1. Understanding Questions
Language Skills
Understanding Questions

2. What is an Understanding Question?
Understanding questions focus on what the writer has said.
This type of question tests your awareness of main ideas and important details included in the text.
Understanding questions will often ask you to:
“Identify” – briefly indicate ideas or details from the text.
“Explain” – describe, in detail, ideas or details from the text.
Understanding questions will never ask you to:
“Comment on the writer’s use of language.”
“Comment on the writer’s use of word choice / imagery / structure / tone.”
“Analyse...”
“Evaluate...”
Unless it is clear that you are being asked to provide a quotation, you should always answer Understanding questions in your own words.

3. How do I Answer an Understanding Question?
Understanding questions typically require you to do three things:
Find a particular piece of information in the text.
Highlighting or underlining this information in the passage can sometimes be helpful, or quoting it as part of your answer.
Translate that information into your own words.
Check that your translation of the information contains none of the key words used in the passage.

4. Understanding – Example Question
Jim scarcely recognised his long grey hair and grey cheeks, the strange face in a strange mirror. He would stare at the ragged figure who appeared before him in all the mirrors of the Columbia Road, an urchin half his previous size and twice his previous age.
Identify four changes in his appearance that Jim notices when he looks at himself in the mirror. 4 marks
“long hair”
His hair had grown.
“grey cheeks”
His face was pale / drained of colour.
“half his previous size”
He had lost a lot of weight.
“twice his previous age”
He looked a lot older than he used to.

5. Understanding – Example Question
Jim scarcely recognised his long grey hair and grey cheeks, the strange face in a strange mirror. He would stare at the ragged figure who appeared before him in all the mirrors of the Columbia Road, an urchin half his previous size and twice his previous age.
Identify four changes in his appearance that Jim notices when he looks at himself in the mirror. 4 marks
“long hair”
His hair had grown.
“grey cheeks”
His face was pale / drained of colour.
“half his previous size”
He had lost a lot of weight.
“twice his previous age”
He looked a lot older than he used to.