EduTest Year 9 Reading Comprehension free practice questions with answers

Correct answer: A — handles the fruit with great gentleness

• What is the question asking? It asks what the comparison with an egg shows.
• Go back to the text and find the evidence: “his hands closing around each apple as if it were an egg”
• Eggs are fragile and are held carefully. The simile shows that he handles each apple gently, which reveals his feeling for the orchard.
• So the correct answer is A (handles the fruit with great gentleness).
• Why the other options are wrong:
• B: Handling something like an egg is slow and careful, not hurried.
• C: The comparison concerns how gently he holds the apples, not their health.
• D (is angry that the fruit has to be sold): Anger would be shown by rough handling, not by delicate care.

Figurative language means something other than the literal words: ask what two things are being compared and what they share.