English language is one the most important subject in IB board. English subject is divided into key sections – Literature, Writing practice, and Reading Comprehension. The motive of language testing is help understand child’ knowledge in key skillsets including language understanding with varying difficulty through essays, poems in literature, and understanding of vocabulary and grammar part in day to day usage in speaking , reading and writing.
In this article, we have prepared exercises for reading comprehension practice for IB board. Other board students can also practice these reading comprehension passages and prepare for their exam.
Reading comprehension exercise for Grade 10 English
Source – Tribune
One fine morning, I got up and looked out of the window to find that the letterbox outside our house was mysteriously missing. It had been there conspicuously for the past six-and-a-half decades, but it had left behind a hole in the pavement. I feared that it had been stolen and would surface in a foreign auction house along with a piece of furniture or manhole cover smuggled out of Le Corbusier’s city and sold at a princely sum.
For me, the red letterbox was a heritage item that had been a public receptacle of many a missive religiously cleared once a day for their onward destinations. It was an extremely useful facility that saved us the labour of going to the post office. We were so confident that this safe recipient of our epistolary communications would ensure the safe delivery of its contents once they were consigned to it. Whether they were postcards or carefully taped and glued love letters, the letterbox was the custodian of all the secrets entrusted to it.
I posed frantic queries in the neighborhood to know how the disappearance had taken place in a securely guarded neighborhood inhabited by some august members of the judiciary. My police instincts were soon put to rest by my neighbors’ gatekeeper, who confirmed that the letterbox was not taken away stealthily at night but had been removed in broad daylight by the postal authorities themselves.
- Question 1 – What did the author feared for the letter box?
- Question 2 – What are author views on letter box ?
- Question 3 – Did author found his letter box
- Question 4- What message does this passage give ?
Reading Comprehension Passage for Grade 9 English
Source – Reuters
Nearly 1,500 academics, researchers and scientists specializing in Antarctica gathered in southern Chile for the 11th Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research conference this week to share the most cutting-edge research from the vast white continent.
Nearly every aspect of science, from geology to biology and glaciology to arts, was covered but a major undercurrent ran through the conference. Antarctica is changing, faster than expected.
Extreme weather events in the ice-covered continent were no longer hypothetical presentations, but first-hand accounts from researchers about heavy rainfall, intense heat waves and sudden Foehn (strong dry winds) events at research stations that led to mass melting, giant glacier break-offs and dangerous weather conditions with global implications.
With detailed weather station and satellite data dating back only about 40 years, scientists wondered whether these events meant Antarctica had reached a tipping point, or a point of accelerated and irreversible sea ice loss from the West Antarctic ice sheet.
“There’s uncertainty about whether the current observations indicate a temporary dip or a downward plunge (of sea ice),” said Liz Keller, a paleoclimate specialist from the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand that led a session about predicting and detecting tipping points in Antarctica.
NASA estimates, opens new tab show the Antarctic ice sheet has enough ice to raise the global mean sea level by up to 58 meters. Studies have shown that about a third of the world’s population lives below 100 vertical meters of sea level. While it’s tough to determine whether we’ve hit a “point of no return,” Keller says that it’s clear the rate of change is unprecedented. “You might see the same rise in CO2 over thousands of years, and now it’s happened in 100 years,” Keller said. Mike Weber, a paleooceanographer from Germany’s University of Bonn, who specializes in Antarctic ice sheet stability, says sediment records dating back 21,000 years show similar periods of accelerated ice melt.
The ice sheet has experienced similar accelerated ice mass loss at least eight times, Weber said, with acceleration beginning over a few decades that kick off a phase of ice loss that can last centuries, leading to dramatically higher sea levels around the world. Weber says ice loss has picked up over the last decade, and the question is whether it’s already kicked off a centuries-long phase or not. “Maybe we’re entering such a phase right now,” Weber said. “If we are, at least for now, there will be no stopping it.”
- Question 1- What were the key discussion topics of 11th Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
- Question 2- What are main events records by research stations on changing climatic condition in Antarctica
- Question 3- What are the changes observed in Antarctic ice sheet? How will it impact Earth
Reading Comprehension exercise for Grade 8 English IB Board
Source- Al Jazeera
NASA’s outer-space robotic explorer, the InSight Lander, touched down on Mars in 2018. It studied seismic waves on the planet, which read data from more than 1,300 marsquakes before shutting down two years ago. InSight collected data from a plain near the planet’s equator called Elysium Planitia. A group of researchers combined this data with computer models and speculated that underground water is the most likely explanation for the seismic readings.
While NASA found liquid saltwater on Mars in 2015, the latest discovery is significant because it indicates the large amount of water the planet possibly holds in fractures 11.5km (7.15 miles) to 20km (12.4 miles) underground.
The lead scientist of the research, Vashan Wright of the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said that if the InSight data collected at Elysium Planitia is representative of the rest of Mars, the water would be enough to fill a global ocean 1 to 2km (0.6 to 1.2 miles) deep.
Drills and other equipment will be needed to further investigate and confirm the presence of water.
It has long been discovered by scientists that Mars once had water, maybe even in ample amounts. Last year, China’s Mars rover also found that water may be more widespread than previously thought.
“There were thoughts that some of the water escaped when Mars lost its atmosphere,” Wright told Al Jazeera.
- Question 1- What is InSight Lander? What kind of research it did?
- Question 2- How and where is water present on Mars?
- Question 3- What is Mars’ equator called?
- Question 4- Summarize the passage in 50 words
End Note
In these article, students can practice reading comprehension exercises for IB Board English language. Students can do these exercises and contact us for evaluation.
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