Does your child have the skills to tackle this comprehension passage?

The passage below, taken from Charles Dickens’ novel Bleak House, is typical of the material set on the English papers for admission to U.K. schools.

𝘿𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙣𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙡𝙮 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙝𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙥𝙖𝙥𝙚𝙧? The passage: As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill. Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snowflakes—gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun. Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers.

𝙋𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 1. Use your own words to explain the meaning of the following words (3). a) drizzle b) mourning c) undistinguishable 2. Using your own words explain what the writer is suggesting with the phrase “as if the waters had but newly retired”. (3) 3. How does Dickens present the town in this extract? Use short quotations to support your answer. (6)

𝘼𝙘𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙝𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙣𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙚 Does your child have sufficient experience of such questions to achieve his or her potential on these papers? Minerva Tuition’s experienced teachers have extensive experience of preparing pupils for entrance examinations for the UK’s leading schools.