Free Year 9 QLD Academies-style Reading Practice

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Question 1 — Easy

Hoa's grandfather never talked about the journey. He had arrived in Australia in 1979 on a boat so crowded that people had to take turns sitting down. When Hoa found his old photographs in a shoebox, she noticed his face in every image — always slightly turned away from the camera, always at the edge of the group. At family dinners, he laughed readily and told stories about his garden, but when the conversation moved toward Vietnam or the crossing, he would quietly excuse himself to make tea. What does Hoa's grandfather's behaviour most likely reveal about him?

Answer: Option C is correct — Multiple details point to unspoken pain: he 'never talked about the journey', positions himself at the edge of photos (perhaps distancing himself from being fully seen), and quietly leaves whenever the past comes up in conversation. These consistent patterns indicate difficult memories he avoids rather than anger (Option D) or indifference (Option B).

Question 2 — Medium

Read the following passage, then answer the question. The Torres Strait Islands form an archipelago of over 270 islands lying between the northern tip of Queensland and Papua New Guinea. Many of the islands are low-lying coral cays, making their communities among the most immediately vulnerable to rising sea levels driven by climate change. Indigenous Torres Strait Islander peoples have inhabited these islands for thousands of years, maintaining rich cultural traditions, languages, and practices deeply connected to the sea and sky. Community elders have described watching familiar reefs bleach, shorelines erode, and storm surges reach areas that had previously never flooded. For many residents, climate change is not a future abstraction but a lived, daily reality. Which statement is most strongly supported by the passage?

Answer: The passage explicitly states that elders have observed bleaching reefs, eroding shorelines, and unprecedented storm surges, and that climate change is 'a lived, daily reality' for residents — directly supporting option A. The other options are either not mentioned or go beyond what the passage states.

Question 3 — Easy

In plants, photosynthesis is the process by which sunlight is converted into chemical energy. Inside the leaf, structures called chloroplasts contain a green pigment called chlorophyll, which absorbs light energy — particularly from the red and blue parts of the spectrum. This energy is used to drive a series of chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil into glucose. Oxygen is released as a by-product. The glucose produced provides energy for the plant's growth and metabolism. In this passage, the word 'pigment' most likely means:

Answer: Chlorophyll is described as a green 'pigment' that 'absorbs light energy'. The passage context — green colour, light absorption — confirms that a pigment is a substance that absorbs light and gives colour to biological material. Option B describes a solar panel, not a pigment. Options C and D describe other plant functions unrelated to what a pigment is.

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