Secondary 1 Chinese Language Practice Paper (Set 1): Narrative Comprehension, Explanatory Text With Survey Data, Classical Chinese Story And Translation, Vocabulary And Rhetoric, Practical Writing, Cross-text Comparison

Secondary 1 Chinese Language Practice Paper (Set 1): narrative comprehension, explanatory text with survey data, classical Chinese story and translation, vocabulary and rhetoric, practical writing, cross-text comparison

2026-11-15

Chinese Language – S1

S1 Chinese practice paper: 24 questions, 60 minutes, covering data analysis, classical Chinese translation, rhetoric and practical writing, with mark scheme.

Paper details　Secondary 1 Chinese Language practice paper with 24 questions, mark scheme, narrative and explanatory comprehension, classical Chinese translation, rhetoric and practical writing.

Narrative Comprehension

After school I always went up to the roof first to water those few boxes of vegetables. The roof was small, yet six plastic boxes stood in a row, holding lettuce, pak choi and small tomatoes. In September my mother cut open an old rice bag and laid it in the bottom of a box, saying that this way rain would not collect in the soil. She taught me to test the depth of the soil with a finger: only when the fingertip felt dry was watering needed. I did not take this seriously at first and watered once every day after school, until the roots of two boxes of lettuce rotted and the leaves drooped onto the soil. That evening my mother did not scold me. She only picked off the rotten leaves, put them on a small dish and said, “They are not bad, they have simply drunk too much.” Then we loosened the soil together and sowed again. On one morning in December I picked a whole pak choi for the first time. In my hand it was smaller than my palm, with veins clearly visible. I carried it downstairs, thinking of my mother’s words about drinking too much.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
1	In the second paragraph, what happened when the writer watered the vegetables every day?	The roots of two boxes of lettuce rotted and the leaves drooped onto the soil.
2	What do the mother’s words “they are not bad, they have simply drunk too much” show about her attitude and way of teaching?	She did not scold the writer; her tone was gentle and she used the idea of watering to guide the writer to see why moderation matters.
3	Which narrative person does the passage mainly use? Give one example from the text.	The first person. For instance “I carried it downstairs” narrates the writer’s own experience, which makes the feeling more immediate.
4	The passage has 4 paragraphs and contains 242 Chinese characters excluding punctuation. Explain how the time moves from September to December and what this arrangement achieves.	Time moves from the opening of school in September to the harvest in December; the accumulation of days makes the single pak choi feel earned and shows that the mother’s teaching only works over time.

Explanatory Text and Data Analysis

Last month the school library surveyed reading habits among all 360 students and collected 360 valid questionnaires. The results showed that 162 students read every day, 126 read three or four times a week, and the remaining 72 read less than once a week. In percentage terms the three groups account for 45, 35 and 20 respectively, making 100 in total. The survey also found that daily readers borrow three books a month on average, while the other students borrow one. The teacher in charge noted a clear link between the use of class reading corners and reading frequency, and suggested adding short reading materials to classrooms.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
5	According to the survey, what percentage of the students surveyed read every day?	Forty-five. Working: 162 / 360 = 0.45, that is 45 per cent.
6	What is the ratio of students reading three or four times a week to those reading less than once a week? Give it in its simplest whole-number form.	126 : 72, dividing both by 18 gives 7 : 4.
7	Which explanatory techniques does the passage use? Name two and give one example of each.	Using figures, for example “162 students read every day”; and comparison, setting the daily readers beside those who read less than once a week.
8	If each of the 162 daily readers borrows three books a month and every other student borrows one, find the total number of books borrowed each month.	162 x 3 + 198 x 1 = 486 + 198 = 684 books.

Classical Chinese Story and Translation

A ploughman of Song had a stump in his field. A hare ran against the stump, broke its neck and died. So he put down his plough and guarded the stump, hoping to get another hare in the same way.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
9	What does the word rendered “ran” mean in the phrase about the hare and the stump?	It means to run, not to walk.
10	In the sentence about putting something down and guarding the stump, what do the two key words mean?	The first means “therefore, so”; the second means “to put down, to release”.
11	Translate the closing sentence into modern Chinese prose.	No more hares could be caught, and he himself became a laughing stock in the state of Song.
12	The passage runs to 39 characters in only 3 sentences. Explain the effect of such brevity and the lesson this fable offers for modern life.	Few words carry a complete plot: the story is told first and the outcome follows, so the moral is easy to grasp and remember. The lesson is that one lucky break is no reason to abandon honest work, and no practice should be kept merely because it once worked.

Vocabulary and Rhetoric

This section tests word choice, recognition of rhetorical devices and sentence correction. State the reason for each judgement.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
13	Choose the most suitable words from “soft”, “clear”, “whole” and “hang” to fill the blanks: the leaves ____ onto the soil; the veins were ____ visible at a glance.	Use the word for hanging first, then the word for clear, in its reduplicated form.
14	Name the rhetorical device in each sentence: A, the soil is like a dark sponge B, the seedlings put out their heads and looked around C, the rain on the boxes went tap tap and ding dong D, he moved so slowly that even an ant would crawl faster	A is a simile, B is personification, C is onomatopoeia, D is hyperbole.
15	Correct this faulty sentence: “Through this experience of growing vegetables, made me understand the importance of moderation.”	The sentence has no subject. Delete the opening preposition so that the experience itself becomes the subject.
16	Rewrite the three short sentences into one parallel sentence and explain the effect of parallelism.	One version: I learned to water, learned to wait and learned to care. The repeated pattern gives an even rhythm and stresses how much was gained.

Practical Writing

This section tests the format and wording of diaries, letters, notices and school announcements.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
17	How many format elements does a diary entry normally have? List them all.	Four: the date, the weather, the body and the signature.
18	After the body of a letter, where should the closing compliments be placed?	The first part starts a new line indented by two spaces; the second part starts another new line at the left margin.
19	What two conditions should the heading of a public notice satisfy?	It should state the kind of notice, for example a lost property notice, and it should be short and prominent so that readers grasp the point at once.
20	A school notice must run to at least 400 characters. The writer has produced 268. How many more are needed?	400 minus 268 leaves 132 characters.

Cross-text Comparison and Personal View

Compare the narrative and the explanatory passage above; support every point with a quotation or a figure.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
21	What is the main difference in purpose between the narrative and the explanatory passage?	The narrative tells an event and conveys feeling; the explanatory passage explains a situation and passes on knowledge.
22	The narrative runs to 242 Chinese characters and the explanatory passage to 150. Give the ratio in its simplest whole-number form.	Dividing both numbers by their common factor gives 121 : 75.
23	If you were promoting reading in school, which of the two styles would you use? Explain why.	Open question. One answer: use the narrative to show a classmate changing from avoiding books to reading daily, which wins sympathy, then add the survey figures so the claim is grounded.
24	Which sentence in each passage best supports the view that a habit takes time to build?	In the narrative it is the contrast between watering carelessly every day at first and the December morning; in the explanatory passage it is the finding about class reading corners and reading frequency.

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A TutorZone practice paper; original questions and passages, not publisher material.