative, disappionted, melancholy
Chapter One: Bitter Victories
He was handsome in the reedy, mildly grungy way that was popular these days. His hair was a little too long, his face not-quite clean of its growth of blondish beard. His eyes were filled with the broody Hollywood equivalent of sensitivity, his angular jaws perpetually clenched in the cinematic approximation of power.
His companions were no less contrived. The woman seemed at once imminently frail and yet irresistibly sensual, marked by strategic streaks of grime that artfully gave the impression of duress without marring her natural beauty. And the other man...he was as classically stereotypical as a film dared be, towering over his compatriots with gentle stupidity. His entire frame seemed ineptly carved from granite, designed for little else than mute strength happily devoid of thought. The two of them - the woman and the second man - were so completely opposite, so utterly unalike, that it seemed only right the first man, a person who fell almost perfectly between the two extremes they represented, would be their companion.
These three characters ran furtively through the darkened corridors of a ruined palace, throwing fearful glances over their shoulders as they went. The music mounting behind them increased the sense of tension, and the threat of discovery seemed imminent at every turn.
1. Write three descriptive phrases used in this passage that you found effectively described the characters.
2. Is there any reason revealed in this passage as to why the chapter was named Bitter Victories?
3. 'were no less contrived' - what does this mean?
4. 'strategic streaks' - what is this an example of (in terms of poetic devices)?
5. What made the woman and the second man seem so different?
6. What is the tone of the final paragraph?
7. Based on the impression in the final paragraph, predict what you think is happening to the three characters and what will happen next.
8. Which of the three characters seems the most interesting? Why?
9. Which of the words below would you associate with the three characters in the passage;
fun, reserved, anxious, strong, persistent, timid, assertive, dignified, approachable
10. Choose one of the characters and imagine you are them. Write a letter to one of the other characters we have heard about in the passage and tell them how you are feeling at this moment and what you think will happen to you all.
The following is a passage taken from another comprehension page that has examples of multiple choice questions;
The Alaska pipeline starts at the frozen edge of the Arctic Ocean.
It stretches southward across the largest and northernmost state in
the United States, ending at a remote ice-free seaport village nearly
800 miles from where it begins. It is massive in size and extremely
complicated to operate.
The steel pipe crosses windswept plains and endless miles of
delicate tundra that tops the frozen ground. It weaves through
crooked canyons, climbs sheer mountains, plunges over rocky
crags, makes its way through thick forests, and passes over or
under hundreds of rivers and streams. The pipe is 4 feet in diameter,
and up to 2 million barrels (or 84 million gallons) of crude oil can
be pumped through it daily.
Resting on H-shaped steel racks called "bents," long sections of
the pipeline follow a zigzag course high above the frozen earth.
Other long sections drop out of sight beneath spongy or rocky
ground and return to the surface later on. The pattern of the
pipeline's up-and-down route is determined by the often harsh
demands of the arctic and subarctic climate, the tortuous lay of the
land, and the varied compositions of soil, rock, or permafrost
(permanently frozen ground). A little more than half of the pipeline
is elevated above the ground. The remainder is buried anywhere
from 3 to 12 feet, depending largely upon the type of terrain and
the properties of the soil.
One of the largest in the world, the pipeline cost approximately
$8 billion and is by far the biggest and most expensive construction
project ever undertaken by private industry. In fact, no single
business could raise that much money, so 8 major oil companies
formed a consortium in order to share the costs. Each company
controlled oil rights to particular shares of land in the oil fields and
(30) paid into the pipeline-construction fund according to the size of its
holdings. Today, despite enormous problems of climate, supply
shortages, equipment breakdowns, labor disagreements, treacherous
terrain, a certain amount of mismanagement, and even theft, the
Alaska pipeline has been completed and is operating.
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
1. The passage primarily discusses the pipeline's;
A. operating costs
B. employees
C. consumers
D. construction
2. The word "it" in line 4 refers to
A. pipeline
B. ocean
C. state
D. village
3. According to the passage, 84 million gallons of oil can travel through the pipeline each
A. day
B. week
C. month
D. year
4. The phrase "Resting on" in line 13 is closest in meaning to
A. Consisting of
B. Supported by
C. Passing under
D. Protected with
5. The author mentions all of the following as important in determining the pipeline's route EXCEPT the;
A. climate
B. lay of the land itself
C. local vegetation
D. kind of soil and rock
6. The word "undertaken" in line 26 is closest in meaning to
A. removed
B. selected
C. transported
D. attempted
7. How many companies shared the costs of constructing the pipeline?
A. 3
B. 4
C. 8
D. 12
8. The word "particular" in line 29 is closest in meaning to
A. peculiar
B. specific
C. exceptional
D. equal
9. Which of the following determined what percentage of the construction costs each member of the consortium would pay?
A. How much oil field land each company owned
B. How long each company had owned land in the oil fields
C. How many people worked for each company
D. How many oil wells were located on the company's land
10. Where in the passage does the author provide a term for an earth covering that always remains frozen?
A. Line 3
B. Line 13
C. Line 19
D. Line 32
