Grade 10 Worksheets
Ten worksheets for Grade 10: four grammar, three reading and three writing, each with the answers.
About these two grades
Grades 10 and 11 are the Ordinary Level years, so these worksheets are shaped like examination tasks and the marking notes talk in marks.
No past paper question is reproduced here. Where a task resembles an examination task, it was written from scratch to the same shape.
Grammar
Worksheet 1 — Subject-verb agreement, the hard cases
Focus: the constructions that trip candidates up in the examination.
Task. Choose the correct verb.
1. The list of items (is / are) on the desk. 2. Neither the teacher nor the pupils (was / were) present. 3. Each of the boys (has / have) a book. 4. The number of applicants (has / have) risen. 5. A number of applicants (has / have) withdrawn. 6. Mathematics (is / are) my weakest subject. 7. The committee (is / are) divided in its opinion. 8. Ten kilometres (is / are) a long walk. 9. There (was / were) several reasons for the delay. 10. Everybody in both classes (was / were) informed.
Answers. 1. is 2. were 3. has 4. has 5. have 6. is 7. is 8. is 9. were 10. was.
Teaching note. Two pairs do the teaching. In 1, the subject is list, not items — cross out the phrase between and the verb becomes obvious. In 4 and 5, the number is singular and a number means several, so it is plural. Question 2 follows the nearer subject, pupils.
Worksheet 2 — Simple, compound and complex sentences
Focus: identifying and building the three sentence types, and varying them in writing.
Task A. Say whether each sentence is simple, compound or complex.
1. The rain stopped. 2. The rain stopped and the children went outside. 3. When the rain stopped, the children went outside. 4. Although he was tired, he finished the work. 5. He was tired but he finished the work.
Task B. Rewrite each pair as one complex sentence, using the word in brackets.
6. The bus was late. I missed the meeting. (because) 7. She studied hard. She failed. (although) 8. Finish the work. You may go home. (when) 9. The book was expensive. I bought it. (even though) 10. He arrived. Everyone had left. (by the time)
Answers. A: 1. simple 2. compound 3. complex 4. complex 5. compound. B: 6. I missed the meeting because the bus was late. 7. Although she studied hard, she failed. 8. When you finish the work, you may go home. 9. Even though the book was expensive, I bought it. 10. By the time he arrived, everyone had left.
Teaching note. A paragraph of nothing but simple sentences reads like a list; a paragraph of nothing but complex sentences is exhausting. Ask them to check one of their own paragraphs and count each type.
Worksheet 3 — Participle phrases and dangling modifiers
Focus: joining sentences economically, and avoiding the error that follows.
Task A. Join using a participle phrase.
1. He opened the door. He saw the visitor. 2. She was walking along the beach. She found a shell. 3. They had finished the examination. They went home. 4. The child was frightened by the noise. The child began to cry. 5. I did not know the answer. I said nothing.
Task B. Correct the dangling modifier in each sentence.
6. Walking to school, the rain began to fall. 7. Having eaten breakfast, the bus was missed. 8. Being very old, I could hardly read the writing. 9. Running down the road, my bag fell open. 10. While watching television, the doorbell rang.
Answers. A: 1. Opening the door, he saw the visitor. 2. Walking along the beach, she found a shell. 3. Having finished the examination, they went home. 4. Frightened by the noise, the child began to cry. 5. Not knowing the answer, I said nothing. B (accept any correct version): 6. As I was walking to school, the rain began to fall. 7. Having eaten breakfast, I missed the bus. 8. The document being very old, I could hardly read the writing. 9. Running down the road, I felt my bag fall open. 10. While I was watching television, the doorbell rang.
Teaching note. Question 6 is the one to read aloud. Ask who was walking to school. The rain, apparently. Once a class laughs at that, they see the error everywhere.
Worksheet 4 — Articles and quantifiers at speed
Focus: the small words that leak marks all through the paper.
Task A. Fill in a, an, the or leave blank.
1. ____ honesty is ____ best policy. 2. She plays ____ piano and ____ cricket. 3. We went to ____ hospital to visit my aunt. 4. ____ Mount Everest is in ____ Himalayas. 5. He is ____ engineer at ____ factory near our house.
Task B. Choose the correct quantifier.
6. There isn't (much / many) time left. 7. (Few / A few) pupils attended, which was disappointing. 8. I have (little / a little) money, so we can take a bus. 9. (Fewer / Less) students applied this year. 10. She has (fewer / less) patience than her sister.
Answers. A: 1. — / the 2. the / — 3. the 4. — / the 5. an / the (or a if the factory is being mentioned for the first time). B: 6. much 7. Few 8. a little 9. Fewer 10. less.
Teaching note. Few means almost none; a few means some. Questions 7 and 8 are a pair — one is a complaint, the other is good news, and the article is the only difference. Fewer counts, less measures.
Reading
Worksheet 5 — Examination-style comprehension
Focus: a full comprehension task with marks allocated, as in the paper.
Passage. For thirty years the tannery had employed half the village. When it closed, the owners said the machinery was obsolete and the market had moved abroad, and both statements were true. What neither statement explained was why nobody had been told until the Friday.
Some families left within a month. Others waited, on the reasonable assumption that a building of that size would not be allowed to stand empty for long. It stood empty for nine years.
What eventually came was not another factory but a training college, and the village found itself with a different kind of population: young, temporary, and from elsewhere. The shops adapted quickly. The cricket club did not, and folded in its fiftieth year.
Questions. 1. How long had the tannery operated, and how many villagers did it employ? (2 marks) 2. Give the two reasons the owners offered for closing. (2 marks) 3. What criticism does the writer make of the owners? (2 marks) 4. Why did some families stay? (2 marks) 5. Explain the contrast in the final paragraph between the shops and the cricket club. (3 marks) 6. What does temporary suggest about the new population, and why did that matter to the village? (3 marks)
Answers. 1. Thirty years; half the village. (1 + 1) 2. The machinery was obsolete; the market had moved abroad. (1 + 1) 3. That nobody was told until the Friday — the closure was announced without warning. (2) 4. They assumed a building that size would soon be used again. (2) 5. The shops changed what they sold to suit young newcomers and survived; the cricket club depended on long-term residents who had gone, so it could not adapt and closed after fifty years. (3) 6. That the newcomers would leave again, so they did not put down roots; the village gained customers but not members, which is why an institution needing commitment failed while businesses needing only custom did not. (3)
Marking note. Sixteen marks. Questions 5 and 6 carry the highest marks and need explanation, not retrieval. A candidate who quotes the last two sentences without saying why earns one mark of the three.
Worksheet 6 — Vocabulary in context
Focus: deducing meaning, and choosing the closest word rather than a roughly similar one.
Passage. The proposal was received with a tepid welcome. Committee members praised its prudence while quietly noting that it curtailed the very programme they had spent two years defending. The chairman, adept at reading a room, adjourned before anyone was obliged to vote, and the matter was deferred to a meeting that was never held.
Questions. 1. Give the meaning of each word in bold as it is used here: tepid, prudence, curtailed, adept, deferred. 2. Which word tells you the welcome was polite but unenthusiastic? 3. Why did the chairman adjourn? 4. What does a meeting that was never held tell you about the outcome? 5. Replace curtailed with a word of the opposite meaning and say how the sentence changes.
Answers. 1. tepid — lukewarm, unenthusiastic; prudence — caution, careful good sense; curtailed — cut short, reduced; adept — skilful; deferred — postponed. 2. tepid. 3. He could tell the committee was unwilling to support it and did not want to force a vote that would expose the division. 4. That the proposal was quietly dropped without ever being formally rejected. 5. Extended or expanded — the committee's objection disappears, since the proposal would then strengthen rather than cut the programme they had defended.
Marking note. In question 1 insist on the meaning as used here. Prudence has a dictionary meaning; what matters is that the praise was faint.
Worksheet 7 — Note-making and summary
Focus: taking structured notes, then turning them into continuous prose.
Passage. Coral reefs cover less than one per cent of the ocean floor but support roughly a quarter of all marine species. They protect coastlines by absorbing wave energy before it reaches the shore, and in many countries they are the foundation of both fishing and tourism. Reefs are, however, unusually sensitive. A rise of one or two degrees in sea temperature, sustained for a few weeks, causes corals to expel the algae that feed them and turn white — a process called bleaching. A bleached reef is not dead and can recover, but only if the temperature falls and the reef is not disturbed further. Repeated bleaching, pollution from the land and destructive fishing together make recovery far less likely.
Task A. Complete the notes.
1. Importance of reefs: (a) ______ (b) ______ (c) ______
2. Cause of bleaching: ______
3. What bleaching is: ______
4. Conditions for recovery: (a) ______ (b) ______
5. Three things that prevent recovery: ______
Task B. Using your notes, write a summary of the passage in no more than 60 words.
Answers. A: 1. (a) support about a quarter of marine species (b) protect coastlines by absorbing wave energy (c) support fishing and tourism. 2. A sustained rise of one or two degrees in sea temperature over a few weeks. 3. Corals expel the algae that feed them and turn white. 4. (a) the temperature falls (b) the reef is not disturbed further. 5. Repeated bleaching, pollution from the land, destructive fishing.
B model (58 words): Coral reefs occupy under one per cent of the ocean floor yet support a quarter of marine species, shield coastlines from waves and sustain fishing and tourism. A sustained rise of one or two degrees makes corals expel their algae and whiten. Bleached reefs can recover if temperatures fall and they are left undisturbed, but repeated bleaching, pollution and destructive fishing prevent it.
Marking note. Mark the summary against the notes: five points, ten marks, plus two for staying inside the word limit. A summary that adds an opinion loses marks even if the writing is good.
Writing
Worksheet 8 — Guided writing from notes
Focus: turning bare notes into connected prose without adding or losing information.
Task. Using the notes below, write a paragraph of about 100 words. Do not add information that is not in the notes.
Notes: school library — opened 1998 — 4,000 books at start — now 22,000 — computer catalogue added 2019 — open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. — 3 librarians — reading room seats 40 — busiest during examination terms — annual book sale funds new purchases
Model answer. The school library was opened in 1998 with a collection of four thousand books. It now holds twenty-two thousand, and a computer catalogue, installed in 2019, allows pupils to find a title in moments. The library is open from eight in the morning until three in the afternoon and is staffed by three librarians. Its reading room seats forty, and every seat is taken during the examination terms, when demand is at its highest. New books are bought largely with the proceeds of the annual book sale.
Marking guide. Five marks for including every note; three for linking them into continuous prose rather than a list; two for accuracy; two for not inventing anything. Twelve marks.
Teaching note. The commonest fault is inventing detail — the library is very beautiful. Cross it out. The second commonest is writing nine separate sentences with no links at all.
Worksheet 9 — An essay: argument
Focus: a four-paragraph argument that answers the question set.
Task. Write an essay of about 250 words on: Examinations are a poor way of measuring what a pupil has learnt. Do you agree?
Plan to follow. Paragraph 1: state your position in one sentence and say what the essay will argue. Paragraph 2: the strongest argument for your position, with an example. Paragraph 3: the strongest argument against, honestly stated, and your answer to it. Paragraph 4: conclude by returning to the question.
Model answer. I agree in part. Examinations measure something real, but they measure a narrow band of it, and we treat the result as though it described the whole pupil.
The central problem is that an examination rewards performance on one morning. A pupil who has read widely for two years but sleeps badly the night before will score below one who memorised model answers for six weeks. The second pupil has demonstrated diligence and a good memory, which are worth something, but not the understanding the paper claims to test.
Against this it must be said that no fairer method has been found. Continuous assessment favours pupils whose parents can help at home, and teacher judgement, however honest, is open to influence. An examination is at least the same paper, at the same hour, for everyone, and that impartiality is not a small thing.
My conclusion is therefore narrower than the statement. Examinations are not a poor way of measuring learning; they are a fair way of measuring a small part of it. The failure lies not in the examination but in our habit of reading a single grade as though it were a complete account of a person.
Marking guide. Content and argument 8; structure and paragraphing 4; language accuracy 5; range of vocabulary and sentence variety 3. Twenty marks.
Teaching note. Paragraph 3 is where the marks are. An essay that never states the other side is not an argument, and candidates who leave it out cap themselves at about half.
Worksheet 10 — A description with a controlling impression
Focus: describing so that every detail supports one dominant impression.
Task. Write about 200 words describing a place at a particular moment. Choose one impression — emptiness, busyness, decay, welcome — and make every detail serve it. Do not name the impression anywhere in the writing.
Model answer (impression: emptiness). The ticket window is shuttered, and the timetable behind the glass is two years out of date. Someone has corrected the 4.15 in pen, though the pen ran out halfway through the figure.
Three benches face the line. The middle one has lost a slat, and the gap has been there long enough for grass to grow up through it. On the wall above, a poster advertises a cricket match played last March; the corner has lifted and curls forward, and it moves slightly whenever a lorry passes on the road behind.
The platform clock works. It is the only thing here that does, and its second hand is loud enough to count. Between one lorry and the next there is nothing else to hear at all.
A goods train goes through at twenty past without slowing. For a few seconds the noise fills the whole station, the poster lifts and drops, and the grass in the bench bends flat. Then it is gone, and the clock is the loudest thing again.
Marking guide. Five marks for a single consistent impression; five for specific, concrete detail; three for not naming the impression; four for controlled sentences and paragraphing; three for vocabulary. Twenty marks.
Teaching note. Ask the class to read a partner's piece and write down the impression in one word. If they cannot, the piece has not worked, and that is a more useful verdict than any mark you could give it.