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Reading: show how the text supports the answer

Reading questions can ask you to locate a detail, connect clues or evaluate a claim. Use the same short passage below for three different kinds of thinking. You may reread it at any time.

Adaptigo is an independent learning platform, not affiliated with or endorsed by ACARA. These original NAPLAN-style examples are not official test questions or results.

Read: A later library evening

For four Thursdays, the town library stayed open until seven instead of five. Staff recorded sixty evening visits during the trial. A suggestion box received twelve comments supporting the later hours and one asking for a quieter study area. The manager welcomed the response but noted that visits were not the same as individual visitors: some people returned each week. Before deciding on permanent hours, staff planned to compare costs and ask residents who had not attended what times would suit them.

You can reread this original passage while answering.

What to notice

A literal detail is directly stated. An inference connects information the writer supplies. An evaluation asks how strongly the information supports a conclusion. These are related skills, but they require different checks.

What to do

Underline the words that matter to the question. Say what they establish and avoid filling gaps with a story of your own. When an option uses words such as every or exactly, check whether the passage really supports that precision.

Why it works

Evidence anchors an interpretation in the text. It also helps reject an answer that sounds sensible in everyday life but is not established by this particular passage.

Work through an example

Why is a count of visits not necessarily a count of different people?

  1. The passage says some people returned each week.
  2. One person can create several visits. Therefore sixty visits need not mean sixty different visitors.
  3. This does not tell us the exact number of individual visitors; that information remains unknown.

A common mistake

Repeating a number from a passage does not make a claim accurate. Keep the label attached: visits, visitors and comments count different things.

A strategy to try

For each option, ask whether it is stated, reasonably inferred or unsupported. If two answers seem plausible, compare their scope: one may claim more than the passage allows.

Try it now

Try three questions

No account is needed. These examples do not change saved learning progress. Choose an answer and check it for an explanation; you can try again.

Year 3 · Reading

1. During the trial, what time did the library close on Thursdays?
Help: a starting point

Find the first sentence about the trial opening hours.

Help: the next step

Distinguish the new closing time from the usual one and the number of Thursdays.

Year 7 · Reading

2. Why do staff plan to ask residents who did not attend?
Help: a starting point

Identify whose views the trial comments already provide.

Help: the next step

Consider what information people who did not attend might add.

Year 9 · Reading

3. Which claim goes beyond what the passage establishes?
Help: a starting point

Check the difference between a visit and an individual visitor.

Help: the next step

Look for a claim that treats the visit count as a count of unique people.

For parents and carers

Younger readers can begin with the directly stated closing time. Older readers can discuss the purpose of seeking other residents’ views and the limits of the visit count. Ask for a supporting phrase before revealing feedback. The year labels describe these selected examples, not a reading-age assessment. The related comprehension guide offers a simpler story for practising evidence first.

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