Practice English Reading Exercises for A2 – Technology & App Development 1

Exercises:   123456

Reading 1

For each question, choose the correct answer.

The Teenager Giving Stories a Voice

Fifteen-year-old Maya loves sitting in her bedroom and reading books. However, her younger brother, Toby, doesn’t enjoy it. He is only six and finds reading long words very difficult. Because of this, he often gets angry and stops trying. Maya wanted to find a way to help him enjoy stories.

Last autumn, Maya started going to a computer club after school. She had a great idea: she decided to make a program for mobile phones. She wanted the app to read stories out loud using funny voices. Learning how to write the computer code wasn’t easy. She had to work for many hours and sometimes felt quite stressed.

After three months, the app was finally ready. Maya showed it to Toby and he immediately chose a robot voice to read his favourite book about pirates. He laughed a lot and listened to the whole book. Now, he uses the app every evening before he goes to sleep.

Maya’s classmates soon heard about her project and asked if they could download it. Now, lots of students are using it. Maya feels amazed by her success. She is going to add more voices next year, like a monster and an alien. She hopes to get a job working with computers when she is older.

1   Why did Maya decide to create something for her brother?

     (A) He loves sitting in his bedroom and reading books.

     (B) He finds it hard to understand certain words.

     (C) He often gets angry when Maya reads books.

2   How did Maya feel about building the mobile app?

     (A) She thought learning to write was easy.

     (B) She felt worried because it was a lot of hard work.

     (C) She had a great idea after school.

3   What happened when Toby used the app?

     (A) He read his favourite book about pirates.

     (B) He showed it to a robot before he went to sleep.

     (C) He heard a complete story in an unusual way.

4   What do we learn about Maya in the last paragraph?

     (A) She wants a career in technology in the future.

     (B) She asked if her classmates could download it.

     (C) She is going to add more students next year.

5   What is the best title for the article?

     (A) How to write computer code for phones

     (B) The schoolgirl who brought stories to life

     (C) A young boy’s favourite pirate book

Reading 2

For each question, choose the correct answer.

The Teen Coder Who Saved the Debate Club

Alex is a fifteen-year-old student who loves writing computer programs. His older sister, Mia, is the captain of the school debate club. The students in the club were unhappy last year. They always lost their competitions because they never knew what the other schools were going to talk about.

Alex wanted to help Mia and her friends. He decided to build a special competitor analysis tool on his laptop. His clever program could watch old videos of other debate teams. Then, it quickly found the words those students used the most. This helped Mia’s team understand what their competitors might say next.

Alex worked on his new app every weekend. At first, it was quite difficult to make the computer understand different people’s voices, but he finally learned how to do it. When the app was ready, he gave it to his sister’s club. They used it to prepare for all their matches.

Thanks to Alex’s tool, Mia’s club won their next big competition. The judges were very surprised by how much the students knew! Now, teachers from other high schools are asking Alex if they can buy his app. He is proud of his work and plans to make more useful software in the future.

1   Why did the debate club lose their matches last year?

     (A) They could not guess the other teams’ ideas.

     (B) The students in the club were unhappy.

     (C) They wanted to be the captain of the school debate club.

2   How did Alex’s program help the club?

     (A) It decided to build a special competitor analysis tool.

     (B) It discovered the most common vocabulary in the videos.

     (C) It could watch old videos with Mia and her friends.

3   What was hard for Alex when he built the tool?

     (A) Working on his new app every weekend.

     (B) Teaching the software to recognize human speech.

     (C) Helping the team to prepare for all their matches.

4   What is true about Alex at the end of the text?

     (A) People from different places want to pay for his program.

     (B) He hopes the judges were very surprised.

     (C) He is already making more useful software for the teachers.

5   What is the best title for the article?

     (A) How to speak at a school debate

     (B) A smart tool for a school club

     (C) The history of computer programs

Reading 3

For each question, choose the correct answer.

Making Numbers Fun

Fourteen-year-old Toby loves spending his free time on his computer. While his friends usually watch videos online, Toby enjoys learning how computer programs work. Last year, he noticed that his younger sister, Lily, had a big problem. She hated doing her maths homework and often cried because she thought it was too difficult.

Toby wanted to help Lily, so he decided to create a mobile game for her. He spent all his weekends reading books about game design. It wasn’t easy. Sometimes, his programs didn’t work at all, and he felt very angry. But Toby didn’t give up because he really wanted to make math fun for his sister.

After five long months, his game was finally ready. He called it ‘Math Monsters’. In the game, players have to catch funny monsters by answering math questions quickly. When Lily played it for the first time, she smiled and laughed. She played it every day, and soon, her math test marks at school became much better.

Now, Toby’s game is famous in his town. His teachers showed it to other students, and they all love playing it. Toby feels amazing because he helped his sister and other children. Next year, he is going to start working on a new game to help kids with reading.

1   In the first paragraph, what do we learn about Toby’s sister?

     (A) She felt very sad when she studied numbers.

     (B) She wanted to learn how computer programs work.

     (C) She usually watched videos online with her friends.

2   What was true about Toby when he created the game?

     (A) He worked on his idea on Saturdays and Sundays.

     (B) He decided to give up when things went wrong.

     (C) He thought that writing the programs was easy.

3   Why did Lily’s school grades improve?

     (A) She enjoyed practicing numbers with Toby’s program.

     (B) She spent five long months catching funny monsters.

     (C) She started answering math questions quickly at school.

4   What is Toby planning to do in the future?

     (A) Make a different app to practice words.

     (B) Become very famous in his town.

     (C) Show his game to the other students.

5   What is the best title for the article?

     (A) The teenager who helped children learn

     (B) How to get better math test marks

     (C) The best computer games for high schools

Exercises:   123456