Order and structure for 11 plus English

Order questions ask what happened before, after or first. Find the event the question names, then look at what comes just before it and just after it. Time words help: then, later, at last, in the morning. And structure questions ask why a part is where it is: a story that ends on a mystery makes you read on. Find the event, then look either side.

The event: climbing back into bed. Just before it, in the same sentence: she drew back the curtain and saw nothing. So she looked out of the window and saw nothing.

The trap is an event that is in the passage but in the wrong place. She found the paw prints, true, and that was the next morning, after she went back to bed.

• 1.1Finding the answer in the textFind it, then check it
• 1.2Reading between the linesNo clue, no answer
• 1.3Characters and why they actWhat they do, and why they do it
• 1.4What a word means in the passageSwap it in, read it back
• 1.5Why the writer did itSay what it does to the reader
• 1.6Similes, metaphors and moreSay it in plain words
• 1.8Reading an older textFind the main sentence, then put old words into today's words

Every 11 plus English topic