The Tryout: Reading Comprehension Worksheet (Grade 8)
Free printable Grade 8 reading comprehension worksheet: an original fiction passage, "The Tryout", with 8 factual and technique questions, each with a single correct answer. Answer key included.
Reading Comprehension: The Tryout
Read the passage carefully, then answer the questions. Where choices are given, select the best answer.
The pool at 5:45 a.m. was a sheet of grey glass, and Dev hated breaking it. He hated the cold, the chlorine, the black line that unspooled beneath him lap after lap. What he could not explain to anyone, least of all his father, was that he also loved it: the way the world narrowed to breath and count and reach.
State tryouts were in nine days. His rival, Marcus Webb, had beaten him by two tenths of a second at regionals, and two tenths had been living in Dev's head ever since, renting space, rearranging the furniture.
His coach saw it. "You're swimming his race," she said on Tuesday, tapping her clipboard. "Every split, you're checking lane six. Swim your own race. Negative split, easy first fifty, and finish over the top of him."
On the day, Dev did not look at lane six. He went out smooth and long, turned fourth at the wall, and built. At the final turn his lungs were burning coins, but the water felt fast, and he touched in first by a full second. Marcus reached across the lane rope, and the handshake was real.
"Your race," his coach said, showing him the splits. The second fifty was faster than the first.
- 1.What time does the passage say Dev was at the pool?
- 2.How many days away were the state tryouts?
- 3.By how much had Marcus beaten Dev at regionals?
- 4.What race plan did the coach give Dev?
- a) Sprint the first fifty as fast as possible
- b) Swim his own race: an easy first fifty, then a faster second fifty
- c) Watch lane six at every split
- d) Save everything for the final five metres
- 5.Which language technique is 'two tenths had been living in Dev's head ever since, renting space, rearranging the furniture'?
- a) Personification
- b) Simile
- c) Alliteration
- d) Onomatopoeia
- 6.Which language technique is 'his lungs were burning coins'?
- a) Metaphor
- b) Simile
- c) Onomatopoeia
- d) Hyperbole
- 7.What position was Dev in at the first wall?
- 8.What proved the coach's plan worked?
- a) Marcus was disqualified
- b) His second fifty was faster than the first and he won by a full second
- c) He broke the state record
- d) The race was cancelled