11+ COMPREHENSION MULTIPLE CHOICE
A Technique Guide
So you know what 11+ multiple choice comprehension papers look like. But how exactly do you go about deducing the correct answers?
This multiple-choice comprehension guide from Accolade Press offers 11+ students a unique chance to pull back the curtain and see exactly what they need to do to tease out the correct answers. We showcase eight detailed exam papers modelled on those issued by the UK’s top schools, as well as the GL and CEM tests, and offer in-depth commentary explaining exactly how each answer has been deduced. Accolade Press ensures students have every tool at their disposal to emulate these point-scoring techniques and tactics.
Eight comprehension papers designed to mimic the length and difficulty of those issued by the UK's top private and grammar schools. Suitable for upcoming exams in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Papers split into four formats – two per format – so that students can familiarise themselves with the diverse styles of papers seen in the highly competitive 11+ field of assessment.
A range of texts – encompassing fiction, non-fiction, and poetry – to expose students to the diverse eventualities they are likely to face at examination.
Unique, high quality explanations for every question: we demonstrate exactly how each question is decoded, so candidates can feel confident emulating the tactics themselves.
Detailed discussions on how to satisfy the examiners' criteria, as well as deep-dive guidance on the challenging ideas and vocabulary expected of 11+ candidates.
Written by an experienced tutor with a stellar track-record in 11+ admissions.
Richard Paul Davis has a First Class degree in English Literature from University College London, and a Masters in Literature from Cambridge University. He has over a decade of experience in helping pupils prepare for their 11 plus entrance examinations. His approach is structured, thorough and organised, with a focus on progression through extensive practise and preparation.
Alternatively, you can download a digital PDF version from us directly by clicking this link.
Reviews from experienced 11+ educators
An outstanding set of MCQ comprehension questions and answers! Strongly recommended. I have been consistently impressed with the quality of resources from Accolade Press, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to get my hands on the latest MCQ (multiple choice comprehension) practice papers.
MCQ comprehension can be deceivingly difficult because examiners deliberately try to provide students with options that are very closely related. This guide does a marvellous job in explaining how to use a mixture of picking out the answers outright and also eliminating the incorrect options. The guided answers help students practise this key technique.
The standard of the questions in this publication is harder than the typical 11+ material on the market (think Bond, CGP, Letts etc.), so this is ideal for students who are looking to really push themselves for super-selective grammar schools or independent schools. In particular, if your child is preparing for a school such as QE, where the comprehension passage has been historically very challenging, then 11+ Multiple-Choice Comprehension: Practice Papers & In-Depth Guided Answers is exactly what your child should be working on.
Credit must go to Richard Davis who is a wonderful author and educator. This is another sublime guide from the team at Accolade!
I love this book in the fact that it shows the 11+ student what skills they need to produce a piece of good quality creative writing, rather than the 'unpolished' samples that can sometimes be produced before guidance!
It gives a wide range of text examples and then leads, step-by-step and in straightforward language, the process needed to up-level their writing.
There are lots of examples of different writing styles with detailed guidance and these cover a wide range of exam boards. They are therefore applicable to most 11+ students.
The contents page makes it easy for students to dip into and out of the book looking for relevant sections to complete as needed.
These exercises are also something that high achievers would enjoy!
I would definitely recommend this book 100%
These papers are like no other publication as they focus on really stretching and challenging students preparing for their 11 plus exams. The guidance given is useful in explaining how to get to the correct answers and the choice of extracts are very interesting - I would highly recommend this!
SAMPLE from the guide: For Familiarisation Purposes
Foreword
When sitting 11+ comprehension exams at top schools (be they independent powerhouses, or high-flying grammars) you will notice that, although all of their papers follow the basic formula – an extract accompanied by a set of questions – the types of questions they ask can vary greatly. The reason for this is simple enough: a considerable number of these schools write their papers in-house, and that means you find quirks in some papers that you don’t in others. Even papers produced by examining bodies, such as the CEM and GL papers, have their idiosyncrasies. And yet, for all these quirks, there is still a huge degree of overlap between these various papers, because ultimately these schools are all looking for a similar set of skills.
As a result, preparing for these exams is eminently possible. We simply need to familiarize ourselves with the various types of multiple-choice questions that appear (including those quirky ones!), then hone the skills required to answer them.
The intention of this guide is not simply to show you what these exams tend to look like (although, as you work through it, you will inevitably get a sense of this nonetheless!). No, the intention is to go a step further, and show you how to decode the sorts of questions these 11+ comprehension papers tend to ask, and how to go about deducing the answer.
Now, before I press on, I feel it is important to make one crucial thing clear: this guide is explicitly aimed at those students looking to achieve at the very highest level. Many times in this guide I use sophisticated vocabulary and ideas. I promise you that my intention is not to intimidate. Rather, we must remember that these are competitive exams, and so it is imperative that we give ourselves the very best chance to succeed.
Rest assured, however, that when I use these tricky words or phrases, I explain them as I go. As a result, by the time you finish working through this guide, you should have a whole new arsenal of words and phrases to help you attack papers of any kind!
How This Book Is Set Out
As mentioned, 11+ papers are incredibly varied. However, if you spend enough time and energy looking through past papers, you start to figure out what makes them tick, and notice certain patterns that emerge time and again. This book contains eight papers that have been split into four different “styles” of questioning – two papers for each style. I have labelled the four types of papers as follows:
1. The Scattershot Paper
2. The Three-Parter Paper
3. The Poetry Paper
4. The Extended Concentration Paper
The labels I’ve given each style should give you some indication of what the papers entail. It may well be the case that some of the 11+ comprehension papers you end up taking fit neatly into the one of these styles. However, it is just as possible that they wind up being a blend of two (or more) styles – after all, schools often tweak the style of paper they put out year on year. At any rate, I can assert with confidence that, if you are well versed in all four styles, you will have your bases covered, and be prepared for most anything.
The questions for each paper appear twice. The first time they will appear is immediately after the extract, so that students can, if they wish, have a go at tackling the paper. They will then appear a second time, but this time accompanied by the correct answers and detailed guidance.
Each of the papers includes a “time guide” – that is, the amount of time one would expect to be given to complete the paper in an exam hall. If students wish to complete some of these papers as practice, I suspect this may prove useful.
Insofar as difficulty is concerned, the first paper in each style might be described as “difficult,” and the second “devilish.” Again, I feel the need to reiterate that my intention is not to intimidate. On the contrary, by exposing students to the reality of what is in store, I believe it ensures that, when it actually comes to entering the exam hall, you feel far more at ease.
There is no correct way to use this guide. Some students will feel comfortable working through it by themselves, whereas some may prefer to have a parent at hand to act as a kind of surrogate tutor. In any case, the intention of this book is to give the reader the experience of having an experienced tutor at their beck and call.
Exam Tips
Within this book, you will find a good deal of question specific advice. However, there are a number of more general tips that it is important for any 11+ candidate to keep in mind:
• When reading the extract, don’t rush. Some papers even set aside 10 minutes explicitly for reading the paper, and do not allow you to look at the questions until those 10 minutes have elapsed. This does not mean that 10 minutes is always necessary – but keep in mind that every school will expect you to read the passage very carefully.
• Read the questions carefully. It sounds obvious, I know, but you wouldn’t believe how many times I have seen bright students lose marks simply because they have misread the question.
• If the question is asking you the meaning of a certain word or phrase, always go back and read that word or phrase in context. Remember: not only does context impact on meaning, but it can also help you make an educated guess if you do not know the answer with certainty.
• Embrace the process of elimination. It’s a great way to double-check that you have the correct answer when you feel you know it off the bat. Moreover, it’s a great way of increasing your odds when you are unsure.
• Even if you have no idea what the correct answer is, never leave a question blank. A guess is better than a guaranteed lost mark.
Personal Note
When I talk about my academic career, I usually talk about my time spent at university: I studied English Literature & Language at UCL, then took a Masters at Cambridge University. However, a mere twenty years ago, I was in the same position that many of my readers find themselves in: eager to win a place at a top secondary school, and faced with a litany of exams. Of course, the exams have changed a fair bit since then; but what I’m trying to say is, not only have I been teaching 11+ students for many years, but I’ve also had firsthand experience of it – I know what it’s like to live through!
Even though I now look back on that time through a rosy lens – I was offered places at all the top London private and grammar schools I sat for – I won’t pretend as though it was not at times intimidating. However, I would observe that many parts of the 11+ English exams, and especially the comprehension papers, offer rare opportunities to engage with truly amazing works of literature. That is not to say that these exams are fun – my memory of them is pretty much the exact opposite – but still, it is important to at least try and embrace this side of things and enjoy the challenge.
The Scattershot Paper
I have labelled the two papers that follow ‘scattershot papers’, because the questions are not separated by ‘type’ into different sections; instead, all different kinds of questions – retrieval, inference, definitions – are thrown in together, which means candidates need to be constantly prepared to shift gears. Scattershot-style papers of this kind are what many private schools employ, but they also very closely resemble the GL and CEM papers.
You will notice that the questions in these scattershot papers each have four options (a, b, c, d) to pick from. Be aware, however, that some scattershot papers will have five options instead, which makes life that little bit harder. That said, we will be looking at questions with five options a little bit later in this guide.
Paper One: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
SCATTERSHOT PAPER; DIFFICULT; 40 MINUTES
This extract is taken from a novel set in nineteenth century America. In this passage, the narrator – Huckleberry Finn – wakes up on an island just up the river from his hometown.
* * *
The sun was up so high when I waked that I judged it was after eight o’clock. I laid there in the grass and the cool shade thinking about things, and feeling rested and ruther comfortable and satisfied. I could see the sun out at one or two holes, but mostly it was big trees all about, and gloomy in there amongst them. There was freckled places on the ground where the light sifted down through the leaves, and the freckled places swapped about a little, showing there was a little breeze up there. A couple of squirrels set on a limb and jabbered at me very friendly.
I was powerful lazy and comfortable—didn’t want to get up and cook breakfast. Well, I was dozing off again when I thinks I hears a deep sound of “boom!” away up the river. I rouses up, and rests on my elbow and listens; pretty soon I hears it again. I hopped up, and went and looked out at a hole in the leaves, and I see a bunch of smoke laying on the water a long ways up—about abreast the ferry. And there was the ferryboat full of people floating along down. I knowed what was the matter now. "Boom!” I see the white smoke squirt out of the ferryboat’s side. You see, they was firing cannon over the water, trying to make my carcass come to the top.
I was pretty hungry, but it warn’t going to do for me to start a fire, because they might see the smoke. So I set there and watched the cannon-smoke and listened to the boom. The river was a mile wide there, and it always looks pretty on a summer morning—so I was having a good enough time seeing them hunt for my remainders if I only had a bite to eat. Well, then I happened to think how they always put quicksilver in loaves of bread and float them off, because they always go right to the drownded carcass and stop there. So, says I, I’ll keep a lookout, and if any of them’s floating around after me I’ll give them a show. I changed to the Illinois edge of the island to see what luck I could have, and I warn’t disappointed. A big double loaf come along, and I most got it with a long stick, but my foot slipped and she floated out further. Of course I was where the current set in the closest to the shore—I knowed enough for that. But by and by along comes another one, and this time I won. I took out the plug and shook out the little dab of quicksilver, and set my teeth in. It was “baker’s bread”—what the quality eat; none of your low-down corn-pone.
I got a good place amongst the leaves, and set there on a log, munching the bread and watching the ferry-boat, and very well satisfied. And then something struck me. I says, now I reckon the widow or the parson or somebody prayed that this bread would find me, and here it has gone and done it. So there ain’t no doubt but there is something in that thing—that is, there’s something in it when a body like the widow or the parson prays, but it don’t work for me, and I reckon it don’t work for only just the right kind.
I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke, and went on watching. The ferryboat was floating with the current, and I allowed I’d have a chance to see who was aboard when she come along, because she would come in close, where the bread did. When she’d got pretty well along down towards me, I put out my pipe and went to where I fished out the bread, and laid down behind a log on the bank in a little open place. Where the log forked I could peep through.
By and by she come along, and she drifted in so close that they could a run out a plank and walked ashore. Most everybody was on the boat. Pap, and Judge Thatcher, and Bessie Thatcher, and Jo Harper, and Tom Sawyer, and his old Aunt Polly, and Sid and Mary, and plenty more. Everybody was talking about the murder, but the captain broke in and says:
“Look sharp, now; the current sets in the closest here, and maybe he’s washed ashore and got tangled amongst the brush at the water’s edge. I hope so, anyway.”
I didn’t hope so. They all crowded up and leaned over the rails, nearly in my face, and kept still, watching with all their might. I could see them first-rate, but they couldn’t see me.
“Stand away!” and the cannon let off such a blast right before me that it made me deef with the noise and pretty near blind with the smoke, and I judged I was gone. If they’d a had some bullets in, I reckon they’d a got the corpse they was after. Well, I see I warn’t hurt, thanks to goodness. The boat floated on and went out of sight around the shoulder of the island. I could hear the booming now and then, further and further off, and by and by, after an hour, I didn’t hear it no more. The island was three mile long. I judged they had got to the foot, and was giving it up. But they didn’t yet a while. They turned around the foot of the island and started up the channel on the Missouri side, under steam, and booming once in a while as they went. I crossed over to that side and watched them. When they got abreast the head of the island they quit shooting and dropped over to the Missouri shore and went home to the town.
I knowed I was all right now. Nobody else would come a-hunting after me. I got my traps out of the canoe and made me a nice camp in the thick woods. I made a kind of a tent out of my blankets to put my things under so the rain couldn’t get at them. I catched a catfish and haggled him open with my saw, and towards sundown I started my camp fire and had supper. Then I set out a line to catch some fish for breakfast.
An extract from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
* * *
Please note: this sample paper and the solutions that follow make reference to line numbers. This is because the above extract taken from Mark Twain’s novel is labelled with line numbers in the print and PDF editions of this booklet, and thus the line references may not match the formatting in this digital reproduction.
1. Why does the narrator judge that it is after eight o’clock?
a) The squirrels were awake and alert.
b) The sun was too high in the sky for it to have been earlier.
c) His sundial told him what time it was.
d) Too much light was coming through the trees.
Answer: ___
2. How does the narrator feel when he first wakes up?
a) Angry and irritable.
b) Relaxed and lethargic.
c) Abounding with energy.
d) Exhausted and unable to get up.
Answer: ___
3. What does the word ‘freckled’ mean in this context?
a) It relates to spotted animals.
b) It relates to freckles on the narrator’s face.
c) It relates to dots of light.
d) It relates to spotted leaves on the trees.
Answer: ___
4. What do you think the word ‘jabbered’ means at line 7?
a) Chattered.
b) Struck out.
c) Spat.
d) Looked.
Answer: ___
5. What causes the narrator to stop dozing?
a) The sound of a boat moving through water grabs his attention.
b) His hunger becomes too great to ignore.
c) The sound of a cannon grabs his attention.
d) The breeze causes the temperature to drop.
Answer: ___
6. According to the narrator, why does the ship’s captain fire the cannon?
a) To get the narrator’s attention.
b) To get any corpses in the water to float to the top.
c) To attack an enemy ship.
d) As part of a festival performance.
Answer: ___
7. According to the narrator, why are the loaves of bread filled with quicksilver?
a) Quicksilver causes the bread to float.
b) People believed that quicksilver would stop people from eating the bread.
c) People believed that quicksilver would stop animals from eating the bread.
d) People believed that quicksilver floated towards dead bodies.
Answer: ___
8. How does the narrator label the bread he ends up eating?
a) Baker’s bread.
b) Quality bread.
c) Low-down corn-pone.
d) Quicksilver bread.
Answer: ___
9. Which is the most accurate statement regarding the narrator at the end of paragraph 3?
a) He woke up hungry and remains in a state of deep hunger.
b) He is incredibly happy that people are looking for him and hopes to be saved from the island.
c) He loathes the island but does not wish to be found.
d) He feels relaxed and easy on the island and does not wish to be found.
Answer: ___
10. Which phrase best describes the purpose of the first three paragraphs?
a) To make the proceeding paragraphs seem exciting by comparison.
b) To make the island seem like a terrible place to live.
c) To set the scene and make clear that the narrator is in hiding.
d) To make the reader strongly dislike the narrator.
Answer: ___
11. Where does the narrator sit while eating his bread?
a) On the ground.
b) Where the water meets the shore.
c) On a log.
d) In the mud.
Answer: ___
12. Which of the following words taken from the passage best communicates the narrator’s pleasure as he eats and watches the boat?
a) Munching.
b) Satisfied.
c) Struck.
d) Reckon.
Answer: ___
13. What do you think the narrator means when he claims ‘something struck me’ at line 31.
a) That he had been hit by an object.
b) That a thought had suddenly occurred to him.
c) That he had experienced a sudden pain.
d) That a memory from his past had suddenly occurred to him.
Answer: ___
14. What do you think the narrator means when he says that praying ‘don’t work for only just the right kind’?
a) Praying is always useful, no matter who you are.
b) Praying can never yield results for anyone.
c) Prayer only yields results for certain types of people.
d) Only praying with the right kind of words will yield results.
Answer: ___
15. Why are the people on the boat unable to see the narrator when they pass right by him?
a) The thickness of the smoke makes it difficult for the people on the boat to see anything.
b) The narrator could see them through a hole in the log, yet was also hidden by this same log.
c) The people on the boat were too high up to see the narrator.
d) The people on the boat were too distracted by conversations they were having.
Answer: ___
16. Why do you think the narrator says he ‘didn’t hope so’ in response to the captain’s comment at lines 48 to 49?
a) Because the narrator has lost all hope.
b) Because the captain was saying that he hoped to find the narrator’s dead body.
c) Because the captain was saying that he hoped to capture the narrator.
d) Because the narrator simply wanted to contradict the captain, and there was no real meaning to the narrator’s words.
Answer: ___
17. Which of the following statements most accurately summarises who was on the boat?
a) Everyone the narrator had ever met was on the boat.
b) Exactly eight people were on the boat.
c) Exactly nine people were on the boat.
d) More than nine people were on the boat.
Answer: ___
18. What do you think the narrator means by the phrase: ‘I judged I was gone’ (line 54).
a) He believed he was about to die.
b) He believed he had been spotted by the people on the boat.
c) He believed he had been rejected from society.
d) A judge had sentenced him to death.
Answer: ___
19. Which of the following phrases is a metaphor?
a) The cannon let off such a blast.
b) The head of the island.
c) The boat floated on.
d) The island was three mile long.
Answer: ___
20. The phrase ‘booming now and then’ contains which literary technique?
a) Pun.
b) Simile.
c) Onomatopoeia.
d) Personification.
Answer: ___
21. Which phrase in the third paragraph do you think might mean ‘wealthier people’?
a) Drownded carcass.
b) Big double loaf.
c) The quality.
d) Quicksilver.
Answer: ___
22. How long is the island on which the narrator is currently located?
a) Three miles.
b) Four miles.
c) The length of a plank.
d) A foot.
Answer: ___
23. Why do you think the narrator feels comfortable enough to start setting up camp?
a) Because there is no rain and no sign that there will be rain.
b) The narrator does not in fact start setting up camp at all.
c) Because the ship had returned to town and the narrator feels convinced nobody else will come looking for him.
d) Because, after eating the bread, he felt he finally had the strength to do so.
Answer: ___
24. What does the narrator use for shelter as he sets up camp?
a) The log.
b) His canoe.
c) He does not use any shelter.
d) His blankets.
Answer: ___
25. What does the narrator plan to eat for breakfast the next day?
a) Freshly caught fish.
b) Bread from the previous day.
c) The remains of the catfish he ate for supper.
d) The passage does not say.
Answer: ___
Paper One: Answers & Guidance
1. Why does the narrator judge that it is after eight o’clock?
a) The squirrels were awake and alert.
b) The sun was too high in the sky for it to have been earlier.
c) His sundial told him what time it was.
d) Too much light was coming through the trees.
Answer: B
* * *
There are two key methods available to us when tackling multiple choice questions: we can either work out the correct answer outright, or we can eliminate the incorrect answers. However, it’s often useful to use a blend of these two methods. This allows us to double-check our answers when we think we’ve found the correct one, but also allows us to better our odds by removing incorrect answers when we are unable to figure out the correct answer straight away.
Now, this particular question largely tests our retrieval skills – that is, our ability to comb through the extract and pick out a detail. Retrieval questions are some of the most basic questions you’ll find in 11+ multi-choice comprehension papers, though that doesn’t mean they can’t sometimes be tricky – especially when the details are hidden in big, long paragraphs!
The information we need to figure out this question, however, is not hidden. It is contained in very opening sentence: ‘The sun was up so high when I waked that I judged it was after eight o’clock’. Immediately, we can see that it was the sun – and its positioning in the sky – that allowed the narrator to judge that it was after eight o’clock, which indicates that (b) is the correct answer.
Yet one can confirm this through the process of elimination. The sentence above tells us it was the sun (not the squirrels) that allowed Finn to judge the time, meaning we can eliminate (a). There is also no mention of a sundial at any point, so (c) can also be eliminated. Finally, while one might assume the quantity of light would increase as the sun moves higher, this is not what allows the narrator to judge the time, thereby eliminating (d).
2. How does the narrator feel when he first wakes up?
a) Angry and irritable.
b) Relaxed and lethargic.
c) Abounding with energy.
d) Exhausted and unable to get up.
Answer: B
* * *
This question tests our retrieval skills, but also our vocabulary skills. This is because the correct answer in the multiple-choice selection does not use the exact same vocabulary as the author, but instead uses synonyms – words that are very similar in meaning to the ones used by the author. As a result, the broader our vocabulary, the better our chances of success.
At lines 2-3, the narrator reports that he was ‘feeling rested and ruther comfortable and satisfied’ – this is the first piece of information we need. However, to land conclusively on an answer, we also want to take into account the extra information given at line 8: that Finn was feeling ‘powerful lazy and comfortable.’
The words ‘comfortable’ and ‘satisfied’ – especially when taken together – are very close in meaning to ‘relaxed.’ Meanwhile, the word ‘lazy’ is very similar in meaning to ‘lethargic’. The correct answer, therefore, is (b).
However, it is also possible to deduce the correct answer through the process of elimination. We can eliminate (a), since there is no evidence that he is ‘angry and irritable’. We know he is not ‘exhausted’, because this means the exact opposite of ‘feeling rested’, so we can eliminate (d).
Finally, we can eliminate (c), due to the phrase ‘powerful lazy’. Here ‘powerful’ is being used not as an adjective – it is not saying that Finn is feeling powerful – but instead as an adverb: it is telling us the extent to which Finn is feeling lazy. The phrase, then, is similar in meaning to the phrase ‘very lazy’. As a result, we know the narrator is not abounding with energy, thus eliminating (c).
3. What does the word ‘freckled’ mean in this context?
a) It relates to spotted animals.
b) It relates to freckles on the narrator’s face.
c) It relates to dots of light.
d) It relates to spotted leaves on the trees.
Answer: C
* * *
Here we have a definition-style question. Notice that it is asking us what the word ‘freckled’ means ‘in this context’. This is an acknowledgement that certain words have more than one meaning, and that the context can give us a clue as to which meaning the author is going with.
My advice? Although not all definition-style questions use the phrase ‘in this context’, I would suggest always keeping in mind how context might impact meaning.
Now, the first step is to re-read how the word is used in the extract: ‘There was freckled places on the ground where the light sifted down through the leaves, and the freckled places swapped about a little’.
Reading this carefully, we can see that the ‘freckled places’ are areas on the ‘ground’ where the narrator can see ‘light’. As a result, the correct answer is (c): it relates to dots of light.
Option (b) is trying to trip us up. Many students will have heard the word ‘freckled’ used to describe someone who has freckles on their face. However, while this is a valid definition of the word, it is not how the author is using it.
Option (d) is also trying to slip us up, but in a different way. The quote above describes how the ‘light sifted down through the leaves’ – in other words, how the sunlight made its way through gaps in the leaves to reach the ground: it has nothing to do with spotted leaves. However, some hasty students may well see the word ‘leaves’ near the word ‘freckled’ and mistakenly go with option (d).
Finally, there is no mention of animals in this sentence, so we can safely eliminate (a).
4. What do you think the word ‘jabbered’ means at line 7?
a) Chattered.
b) Struck out.
c) Spat.
d) Looked.
Answer: A
* * *
To my mind, ‘jabbered’ means to talk in a quick and incomprehensible way. However, none of the four options perfectly capture this.
I find when dealing with multiple choice questions that it sometimes helps to think of the mission not as one of finding the correct answer, but as one of finding the best answer of the choices available. Remember, while examiners may seem scary, they are human beings, and sometimes their questions are not completely and utterly perfect. (In fact – though this is very, very rare – I have even on occasion seen outright mistakes in 11+ papers!).
Let’s look at the word ‘jabbered’ in the context Mark Twain (the extract’s author!) uses it: ‘A couple of squirrels set on a limb and jabbered at me very friendly.’
We know the squirrels’ jabbering is described as ‘very friendly’. This allows us to confidently eliminate options (b) and (c), because to strike out at someone means to hit them, which is not something associated with friendly behaviour – and the same goes for spitting at someone.
The word ‘looked’ would be able to replace the word ‘jabbered’ in this sentence in a way that makes sense; however, we know the word ‘jabbered’ means to talk in an incomprehensible way, and ‘chattered’ means to talk. As a result, ‘chattered’ is a much better option than ‘looked’ – ergo (a) is the correct answer.
(Oh, and ergo is Latin for therefore!)
5. What causes the narrator to stop dozing?
a) The sound of a boat moving through water grabs his attention.
b) His hunger becomes too great to ignore.
c) The sound of a cannon grabs his attention.
d) The breeze causes the temperature to drop.
Answer: C
* * *
Again, we are back in retrieval territory: we need to comb the extract carefully for the correct information.
At lines 9-10, we are told what causes Finn to wake up from his doze: ‘Well, I was dozing off again when I thinks I hears a deep sound of “boom!” away up the river.’
Immediately, this allows us to eliminate (b) and (d), since we know it was a noise that caused the narrator to stop dozing, not his hunger or a change in temperature.
The word ‘boom’ itself is something we would associate with gunfire or cannon fire, and thus many students will likely already be able to tell that the correct answer is (c) as opposed to (a). However, this is confirmed when, after another appearance of the word ‘boom’, the narrator notes that ‘they was firing cannon over the water’.
6. According to the narrator, why does the ship’s captain fire the cannon?
a) To get the narrator’s attention.
b) To get any corpses in the water to float to the top.
c) To attack an enemy ship.
d) As part of a festival performance.
Answer: B
* * *
This is another retrieval question. The key quote is at lines 14-15: ‘You see, they was firing cannon over the water, trying to make my carcass come to the top’. According to the narrator, as this quote shows, the cannon was fired to try to get any corpses in the water – namely, Finn’s corpse – to rise to the top. The correct answer, then, is (b).
Options (c) and (d) are easy enough to eliminate: there is no mention of either an enemy ship or a festival. While the sound of the cannon does get the narrator’s attention, this is not why it was fired by the captain, and thus (a) can be eliminated, too.
7. According to the narrator, why are the loaves of bread filled with quicksilver?
a) Quicksilver causes the bread to float.
b) People believed that quicksilver would stop people from eating the bread.
c) People believed that quicksilver would stop animals from eating the bread.
d) People believed that quicksilver floated towards dead bodies.
Answer: D
* * *
Again, this is another retrieval-style question.
The key quote is at lines 20-21: ‘…they always put quicksilver in loaves of bread and float them off, because they always go right to the drownded carcass and stop there’. Here, the narrator tells us explicitly that quicksilver is placed in bread due to the belief that that bread will then float towards any dead body (‘drowned carcass’). As a result, (d) is the correct answer.
We can eliminate (b) and (c) with confidence: there is no mention that quicksilver stops animals eating the bread, and the quicksilver is easily removed by Finn later in the passage, thereby failing to stop him eating the bread.
Option (a) is trying to trip us up, because – according to the narrator – people do put quicksilver in the bread to make it float, and we see the quicksilver infused bread floating in this extract. However, people do not put quicksilver in bread just to make it float, and thus option (d), which focuses on the ultimate reason the bread is filled with quicksilver, is the best answer available to us.
8. How does the narrator label the bread he ends up eating?
a) Baker’s bread
b) Quality bread
c) Low-down corn-pone
d) Quicksilver bread.
Answer: A
* * *
The key quote to decode this question is at line 29: just after Finn ‘set [his] teeth’ into the bread, he says: ‘It was “baker’s bread”—what the quality eat; none of your low-down corn-pone.’ He is clearly labelling it ‘baker’s bread’, meaning (a) is the correct answer.
Although Finn describes the bread he is eating as what the ‘quality eat’, the bread itself is not referred to as ‘quality bread’, meaning (b) is incorrect. The phrase ‘low-down corn-pone’ seems to be referring to low-quality bread, and Finn is telling us that this was not the kind of bread he was eating, so (c) is incorrect.
Finally, while the bread had been filled with quicksilver, Finn never labels it ‘Quicksilver bread’, thus (d) is incorrect.
9. Which is the most accurate statement regarding the narrator at the end of paragraph 3?
a) He woke up hungry and remains in a state of deep hunger.
b) He is incredibly happy that people are looking for him and hopes to be saved from the island.
c) He loathes the island but does not wish to be found.
d) He feels relaxed and easy on the island and does not wish to be found.
Answer: D
* * *
Although this is another retrieval-style question, it’s somewhat more tricky, as it is not just asking us to pick out a certain detail; it is asking us to demonstrate an understanding of the content of three whole paragraphs and how things might have changed over the course of these paragraphs.
To my mind, when faced with a broad-brush retrieval question like this, the process of elimination is our best bet.
While Huckleberry Finn wakes up hungry, we can eliminate (a), because by the end of paragraph three he has managed to source some food – the bread – and thus he is no longer in a state of deep hunger.
Option (b) asserts that Finn hopes to be saved from the island. However, at the start of paragraph two, Finn refuses to start a fire ‘because they [the people on the boat] might see the smoke’. From this we can infer that he does not in fact wish to be found, thereby eliminating (b).
Although option (c) is correct in asserting that Finn does not wish to be found, the assertion that he loathes (hates) the island does not tally with the first three paragraphs. On the contrary, he talks about ‘cool shade’ and feeling ‘comfortable’, which does not suggest he loathes the island.
Finally, we arrive at (d). Again, like option (c), this one correctly states that Finn does not wish to be found. Yet it also states that he feels relaxed and easy on the island, which is also correct. Option (d), then, is the correct answer.
10. Which phrase best describes the purpose of the first three paragraphs?
a) To make the proceeding paragraphs seem exciting by comparison.
b) To make the island seem like a terrible place to live.
c) To set the scene and make clear that the narrator is in hiding.
d) To make the reader strongly dislike the narrator.
Answer: C
* * *
This question is quite different to what we have seen already, because it is not asking us directly about the content, but about what we believe the author’s intentions to be.
Now, people will often fiercely debate an author’s intentions when studying literature. As a result, having a multiple choice question on it, where we have to identify a definitive ‘correct’ answer, is (in my opinion) quite strange – after all, how can we say for sure what the author’s intentions are? However, questions like this do occasionally appear in 11+ papers, and we are here to score marks, and not to debate the examiner.
This is one of those occasions, then, where it is best to think of our task as looking for the best answer of the bunch. So let’s dive in.
Option (a) is suggesting that the first three paragraphs function to make the paragraphs that come after it seem more exciting by comparison. Do we feel that the first three paragraphs are significantly more dull than the ones that come after it – so much so that they make the paragraphs that follow seem significantly more exciting? The answer to this is subjective; but given that there is cannon fire and the appearance of a search party in the first three paragraphs, it seems unfair in my view to say it is significantly more boring. As a result, (a) does not seem that strong an answer.
Option (b) suggests that the purpose of the opening three paragraphs is to make the island seem like a terrible place to live. Now, the living circumstances described might seem terrible to some people; but since the protagonist seems to find it quite comfortable, it seems unlikely that this was the author’s intention, so (b) is unlikely to be the correct answer.
Option (c) is suggesting that the purpose is to set the scene and establish that the narrator is in hiding. The first three paragraphs do indeed set the scene – namely, the island – and tell us that the narrator is in hiding. It could be debated whether this was the author’s intended purpose, but (c) definitely seems like a very sensible answer.
Finally, we have option (d), which is asserting the purpose is to make the reader strongly dislike the narrator. Some people may like the narrator on the basis of these paragraphs, and some readers may dislike him – it’s a matter of opinion. However, the narrator is not doing anything that a majority of people would consider really immoral or horrible, and his voice is unlikely to make most people dislike him; so it is highly unlikely the examiner is looking for (d).
Our best answer, then, is (c).
11. Where does the narrator sit while eating his bread?
a) On the ground.
b) Where the water meets the shore.
c) On a log.
d) In the mud.
Answer: C
* * *
We are back in more familiar retrieval territory with this question.
At line 30, the narrator says the following: ‘I got a good place amongst the leaves, and set there on a log, munching the bread’. The narrator uses a dialect from the American south, which means he uses the word ‘set’ instead of ‘sat’, which some students may find confusing. However, once we work this out, it is clear that he is sitting on the log as he eats his bread. Ergo, (c) is the correct answer.
12. Which of the following words taken from the passage best communicates the narrator’s pleasure as he eats and watches the boat?
a) Munching.
b) Satisfied.
c) Struck.
d) Reckon.
Answer: B
* * *
In many respects, this is a definition question – which of these four words are the most closely aligned with the idea of pleasure? Immediately, the word ‘satisfied’ – option (b) – stands out.
To double-check, it is sensible to re-read the relevant passage, just to make sure that none of these other words are not being used in an unusual way that complicates things. However, on this occasion, this is not the case.
Some students might be tempted by option (a). However, while ‘munching’ food is something we quite often associate with pleasure, it does not have to be pleasurable – after all, we could be munching something miserably, and thus (a) is a weaker answer.
13. What do you think the narrator means when he claims ‘something struck me’ at line 31.
a) That he had been hit by an object.
b) That a thought had suddenly occurred to him.
c) That he had experienced a sudden pain.
d) That a memory from his past had suddenly occurred to him.
Answer: B
* * *
This question is asking us to define not a solitary word, but a phrase. Crucially, it illustrates the importance of context, because people use the expression to be ‘struck’ by something both literally – when they have been hit physically by something – and metaphorically: when a memory or a thought has struck their mind.
Immediately after the narrator uses this phrase, we can see that the narrator is contemplating the nature of prayer. We can thus tell that he is using the phrase ‘struck’ metaphorically, not literally, so option (a) is incorrect. Moreover, it is a thought, not a memory, that has struck him, so (d) is incorrect, too.
We can also eliminate (c), because the thought that has struck Finn does not seem to have induced any sudden pain.
Option (b), then, is the correct answer.
14. What do you think the narrator means when he says that praying ‘don’t work for only just the right kind’?
a) Praying is always useful, no matter who you are.
b) Praying can never yield results for anyone.
c) Prayer only yields results for certain types of people.
d) Only praying with the right kind of words will yield results.
Answer: C
* * *
This is a tricky question, because the phrase it is asking us to decode is quite unusual.
Our first step is to read the phrase in context.
Here is the relevant quote: ‘there’s something in it when a body like the widow or the parson prays, but it don’t work for me, and I reckon it don’t work for only just the right kind.’
Finn is saying that when a widow or a parson (a type of religious person) prays, it works, but it does not work for him. The final phrase – the bit we are being asked about – sees him summarising his thought: he is saying that prayer only works only for a certain, ‘right’ kind of person. As a result, (c) is the correct answer.
What is particularly tricky is the use of the word ‘don’t’ in the quote, which makes it seem as though Finn might be saying the opposite – that praying doesn’t work for that ‘right’ kind of person. The way he is speaking is very similar to the confusing linguistic device known as a double-negative, and it is something you see in certain conversational types of speech.
Think of the phrase: ‘That won’t do you no good’. It in fact means ‘that won’t do you any good’, even though it is technically saying the exact opposite! This illustrates yet again why it’s important to look at words and phrases in context, because the context can often shed light on the overall tone. It can give an indication, for instance, whether a character is being positive or negative about something, and that in turn can then guide your answer.
15. Why are the people on the boat unable to see the narrator when they pass right by him?
a) The thickness of the smoke makes it difficult for the people on the boat to see anything.
b) The narrator could see them through a hole in the log, yet was also hidden by this same log.
c) The people on the boat were too high up to see the narrator.
d) The people on the boat were too distracted by conversations they were having.
Answer: B
* * *
At line 41, we learn that Finn positioned himself behind a log (‘laid down behind a log on the bank’) and that, from this vantage point, he is able to observe the boat through a gap in the log: ‘Where the log forked I could peep through.’
Later, at lines 51-52, we learn that as the boat passes by, the people on it are unable to see Finn, but he can see them: ‘I could see them first-rate, but they couldn’t see me.’
Taken all together, it is clear that option (b) is the correct answer: he is concealed from view by the log, yet can see the people on the boat through a gap in it.
Although Finn does mention that there is a ‘bunch of smoke’, he never says that it reduces anyone’s visibility, so option (a) is incorrect. There is also no indication that the people on the boat were too high up to see Finn, thereby eliminating (c); and we are told that the people on the boat are ‘watching with all their might’, which eliminates the suggestion in (d) that these people were too distracted by conversation.
16. Why do you think the narrator says he ‘didn’t hope so’ in response to the captain’s comment at lines 48 to 49?
a) Because the narrator has lost all hope.
b) Because the captain was saying that he hoped to find the narrator’s dead body.
c) Because the captain was saying that he hoped to capture the narrator.
d) Because the narrator simply wanted to contradict the captain, and there was no real meaning to the narrator’s words.
Answer: B
* * *
Let’s take a look at the captain’s comment (at lines 48-49) to which the narrator is replying: ‘…maybe he’s washed ashore and got tangled amongst the brush at the water’s edge. I hope so, anyway’.
The captain is, in effect, saying that he hopes that the narrator, Huckleberry Finn, has washed ashore; and, given that the captain is leading a search party that has already shown that it is trying to locate a corpse, and the fact that someone still alive would likely struggle loose of the ‘brush’ at the water’s edge, we can infer that this is so they can track down Finn’s dead body. As a result, option (b) is the correct answer: Finn is humorously hoping that they do not find him dead and tangled among the brush!
Option (c) is trying to catch out those who do not realise that the captain appears to be on the hunt for Finn’s dead boy. Options (a) and (d), on the other hand, are trying to catch out those who do not take the time to re-read the captain’s comments!
17. Which of the following statements most accurately summarises who was on the boat?
a) Everyone the narrator had ever met was on the boat.
b) Exactly eight people were on the boat.
c) Exactly nine people were on the boat.
d) More than nine people were on the boat.
Answer: D
* * *
This question – a retrieval-skills exercise – requires an attention to detail.
At lines 44-46, we have the following information: ‘Pap, and Judge Thatcher, and Bessie Thatcher, and Jo Harper, and Tom Sawyer, and his old Aunt Polly, and Sid and Mary, and plenty more’.
This list amounts to eight people, and the captain makes nine. However, since the narrator tells us there are ‘plenty more’, we know that there are in fact more than nine people on the boat. As a result, (d) is the correct answer.
18. What do you think the narrator means by the phrase: ‘I judged I was gone’ (line 54).
a) He believed he was about to die.
b) He believed he had been spotted by the people on the boat.
c) He believed he had been rejected from society.
d) A judge had sentenced him to death.
Answer: A
* * *
This line comes directly after the cannon is fired again and momentarily renders Finn deaf and blind. Given the context of a weapon firing, and the fact that ‘gone’ is a colloquialism for having passed away, we can infer that (a) is the correct answer.
A colloquialism, by the way, is an informal or conversational kind of word or phrase.
19. Which of the following phrases is a metaphor?
a) The cannon let off such a blast.
b) The head of the island.
c) The boat floated on.
d) The island was three mile long.
Answer: B
* * *
A metaphor is a linguistic device in which one thing is implicitly compared or likened to another thing. A similar technical term is a simile, which is when one thing is explicitly compared to another using the word ‘like’ or ‘as’.
Let’s briefly look at the difference between the two.
If I were to say: ‘The pain felt like fire coursing through my body’, this would be a simile, because I am using the word ‘like’ to compare my pain to fire.
However, if I were instead to say: ‘The pain was a fire coursing through my body’, this would be a metaphor. I’m still likening my pain to fire, but this time I’m not using the word ‘like’ and ‘as’ to make that comparison explicit.
Technically speaking, a simile is a type of metaphor; but for the sake of 11+ exams, it’s best to think of them as two separate entities.
Now, the correct answer to the question above is (b). This is because the island does not literally have a head. Instead, the narrator is implicitly likening the top of the island to a head.
Quite simply, there are no other implicit comparisons in any of the three other options, so they cannot be metaphors. The island, for instance, is not being likened to ‘three miles’ in option (d); it is quite literally three miles long. As a result, we can also eliminate all the other options.
20. The phrase ‘booming now and then’ contains which literary technique?
a) Pun.
b) Simile.
c) Onomatopoeia.
d) Personification.
Answer: C
* * *
Onomatopoeia is when you have a word that audibly sounds like the thing it is describing. The word ‘sizzle’, for instance, sounds similar to when something sizzles. The word ‘crash’ sounds like the phenomenon of objects colliding.
Boom is another example of onomatopoeia. As such, (c) is the correct option.
We have just discussed similes in the previous question; so the fact that there is no comparison using the word ‘like’ or ‘as’ here means it cannot be a simile, and thus (b) is incorrect.
A pun is a type of play on words. To illustrate, there is an old joke that goes as follows:
‘Excuse me sir, are you a piece of string?’
‘No, I’m a frayed knot.’
The phrase ‘frayed knot’ sounds almost indistinguishable to the expression ‘afraid not’ – a common phrase people say after the word ‘no’. This is an example, then, of a pun.
There is no such joke in the question above; as a result, (a) is incorrect.
Finally, we have the word personification. This is when human attributes are given to non-human or even inanimate things. If I were to say: ‘the ship was sneezing out cannon balls’, this would be personification: sneezing is something humans do, yet I’m assigning the ability to a ship. However, since there is no such technique in the question above, we know (d) is also incorrect.
21. Which phrase in the third paragraph do you think might mean ‘wealthier people’?
a) drownded carcass
b) big double loaf
c) the quality
d) quicksilver
Answer: C
* * *
The trick here is to look at each of these expressions in their contexts.
That said, some are fairly clearly incorrect. A ‘drowned carcass’, for example, is referring to a dead body, and is plainly incorrect. ‘Quicksilver’ is a type of metal and is, again, incorrect. We can therefore eliminate (a) and (d).
The phrase ‘big double loaf’ could conceivably be used metaphorically to refer to wealthy people – in a similar way that the expression ‘fat cat’ does. However, if we look at the phrase in context, we can see that Huckleberry Finn is referring to a literal loaf of bread, so (b) is off the table.
In fact, we are told the bread Finn is eating is ‘what the quality eat’. It is plain that he is talking about a group of people who would be likely to eat this kind of bread; moreover, ‘quality’ is also a word associated with wealth. As a result, even though the process of elimination has already led us to (c), it is also makes perfect sense that (c) is the correct answer.
22. How long is the island on which the narrator is currently located?
a) Three miles.
b) Four miles.
c) The length of a plank.
d) A foot.
Answer: A
* * *
This is a pure retrieval-style question.
At lines 58-59, Finn tells us that ‘The island was three mile long’. Accordingly, (a) is the correct answer.
23. Why do you think the narrator feels comfortable enough to start setting up camp?
a) Because there is no rain and no sign that there will be rain.
b) The narrator does not in fact start setting up camp at all.
c) Because the ship had returned to town and the narrator feels convinced nobody else will come looking for him.
d) Because, after eating the bread, he felt he finally had the strength to do so.
Answer: C
* * *
This question requires some light inference to glean the correct answer.
At the end of the penultimate (second to last) paragraph, Finn observes that the ship that was searching for him ‘quit shooting and dropped over to the Missouri shore and went home to the town’.
Immediately after this, Finn says that he ‘was all right now’, that ‘Nobody else would come a-hunting after’ him, then launches into setting up camp. Although the causation is not made explicit, it is made fairly clear that he feels comfortable doing so because the search party has departed and because he feels certain nobody else is coming for him.
Option (c), then, is the correct answer.
24. What does the narrator use for shelter as he sets up camp?
a) The log.
b) His canoe.
c) He does not use any shelter.
d) His blankets.
Answer: D
* * *
This is a more straightforward retrieval question.
At lines 66-67, the narrator makes clear that he uses blankets to create a shelter: ‘I made a kind of a tent out of my blankets to put my things under so the rain couldn’t get at them’. Accordingly, (d) is the correct answer.
25. What does the narrator plan to eat for breakfast the next day?
a) Freshly caught fish.
b) Bread from the previous day.
c) The remains of the catfish he ate for supper.
d) The passage does not say.
Answer: A
* * *
In the very final sentence of the extract, Finn tells us that he puts out a fishing line, so he can catch a fresh fish to eat at breakfast the next day: ‘Then I set out a line to catch some fish for breakfast’. In consequence, option (a) is the correct answer.
You can purchase a copy of 11+ Creative Writing from our friends at any of these booksellers:
Books customers also bought:
To learn about our tutoring and education services, please click here.
To check out our complete catalogue of educational guides, workbooks and core learning materials, please click here to visit our resource library.
Any questions or feedback for our staff? Need support in your exam preparations? Want to purchase our resources on behalf of a school? Please don't hesitate to contact our amazing team at info@accoladetuition.com, and we shall endeavour to reply within 48 hours. Alternatively, feel free to submit via our contact form here.
Meet the Accolade team here. We are at your service!
Head over to Twitter to keep up with the latest Accolade Press news! Also: we'd love to hear about your learning journey: use the hashtags #AccoladeGuides and #revision11+ to spread the word and blog your thoughts and feelings.
* * *
Click here for our online privacy policy.
Cookies are important. Our current cookie policy can be viewed here.
"Knowledge is power" - Francis Bacon