The Kingman Comprehension Series: Elementary Level 4

By Dr. Alice Kingman and Jazzy Barry

About the Series

The Kingman Comprehension Series aims to enhance students’ essential reading skills and abilities to exercise critical judgment to help improve progressively their understanding of written texts.

A traditional and contemporary approach is used by the author with questions set in the formats of:
– Filling in the blanks
– Underlining the correct answers
– Multiple choice questions
– True or false questions
– Matching
– Drawing inferences
– Open-ended questions and
– Sequencing

Suggested answers to the questions are provided at the back of the book.

The series comprises six books catering to the levels and needs of the targeted students:

Elementary Level – Book 3 (for students eight to nine years old)
– Book 4 (for students nine to ten year old)
Intermediate Level – Book 5 (for students ten to eleven year old)
– Book 6 (for students eleven to twelve year old)
Advanced Level – Book 7 (for students twelve to thirteen year old)
– Book 8 (for students thirteen to fourteen year old)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Apr 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781543773446

Dr. Alice Kingman

Having taught English since 1976, Dr. Alice Kingman is an experienced English language teacher who is now director of her own English tutorial centre and teacher of the Kowloon International Baptist Church English Class. Dr. Kingman attained her Bachelor’s Degree in the United States and her Certificate of Education, Master’s Degree and PhD. Degree in Education at the University of Hong Kong.

Book preview

Copyright © 2023 by Dr. Alice Kingman.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

To Teacher and Parent

About Angels

Buster Bear Has a Fine Time

My Shadow

The Elves and the Servant Girl

The Ugly Duckling

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Hansel and Gretel

The Frog Princess

Perseus the Hero

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

The Terrible Olli

My Father’s Dragon

Theme in Yellow

Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess

Building of the Wall

Rumpelstiltskin

The Story of the Merchant and the Genius

The Forest of Lilacs

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Charlotte’s Web

Acknowledgements

First, I would like to thank Jazzy, the illustrator of the Kingman Comprehension Series, for her beautiful artistic drawings which bring every story she has worked on to life.

My great appreciation is also to be extended to my two daughters, Stephanie and Audrey, who helped me from the very beginning in the typing and formatting of questions for every reading passage.

A big thank you to my beloved husband, Matt, for his continuous support, encouragement and professional assistance in the computerised structuring of the book.

I am also grateful to all my students for their contributions to this project, working on different passages, testing out questions and providing invaluable feedback.

With no reservation, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my beloved late father, Joseph, who spared no effort in teaching me English since I was seven years old.

Thank you to all other members of my family who spurred me on to take this big step in realising my dreams of becoming an English-language author. I thank them for their love and patience throughout the whole process.

Thank you to my wonderful church family as well for their uplifting prayers and support.

Last but not least, I thank God, my Heavenly Father, every day for His unfailing presence and spiritual guidance, without which this project would not have happened.

To Teacher and Parent

In my lifelong career as an English-language teacher, I have often been disappointed and discouraged to find questions set for comprehension passages stressing speedy location of answers or meticulous reproduction of the text. The formulated questions seldom encourage students to read between the lines or genuinely understand the writer’s choice of diction and intention of writing. In other words, students are often deprived of opportunities to think out of the box and explore implied meanings and examine the purpose of sentence structure.

Hence, it has always been my ambition to produce a comprehension series that can sharpen students’ skills in analytical discernment. The Kingman Comprehension Series comprises high-interest selections of different literary genres from classics to renowned children’s literature including fables, folk and fairy tales, poems, legends, myths as well as modern realistic fictions. It is my hope that students will find the works of the outstanding authors in the books not only enjoyable to work on but also interesting enough to spark further independent reading among themselves.

About Angels

Laura E. Richards

Mother, said the child, are there really angels?

The Good Book says so, said the mother.

Yes, said the child, I have seen the picture. But did you ever see one, Mother?

I think I have, said the mother, but she was not dressed like the picture.

I am going to find one! said the child. I am going to run along the road, miles and miles and miles, until I find an angel.

That will be a good plan! said the mother. And I will go with you, for you are too little to run far alone.

I am not little anymore! said the child. I have trousers. I am big.

So you are! said the mother. I forgot. But it is a fine day, and I should like the walk.

But you walk so slowly with your lame foot.

I can walk faster than you think! said the mother.

So they started, the child leaping and running and the mother stepping out so bravely with her lame foot that the child soon forgot about it.

The child danced