ICSE Comprehension Practice – 5 Samples (Solved)

Practice Passage 1

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

A little crowd gathered at the far end of the playground just as the last bell
rang. Most students were hurrying towards the gate, eager to escape into the
freedom of the afternoon, but a thin boy in a faded blue shirt stood quite still,
staring at the noticeboard nailed to the wall beside the staff room. It was the
first time his name had ever appeared there.

The paper announced the list of participants for the Inter-School Science Fair.
His name, “Arjun Das – Model of a Wind-Powered Water Pump”, looked strange
and important in the neat black letters. For a moment he wondered if someone
had made a mistake, but the teacher passing by smiled and clapped him lightly
on the shoulder. “You earned it,” she said. “Don’t look so shocked.”	10

On the way home, the lane seemed different. The same cracked walls and
leaning electric poles lined the road, but Arjun noticed details he had never
troubled to see before – the angle of a tin roof catching the sun, the way a
plastic bag fluttered restlessly on a wire as if trying to turn itself into a kite.
He found himself imagining how the wind moved around these objects, how it
could be caught, guided and made to work.

At home, the one-room house was cluttered as usual with metal scraps, broken
buckets and an old bicycle his father kept promising to repair. His younger
sister was doing her homework at the small table, her feet tucked up on the
chair to avoid the cool floor. Their mother looked up from cutting vegetables,	20
surprised to see him still wearing his schoolbag.

“You’re late,” she said. “Did something happen?”

Arjun unfolded the crumpled note his teacher had given him and placed it
carefully on the table. The words were simple – the date of the fair, the venue,
the instruction to bring his working model – but to him they felt as heavy and as
delicate as glass. His sister let out a little gasp of delight when she understood,
and even his mother’s tired face softened into a slow smile.

That night, long after the others had gone to sleep, Arjun sat on the floor with
a notebook and a blunt pencil. The ceiling fan squeaked rhythmically above
him. Outside, the wind moved through the narrow lane, rattling loose sheets of	30
tin and setting the dry leaves whispering against the wall. He listened carefully,
as if the wind were trying to tell him its secrets, and began to sketch.

(i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the options provided: [2]

cluttered (line 17)
(a) cleaned
(b) crowded and untidy
(c) painted recently
(d) locked up
venue (line 24)
(a) prize
(b) judge
(c) place where an event is held
(d) time of an event

(ii) Which word in the passage is the opposite of “neat” ? [1]

(a) delicate
(b) faded
(c) crumpled
(d) fluttered

(iii) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:

(a) Why did Arjun stand still at the noticeboard while most students hurried towards the gate? [2]
(b) Why did Arjun think that his name on the list might be a mistake? [2]
(c) In what two ways did the lane seem different to Arjun on the way home? [2]
(d) What details in the house show that the family did not have many resources? Give any two points. [2]
(e) Why did the words on the note feel “as heavy and as delicate as glass” to Arjun? [1]

(iv) In not more than 50 words, describe how being selected for the Science Fair affected Arjun’s thoughts and behaviour that day. Do not copy from the passage. Write the summary as a connected passage, in your own words. [8]

Practice Passage 2

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

The Nilam river had not run clear in thirty years. By the time Maya was
old enough to remember it, the water had turned a dull brown and smelled
of chemicals from the dye works upstream. Old people in the town spoke of
it the way they spoke of relatives who had moved far away — with fondness
and a quiet sadness. The fish were gone. The washerwomen no longer came
to the stone steps. Children were warned to stay away from the banks. The
river had become a problem to be managed, not a place to be loved.

It was a retired schoolteacher, Mr. Krishnaswamy, who first spoke about
taking the river back. He stood up at a town meeting, a thin man with a
loud voice, and said that the dye works did not have to poison the water	10
if the town had the will to stop them. People muttered and shifted in their
seats. The factory owners were respected men. But Mr. Krishnaswamy kept
talking, week after week, at street corners and school gates, until a small
group of residents agreed to file a complaint with the Pollution Control Board.

The results were slow and disappointing at first. The factory paid a small fine
and continued as before. But the group did not give up. They collected water
samples every month, documented the changes and shared their findings at
public meetings. Gradually, the press took notice, then the district authorities.
Within two years, the dye works had been forced to install treatment plants,
and the volume of effluent entering the river fell sharply.	20

Maya was sixteen when she first saw a kingfisher on the Nilam. She had
gone to the bank early one morning with a group of school volunteers to
plant saplings along the eroded edge. The bird sat on a low branch above
the water, its feathers a startling blue-orange against the grey morning.
It dipped once, plucked something silver from below the surface and was
gone. Maya stood very still, not wanting to break the moment. Around her,
the other students had stopped work too.

Mr. Krishnaswamy was there that morning. He watched the spot where the
kingfisher had been, his expression not triumphant but quietly satisfied. "This
is how change looks," he said. "Small, unexpected, and over too quickly.	30
But it comes back." He bent to press a sapling into the muddy bank, and
the volunteers followed, working in silence as the morning light spread
across the water.

(i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the options provided:

effluent (line 20)
(a) clean drinking water
(b) rainfall runoff
(c) a type of river fish
(d) liquid waste discharged from a factory
eroded (line 23)
(a) strengthened
(b) decorated
(c) worn away
(d) flooded

(ii) Which word in the passage is the opposite of "sharp" ?

(a) startling
(b) dull
(c) slowly
(d) quiet

(iii) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:

(a) How did the older residents of the town feel about the Nilam river, and why?
(b) Why did the people at the town meeting react with hesitation to Mr. Krishnaswamy's speech?
(c) How did the residents' group finally succeed in reducing pollution in the river?
(d) Give two details from the passage that show the river had begun to recover.
(e) What does Mr. Krishnaswamy mean when he says change "comes back"?

(iv) In not more than 50 words, describe how Mr. Krishnaswamy and the residents worked to restore the Nilam river.

Suggested Answers – Passage 2 (i) 1. (d), 2. (c) (ii) (b) (iii) (a) The older residents felt fond of the river but quietly sad about it, because they remembered it when it was clean and alive, w…

🔒 These Answers are Locked

Included in CORE

✔️ Full access to all study guides
✔️ All questions & answers unlocked
✔️ Clean, ad-free reading experience

✔️ New contents added regularly
✔️ 1-to-1 session at discounted price

✔️ Full access to all study guides
✔️ All questions & answers unlocked
✔️ Clean, ad-free reading experience
✔️ New contents added regularly
✔️ 1-to-1 session at discounted price

Unlock with CORE

Already a Member? Login here

Practice Passage 3

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

The bus dropped Priya at the edge of the village just before noon. She had
not visited since she was small, and the unpaved road leading to her
grandmother's house seemed narrower than she remembered, the mango trees
on either side taller and more tangled. A group of children paused their
game to watch her pass with her large city bag and clean white shoes.

Her grandmother, Thayamma, was already at the loom when Priya arrived.
The old woman sat upright on a low wooden bench, her fingers moving with
a practised sureness through threads of deep red, green and gold. She
glanced up, smiled, and returned immediately to her work without breaking
the rhythm.	10

"Sit," she said, nodding at a stool beside her. "You can watch. Then maybe
you can help."

Priya had grown up hearing that Thayamma was the best weaver in the
district. Their village had once been known for its silk borders — a pattern
of interlocking lotuses and peacock feathers passed down through families
over several generations. But the younger weavers had moved to the cities.
The looms stood empty in most houses. Only Thayamma and two elderly
neighbours still kept up the tradition.

"Why don't you use a machine?" Priya asked. "You could make twice as
many in the same time."	20

Thayamma did not pause her hands. "A machine makes cloth," she said.
"I make a story. Every border has a mistake somewhere — one lotus a little
different, one feather slightly smaller. That is the weaver's signature. A
machine doesn't know how to sign its name."

Priya was quiet for a moment. Then she asked if she could try. Thayamma
guided her hands to the shuttle — a small flat instrument used to carry the
thread across the warp. Priya pushed it through too quickly the first time
and tangled the threads. She felt her face go warm with embarrassment.
Thayamma patiently untangled the threads without a word and set the
loom right again.	30

By the end of the afternoon, Priya had managed three clean rows. She sat
back and studied them, imperfect and uneven but made entirely by her own
hands.

"Yours will have a signature too," said Thayamma. "That is not a flaw.
That is the proof that a human being made it."

(i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the options provided: practised (line 8)(a) still being learnt(b) done so often it is performed with great skill(…

🔒 Questions-Answers are Locked

Unlock with CORE

Already a Member? Login here

Practice Passage 4

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Nobody expected the old cinema hall to become a library. For twenty years
it had stood locked at the end of Market Street, its painted sign flaking,
its entrance blocked by a rusted iron chain. Pigeons nested in the gap
above the door. The municipality had discussed selling it, converting it,
even demolishing it, without ever reaching a decision. It had simply become
part of the background, one of those structures people stop noticing because
it has always been there.

Then a young architect named Devika was asked to prepare a survey of
unused public buildings in the district. When she pushed open the chained
gate and stepped inside with a torch, she stopped walking. The hall was	10
enormous — far larger than the narrow exterior suggested. The balcony
curved around on three sides, its iron railings intact. The ceiling had an
ornate plastered border, dusty but unbroken. Even the old projection booth
was there, its small square window still facing the blank white screen.

Devika submitted her report with a single recommendation: restore it as a
public library and community reading room. The proposal was met with
scepticism. Libraries were expensive to run, officials said. Who would use
it? Young people did not read any more. Books could be accessed online.
Devika listened and then asked one question: how many community spaces
did the district have where anyone could sit, think and be quiet for free?	20

The officials had no answer.

The restoration took eighteen months. Devika insisted on keeping as many
original features as possible — the curved balcony became the reference
section, the projection booth a small office, the sloped floor levelled to
accommodate reading tables. Local craftsmen repaired the plasterwork on
the ceiling. The iron railings were cleaned and repainted, not replaced.

On the opening day, a queue formed before the doors even opened. There
were elderly men, college students, mothers with small children, a group
of young boys who had heard there was free Wi‑Fi. By afternoon, every
seat in the building was taken. Devika stood at the back and watched,	30
saying nothing. Outside, the old flaking sign had been replaced with
clean, simple letters: The Market Street Reading Room.

(i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the options provided: ornate (line 13)(a) broken and crumbling(b) plain and simple(c) elaborately decorated(d) re…

🔒 Questions-Answers are Locked

Unlock with CORE

Already a Member? Login here

Practice Passage 5

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

The first thing Rohan noticed about the new science teacher was that she
never wrote anything on the board. Every other teacher he had known filled
the blackboard with notes the moment they entered the classroom, expecting
students to copy them down in silence. Ms. Iyer walked in, set her bag on
the table, and asked a question instead.

"How does a thermos flask keep tea hot?"

No one answered immediately. Some students flipped through their textbooks.
Others looked at the door as if hoping to escape. Rohan stared at the
flask she had placed on the table — a battered silver one, its stopper
worn smooth. He found himself actually thinking about it, turning the	10
problem around in his mind the way he turned a stone over to see what
was underneath.

"Vacuum," he said, not entirely sure he was right.

Ms. Iyer looked at him for a long moment. "Partly," she said. "Keep
going."

Rohan had never been asked to keep going before. In every other class,
an answer was either right or wrong. There was no room in between. He
fumbled his way through the idea of heat transfer, conduction, radiation,
and the silvered inner surface that reflected heat back. He used the wrong
words in several places. Ms. Iyer never interrupted him or corrected him	20
directly. She only asked small questions — "What happens to heat when it
has nowhere to go?" and "Why silver, do you think?" — that nudged him
gently back onto the right path without making him feel he had strayed.

At the end of the exchange, she turned to the class. "That," she said,
"is how science works. You begin with an incomplete idea, you question
it, and you inch your way towards something closer to the truth."

Rohan wrote nothing in his notebook that day. But as he walked home
through the dusty afternoon, he found he could explain to himself, in his
own words and in the right order, exactly how a thermos flask worked.
He had never been able to do that with something copied off a board.	30

(i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the options provided: battered (line 9)(a) brand new and shiny(b) damaged and worn through use(c) carefully polis…

🔒 Questions-Answers are Locked

Unlock with CORE

Already a Member? Login here

Published: March 22, 2026 • Last updated: March 27, 2026

Portions of this article were developed with the assistance of AI tools and have been carefully reviewed, verified and edited by Jayanta Kumar Maity, M.A. in English, Editor & Co-Founder of Englicist.

We are committed to accuracy and clarity. If you notice any errors or have suggestions for improvement, please let us know.

Reading Comprehension

ICSE Comprehension Practice – 5 Samples (Solved)

Practice Passage 1

Suggested Answers for Passage 1

Practice Passage 2

Practice Passage 3

Practice Passage 4

Practice Passage 5

Reading Comprehension

ICSE Comprehension Practice – 5 Samples (Solved)

Practice Passage 1

Suggested Answers for Passage 1

Practice Passage 2

Practice Passage 3

Practice Passage 4

Practice Passage 5

Login to Continue