Supplementary Reader / Story-Based Questions
The supplementary reader section tests the stories prescribed alongside the main textbook: plot sequence, character and motive, the turning point, and the message the story carries. Questions are usually short-answer, with occasional true/false, matching or sequencing items.
What is actually asked
Four question types recur: what happened at a particular moment; why a character acted as he or she did; what kind of person a character is, with evidence; and what the story teaches. Sequencing questions ask you to number events correctly, so chronology matters as much as detail.
Build a one-page card per story
For each story record: title, author, main characters with one-line descriptions, the conflict, the turning point, the ending, and the theme. This card is what you revise from, and it prevents the commonest error - mixing up characters between two different stories.
Answering motive questions
A motive answer needs a because-clause that names a principle, fear or pressure, not an adjective. "He was good" explains nothing; "because he would not trade honesty for money, even when no one was watching" explains everything.
Worked example
A poor character finds a purse and returns it. Question: Why did he return it? Strong answer: "Because honesty was a principle he refused to exchange for money; the story uses his poverty to show that need does not compel dishonesty." The reasoning links the action to a value and then to the story's purpose - the second half is what lifts the answer above a one-mark reply.
Traps that cost marks
Confusing characters or events from two stories; writing the moral as a floating proverb with no link to the plot; inventing events that are not in the text; and answering "what kind of person" without a supporting incident.