Year 9 ICAS English 5-Question Sample

Question 1 of 5 Syntax

In a language-conventions check in guided practice, which word correctly completes the sentence: "The players on the winning team ____ thrilled."

Language convention

Item	Task
The players on the winning team ____ thrilled.	choose the correct English

A is B was C be D are

Question 2 of 5 Structure

After weighing the final comment, a new sentence says, "This extra clue changed how the first evidence should be read." Where would it fit best?

Opinion text

Lunch Under the Trees

Our school should keep the shaded lunch area open during winter, even when fewer students use it. The argument for closing it sounds efficient: one less area to supervise, one less bin to empty, one less patch of muddy grass to protect. A teacher note beside the lunch under the trees entry makes the reader compare the exact wording before choosing.

But the winter count missed something. The same twelve students used that space almost every day, and two new students told the yard teacher it was the only place quiet enough to start a conversation. A small number is not always a small need.

The better compromise is to open the shaded area on dry days and close it after heavy rain. That rule protects the grass without pretending every student wants the loudest part of the yard.

A after the text introduces the extra evidence, before the final judgement B before the title C after the final judgement only as an unrelated note D inside a list of minor details with no connection to the evidence

Question 3 of 5 Comprehension

In the final paragraph, which option gives the best summary of the whole text?

Information report

Counting Bicycles

The council counted bicycles crossing the river path on eight weekday mornings between seven and nine. The total, 412, was used to argue that a wider path could not be justified, since the existing path is rated for six hundred. A context note beside the counting bicycles entry makes the reader compare the exact wording before choosing.

The counting window is the difficulty. Riders using the path for school or work do so in exactly that window, and they are the group least likely to be deterred by a narrow path. Riders who avoid the crossing because it feels unsafe do not appear in a count of people crossing it.

A count of current users measures demand that already survives the conditions. It cannot measure demand that the conditions have suppressed, and a decision made on that count is deciding not to find out.

A A bicycle count measured only riders who already use the path, so it could not show suppressed demand. B Canteen waste fell after portions shrank, but visible scales may have caused the change instead. C A teacher writes a reference that praises what is true and stays silent about what is not. D A boy stays on a wrong train because it gives him a reason to arrive late, and later calls it a mistake.

Question 4 of 5 Structure

From the writer's exact wording, which alternative title would best keep the main idea of "The Warm Week"?

Science reflection

The Warm Week

Our maximum temperatures for the first week of September were the highest recorded at this station for that week. Four of us wanted to write that as evidence of a warming climate, and one asked how many Septembers the station had recorded. A final note beside the warm week entry makes the reader compare the exact wording before choosing.

The answer was eleven. A record across eleven years is a record of eleven numbers, and the highest of eleven numbers occurs roughly once every eleven attempts by chance alone. Our week was unusual in the way that any week is sometimes unusual.

This does not make the wider claim wrong. It makes our data the wrong size to support it. Climate claims need decades because a decade is barely long enough to distinguish a trend from an ordinary run of warm weather.

A A List with No Meaning B Nothing Changes C A Second Look at the Evidence D A Completely Unrelated Story

Question 5 of 5 Comprehension

When judging the writer's tone, a caption beside "Before You Cut the Bus Route" says: "Check the image clue against the wording." Which answer best follows that advice?

Speech extract

Before You Cut the Bus Route

The 41 carries an average of nine passengers and costs what a full bus costs. I have read the same report you have and I am not going to argue with the arithmetic, because the arithmetic is not wrong. A short note beside the before you cut the bus route entry makes the reader compare the exact wording before choosing.

An average of nine is what you get when a service carries two people for most of the day and thirty-one at seven in the morning. Those thirty-one are the shift at the processing plant, and there is no other service before eight.

Cut the route and you save the money in the report. You also move thirty-one people onto a road with no footpath at six in the morning, and that cost appears in a different budget from the one in front of you.

A Choose the visual clue even when the text contradicts it. B Ignore the wording because captions always give the full answer. C Use the visual clue only if it is supported by the text evidence. D Use only the title and leave out the passage evidence.

Year 9 English sample

Answer the sample questions