Appendix 3

Reading Comprehension Instrument

Reading Comprehension

Name : …………………………………………………………. Class : ………………………………………………..

I. READING COMPREHENSION
Instruction: read the passage below and answer the questions given.

Rex Huton is Dick’s father. He is a rich businessman of about forty – five. He’s tall
and dark. He wears dark suits everyday but at weekends he wears casual clothes. He
usually gets up at six, does some exercises and then goes to the office. He never gets back
before ten o’clock at night so he doesn’t see much of his family. He is interested in
colleting postcards from other countries. At the moment he is travelling on business in
Indonesia because he’s opening a new office in Jakarta. Yesterday Rex went to Bali and he
stayed at Nusa Dua Area.

1. What’s Dick’s father like?

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2. What does he usually wear at weekends?
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3. Does he see his family often?
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4. Is he interested in colleting postcards from other countries?
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5. What is Rex doing at the moment?
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 6. Where is he opening a new office?
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7. Where did he go yesterday?
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II. READING COMPREHENSION

MEKONG MAGIC
A JOURNEY UP THE MEKONG RIVER
By Brett Blanchard

By the time the Mekong River flows into the South China sea, it has crossed six
countries. In the process it has been worshipped, polluted, purified and used for legitimate
as well as illegal commerce along the way. The Mekong has its beginnings in the Tibetan
Himalayas and ends in the delta to the south of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, which is
where our journey began. We were headed first for a town called Can Tho, the biggest city
in the delta are.
To get there, our car had to cross the Mekong at a place called Binh Minh, where a
line of vehicles a kilometer long waited to squeeze on board one of four Scandinavian-
built ferries. The river was perhaps 800 meters wide at this point and alive with traffic. On
the advice of our driver, we decided to leave the car behind and cross on the first available
ferry and then wait for the car on the other side.
We spent most of the 10-minute journey gently trying to avoid the people selling
chewing gum, drinks, fruit and other snacks. The ferry docked on the outskirts of the town,
and as there was no sign of the car, we set off for our hotel on foot.
In the morning, we headed off for Chau Doc, the last major town before the
Cambodian border. The delta had once been part of the great Khmer Empire, and the last
portion of Indochina to be incorporated into Vietnam. By mid morning the streets of every
town were crammed with schoolchildren returning home-primary students in their white
and blue uniforms, secondary schoolgirls in their elegant traditional Vietnamese costume
riding bicycles in stately fashion. This was teacher’s day throughout Vietnam, when
students attend school to thank their teachers with presents and festivities and then head
home again. The major effect was to produce a huge blue and white traffic jam.

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 Chau Doc appeared to be a model town. Situated among vividly colored rice fields
with the Sam Mountain in the background, it was the perfect market with the perfect
produce in this amazing land.
Buddhism is one of the great religions of Vietnam and the Sam Mountain is a
major pilgrimage centre. The road to the top of the mountain with its spectacular view over
the fields to the Cambodian border is steep and winding, but always busy with pedestrians.
We sat on the wall of a pavilion at the summit, 260 meters above the plain, and enjoyed
the sunset over the flooded rice fields below, listening to the distant sounds of life from a
village at the foot of the mountain.
When it was time to join the river again, for the journey to Phnom Penh, there were only
four passengers so instead of the leisurely ride I’d imagined, we climbed onto a speedboat
and took our seats. At first we went slowly along the canals and there was time to enjoy
the view of houses on stilts, sitting high and dry above the mud, bur as soon as we entered
the Mekong again, the driver turned up the speed. No matter how wide the river-and in
places it was more than a kilometer-we rushed headlong towards any oncoming vessel and
the, at the last moment, veered to one side or the other! We were all very relieved to reach
the border post at Vinh Xuong, where we were able to disembark.

A. Answer the Questions 1-7

8) Where is it?
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9) Which countries does it flow through?
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10) Where would you find an article like this?
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…..
11) What is the main purpose of the article?
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12) Who might read an article of this type?
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13) What is the writer’s overall impression of the Mekong delta?
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14) The writer mentions five forms of ‘transport’. What are they?
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READING TASK

Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from
the Passage for each answer.

SUMMARY

The Mekong River runs through 15. ……………………………………………

countries before it finally reaches the sea. The writer describes his journey up the
river, starting out from the city of 16. ………………………….. in the south of
Vietnam. At First, they went by 17. …………………..before catching a ferry
across the river. From there they travelled 18. ………………………………. and
spent the night in a hotel before heading out the next morning for Chau Doc. The
next day turned out to be a special day for 19. ………………….. ….in Vietnam, so
the town was full of 20. ………………………. . Not far from Chau Doc Is the 21.
……………………. , which is a major centre for Buddhist pilgrims. The view from
the top of the mountain was 22. ………………….. and they could see the
Cambodian border in the distance. The last leg of their river journey proved quite
frightening because of the 23. ……………………….of the boat, so everyone was
very relieved when they disembarked at Vinh Xuong.

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III. READING COMPREHENSION

Interesting Places in the World

Edinburgh, which is the capital city of Scotland, is a beautiful city. It’s famous for its
castles, wool factories and its university, called Edinburgh University, Where many
students from other countries study there.
Singapore is a clean city, where many people can do a lot of businesses, for example
international conferences, education and electronics. It only takes one and a half hours to
get to Singapore by plane.

Answer the Questions:

24. What is the capital city of Scotland?
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25. What’s Edinburgh like?
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26. Where do many students come from?
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27. What’s Singapore like?
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28. How many people can do a lot of businesses?
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29. Mention some businesses that people can do in Singapore?
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30. How long does it take to get to Singapore by plane from Indonesia?

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