Non-fiction texts are common in reading comprehension. They are any text which is not fiction and comprise a range of text such as:

• Informative articles.
• Factual information.

Let's try and understand what parts these texts have. Such parts are:

• Factual information or general information.
• Cause and effect relations e.g. a butterfly is created when a caterpillar becomes a cocoon.
• Inferences – what did the author almost say? This means the answer won't be stated but it will be strongly implied.

Non-fiction pieces generally:

• Have a lot of detail.
• Are written with an objective tone.

What they rarely have is:

• Figurative language.

In non-fiction texts, it is likely that the types of questions that will be tested are:

• Detail questions (covered in this checkpoint) – they are questions about the facts and request you to find the answer in the passage. Usually they're about cause and effect – i.e. what's the cause of xyz, or what effect does xyz have on something?

• Inference Questions (covered in the next checkpoint) – these are questions that ask you to ‘read between the lines’.

Let's look at these types of questions in the examples below. We'll also put into practice the approach to answering questions too learnt in previous checkpoints.

Example Question/s

Watch video for explanation of the following question/s:

Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a new discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems.

By watching birds, dogs, sharks and other creatures of the wild, researchers and engineers have invented several new products that are inspired from these animals and their physical attributes.

I

Shinkansen Bullet Train

Eiji Nakatsu, an engineer at the Japanese rail company JR-West, took inspiration from the kingfisher, that creates barely a ripple when it darts into water in search of a meal. The train's redesigned nose — a 50-foot-long steel kingfisher beak — reduced power use and enabled faster speeds.

II

Experimental Fish Car

Mercedes-Benz instead found inspiration for a car body (less its wheels) in the boxfish, a tropical species shaped sort of like a two-door compact. The fish's body turned out to be aerodynamically superb, and the resulting concept car has one of the most efficient shapes for a car of its size.

III

A very fishy wind farm

Wind turbines take up a lot of land, their blades sweeping circles more than a football field in diameter. John Dabiri of Caltech built a wind farm where the location of turbines relative to each other take advantage of the air flow among them. Their placement was determined by studying the wake vortices produced by schools of swimming fish.

IV

Fin to the wind

A Humpback whale has a row of warty ridges, called tubercles, on the front edge of its fins. Frank Fish, a biology professor in Pennsylvania, discovered that by adding rows of similar bumps to turbine blades he could reduce drag and noise, increase speed to changing wind direction and boost the power harnessed by 20%.

V

The core idea is that nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. The conscious emulation of life's genius is a survival strategy for the human race, a path to a sustainable future. The more our world functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone.

The purpose of biomimicry is to

A imitate nature.
B investigate nature and human problems.
C watch nature and solve its problems.
D design new products based on nature's best solutions.

Eiji Nakatsu redesigned the train's nose based on kingfisher (I). The most likely reason for his redesign was to

A save energy and make the train faster.
B make the train more fancy and cheaper.
C produce a sophisticated train.
D experiment on energy and speed.

The experimental fish car shape, based on the boxfish, helps it work

A faster but cheaper.
B faster and effectively.
C neatly and properly.
D easily and carefully

Passages I to IV mention some inventions used for transportation. Which of the inventions would the writer consider the most profitable?

A Shinkansen Bullet Train (I).
B Experimental Fish Car (II).
C Turbine blades based on Humpback whale (IV).
D None of the above.

Passage V mentions that "nature… has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with." Which of the following is a clear example of those problems we are dealing with?

A many people have to deal with illiteracy.
B the war efforts of the nations.
C holes in the ozone layer are causing climate change.
D a high number of couples are getting divorced every year.

Passage V suggests that biomimicry arose because

A humans coexist with nature.
B the human race will survive by helping our world function correctly.
C people are destroying our natural resources.
D humans need to learn survival skills from nature instead of destroying it.

Key Rules to remember:

• Parts of non-fiction texts are
  • Factual information.
  • Cause and effect.

Key Rules to remember

• A type of question in non-fiction texts is detail questions where you are to locate information.
• Information generally forms non-fiction text and locating this (along with other supporting information) can assist in selection of your answer.

Practice time!

Now, it's your turn to practice.

Click on the button below and start your practice questions. We recommend doing untimed mode first, and then, when you're ready, do timed mode.

Every question has two solutions videos after you complete the question. The first is a quick 60 second video that shows you how our expert answers the question quickly. The second video is a more in-depth 5-steps or less explainer video that shows you the steps to take to answer the question. It's really important that you review the second video because that's where you'll learn additional tips and tricks.

Once you're done with the practice questions, move on to the next checkpoint.

Now, let’s get started on your practice questions.