Shine 11+ English
Shine 11+ English
Shine 11+ English
ENGLISH
Reading Comprehension
Name: ................................................................................................
2
the sands and shoals become islands, with the false promise of a haven.
21 In the poems of the Anglo-Saxons, it is a landscape of nightmare. The
28 'flats' form a dull and monotonous expanse, low ground crossed by
29 paths. The sky seems larger, and closer, here. The tide-wasJ,ed mud-
30 flats reflect the changing light. For many centuries this land was largely
31 uninhabited and uninhabitable. As such it exerts a primitive and still
32 menacing force, all the more eerie and lonely because of its proximity to
33 the great city.
34 There is a sense of strangeness and melancholy here at dusk. Charles
35 Dickens understood it very well, and in Great Expectations described
36 how the 'dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with
37 dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the
38 marshes; and that the lower leaden line beyond which the wind was
39 rushing, was the sea'. Magwitch could hide here, making his secret way
40 along the network of hidden planks that used to traverse the mud-flats
41 and moving sands. This is all land that has been saved from the sea,
42 and thus has an ambiguous status. Parts of its territory, in both the lower
43 and upper reaches, have often been deemed to be wild and
44 inhospitable. Strangers were not welcomed. Even at the beginning of the
45 twenty-first century, walking alone by the shores of the estuary, it is
46 possible to feel great fear - fear of the solitude, fear of being
47 abandoned, fear of what is alien represented by the river itself. It may be
48 a fear of the primaeval Thames.
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PART 1: MULTIPLE CHOICE
SECTION A
2) How can the 'estuary' combine 'salt water and fresh water in equal or unequal
quantities' (line 3)?
a) It is near the end of the river so will contain both types of water.
b) It is a wide space and can therefore hold a great deal of water.
c) It is an estuary so will clearly contain both salt and fresh water.
d) It is a tidal area.
e) It is 'brackish' which indicates both water types.
a) it is never visited.
b) no one has managed to locate it exactly.
c) it is unfrequented.
d) it is as yet undiscovered.
e) it is not on any map.
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5) By describing the river as 'deeper' and 'darker' (line 9) by thi� point on its journey,
the writer means
6) The river 'appeals' (line 9) 'to an adventurous imagination' (Line 10) because
8) The writer says that the names 'Shivering Sands' (lines 18-19) and 'Sunk Sand'
(line 19) are 'deceptive' (line 20) because
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9) The 'islands' of 'sands' and 'shoals' (line 26) offer 'false promise of a haven'
(line 26) because
10) The Anglo-Saxons might have considered it a 'landscape of nightmare' (line 27)
because
11) What does the writer mean when he claims that the land here 'exerts a primitive
and still menacing force'? (lines 31-32)
12) Dickens writes about the 'lower leaden line' (line 38) which is
a) the horizon.
b) the sea.
c) the Black Deep.
d) the Sunk Sand sandbank.
e) the point where the Thames officially ends.
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13) Dickens able to imagine one of his criminal characters, Magwitch (line 39) hiding
here because
a) the dense undergrowth would have provided Magwitch with plenty of cover.
b) Dickens liked writing about London which is nearby.
c) the sand-dunes would have allowed Magwitch to stay out of sight.
d) Magwitch could move about here unseen.
e) strangers are not welcome anywhere else.
14) At this point in the passage a 'fear of what is alien' (line 47) means
15) You might be frightened of 'the primaeval Thames' (line 48) because
a) it is ancient.
b) it is tidal here beyond the Thames barrier.
c) it may contain bones.
d) it is very deep and silty.
e) it has frightening names associated with it.
SECTION B
Answer these questions about the meaning of words or phrases as they are used in this
extract.
a) certain
b) strange
c) deserted
d) equivocal
e) different
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17) What is the closest definition to the word 'brackish'? (line 2)
a) briny
b) rocky
c) mixed
d) dirty
e) acrid
a) reliable
b) perilous
c) untrustworthy
d) unexpected
e) inconstant
19) What is the closest definition to the word 'liminal'? (line 22)
a) outlying
b) calcified
c) transitional
d) established
e) watery
20) What is the closest definition to the word 'monotonous'? (line 28)
a) unvarying
b) colourless
c) silent
d) lonely
e) unending
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- SECTION C
Answer the following questions about these words and phrases.
a) changed (line 4)
b) feeding (line 37)
c) viscous (line 21)
d) status (line 42)
e) mud-flats (line 40)
a) here (line 7)
b} moving (line 41)
c) brackish (line 2)
d) mystery (line 25)
e) monotonous (line 28)
24) What types of words are these: Estuary (line 2) Water (line 3) River (line 1) Mud
(line 21) Land (line 23)?
a) Nouns
b) Articles
c) Determiners
d) Pronouns
e) Adjectives
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25) What word could be used to describe 'but' in this extract: "'Sunk Sand' runs
between the Black Deep and the Barrow Deep. But the names are in one sense
deceptive"? (lines 19-20)
a) Adverb
b) Conjunction
c) Antecedent
d) Pronoun
e) Adjunct
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