Grade 11 Worksheets
Ten worksheets for Grade 11, the examination year: four grammar, three reading and three writing, each with the answers.
Grammar
Worksheet 1 — Error correction against the clock
Focus: finding and fixing the errors candidates actually make. Allow ten minutes.
Task. Each sentence has one error. Find it and write the correct sentence.
1. He is one of the best student in the class. 2. I am living here since 2019. 3. She did not went to school yesterday. 4. The furnitures were delivered on Monday. 5. He asked me that where I was going. 6. Neither of the answers are correct. 7. I am looking forward to meet you. 8. She is married with a doctor. 9. He explained me the problem. 10. If I would have known, I would have come. 11. The teacher made us to write an essay. 12. He is more taller than his brother.
Answers. 1. one of the best students 2. I have been living here since 2019 3. She did not go to school yesterday 4. The furniture was delivered on Monday 5. He asked me where I was going 6. Neither of the answers is correct 7. I am looking forward to meeting you 8. She is married to a doctor 9. He explained the problem to me 10. If I had known, I would have come 11. The teacher made us write an essay 12. He is taller than his brother.
Teaching note. Ask each pupil to keep a personal list of the ones they got wrong and to check that list before every piece of written work. The same three or four errors recur for each individual, and a personal list beats a general one every time.
Worksheet 2 — Register: formal and informal
Focus: matching the language to the reader — tested in every writing task.
Task A. Rewrite each sentence in formal English.
1. I want to tell you about a problem we've got. 2. Sorry, but I can't come. 3. Thanks a lot for your help. 4. Can you send me the stuff? 5. We need to sort this out fast.
Task B. Say whether each opening suits a letter to a friend, a letter to the editor, or a job application.
6. I am writing to apply for the post advertised in yesterday's newspaper. 7. You'll never guess what happened at school today. 8. I wish to draw the attention of the authorities to a matter of public concern. 9. Hope you're keeping well. 10. I should be grateful if you would consider my application.
Answers. A (accept reasonable variants): 1. I wish to bring a problem to your attention. 2. I regret that I shall be unable to attend. 3. I am most grateful for your assistance. 4. I should be grateful if you would send me the documents. 5. This matter requires prompt attention. B: 6. job application 7. friend 8. letter to the editor 9. friend 10. job application.
Teaching note. Contractions, phrasal verbs and vague words like stuff and things are the three markers of informal writing. Once candidates can spot those three, they can adjust register reliably.
Worksheet 3 — Cohesion: linking a paragraph together
Focus: the words that hold a paragraph together, and pronoun reference.
Task A. Fill each gap with a suitable linking word or phrase. Do not use any word twice.
The scheme was popular from the start. (1) ____, it had been designed with the users rather than the department in mind. (2) ____, it was simple: one form, one office, one visit. (3) ____ its success, funding was withdrawn after eighteen months. (4) ____ the department claimed the scheme was too costly, no figures were ever published. (5) ____, the office closed in March.
Task B. Say what each underlined word refers to.
The committee rejected the plan because it was too expensive. This angered the residents, who had worked on it for a year. They wrote to the newspaper, and that was how the story became public.
Answers. A (accept sensible alternatives): 1. This was because / The reason was that 2. Moreover / In addition 3. Despite 4. Although 5. Consequently / In the end. B: it (first) = the plan; This = the rejection of the plan; it (second) = the plan; They = the residents; that = writing to the newspaper.
Teaching note. Task B is worth more time than it looks. Unclear pronoun reference is one of the commonest reasons an examiner cannot follow a candidate's answer, and candidates rarely notice it in their own work.
Worksheet 4 — Mixed revision
Focus: everything from Grades 6 to 11 in one sheet, as a diagnostic. Allow fifteen minutes.
Task. Choose or supply the correct form.
1. By the time we arrived, the film ____ (already start). 2. He would rather ____ (walk) than take the bus. 3. It is high time we ____ (leave). 4. Hardly ____ he sat down when the telephone rang. 5. Not only ____ she sing, but she also plays the violin. 6. The book, ____ cover was torn, belonged to my father. 7. She insisted ____ paying for the meal. 8. He is accustomed ____ working late. 9. Unless you hurry, you ____ (miss) the train. 10. I would rather you ____ (not tell) him. 11. Scarcely had the bell rung ____ the pupils rushed out. 12. It was such a difficult question ____ nobody could answer it.
Answers. 1. had already started 2. walk 3. left 4. had 5. does 6. whose 7. on 8. to 9. will miss 10. did not tell 11. when 12. that.
Teaching note. Use this as a diagnostic in the first week of the year and again in the last. Mark it out of twelve both times and let each pupil see their own two scores. Nothing motivates revision like visible improvement.
Reading
Worksheet 5 — Timed comprehension
Focus: a full comprehension under examination conditions. Allow twenty-five minutes.
Passage. My grandmother kept accounts in a school exercise book for fifty-one years. Every rupee that entered or left the house is in those pages, written in a hand that grew smaller as the years went on, as though she were trying to make the book last.
She was not wealthy and the sums are mostly small: kerosene, thread, a bus fare to the hospital, four annas for a child's slate. But the book is not really about money. Read across a decade and you can see a son's school fees begin and end, a daughter's wedding approach and pass, and the year the fees stop altogether, which was the year my uncle died.
She never spoke about any of this. She was of a generation that considered feeling a private matter and expenditure a public one, and so the record she left is a record of what she did rather than what she felt. It is, I think, the more truthful for it. Anyone can say they loved their children. Fifty-one years of school fees, entered in a shrinking hand, is a harder thing to claim falsely.
Questions. 1. For how long did the grandmother keep accounts, and in what? (2) 2. Why does the writer suggest her handwriting grew smaller? (2) 3. Give two examples of the kind of expense recorded. (2) 4. What can be learnt by reading across a decade? (3) 5. Explain what the writer means by considered feeling a private matter and expenditure a public one. (3) 6. Why does the writer think the record is the more truthful for containing no feeling? (4)
Answers. 1. Fifty-one years; a school exercise book. 2. To save space, so the single book would last. 3. Any two of: kerosene, thread, a bus fare to the hospital, a child's slate, school fees. 4. Family events appear through the money: school fees starting and ending, a wedding approaching and passing, and the year fees stopped, which was when the uncle died. 5. She thought emotions should not be displayed but money should be openly and accurately recorded — so she wrote down what she spent and never what she felt. 6. Because a statement of love costs nothing to make and cannot be checked, while fifty-one years of recorded sacrifice is evidence of it. The actions prove what words could only assert.
Marking note. Sixteen marks. Question 6 is worth four and needs the contrast between saying and doing. A candidate who only writes because actions speak louder than words earns one.
Worksheet 6 — Fact, opinion and bias in a news report
Focus: separating what is reported from what is implied.
Passage. The council's decision to close the Wellawatte branch library has been met with what officials describe as "limited concern". A petition organised by residents attracted 1,340 signatures over three weeks. The council states that use of the branch had fallen by 12 per cent over five years and that the nearest alternative is 4.5 kilometres away. A spokesman said the closure would allow resources to be "redeployed where they are genuinely needed". No date has been set for the transfer of the collection.
Questions. 1. List three facts stated in the passage. (3) 2. Whose opinion is limited concern, and what evidence in the passage sits awkwardly beside it? (3) 3. What is the effect of the quotation marks around limited concern? (2) 4. What does the word genuinely imply about the council's view of the library? (2) 5. What important information is missing that a reader would want? (2) 6. Is this report neutral? Support your answer with two pieces of evidence. (3)
Answers. 1. Any three: 1,340 signatures; the petition ran three weeks; use fell 12 per cent over five years; the nearest alternative is 4.5 km away; no date is set. 2. The officials'. The petition of 1,340 signatures in three weeks suggests concern was not limited. 3. They distance the writer from the phrase — the report attributes it rather than endorsing it, hinting that it may not be accurate. 4. That the council regards the library as not genuinely needed, dismissing its users' view of its value. 5. Accept: how many people used the branch in absolute terms; what happens to the collection; when it closes; the cost saved. 6. Not entirely. The quotation marks invite scepticism, and the petition figure is placed immediately after the phrase it undercuts. Accept a well-argued case that it is neutral because both sides' positions are reported.
Marking note. Fifteen marks. Question 3 is the discriminator: candidates who see the function of quotation marks are reading, not skimming.
Worksheet 7 — Two texts on one subject
Focus: comparing purpose, audience and tone across two texts.
Text A — from a tourist brochure. Discover the timeless charm of the hill country, where emerald tea gardens roll away to the horizon and the air is cool and clean. Wander among the pickers, share their laughter, and take home memories that will last a lifetime.
Text B — from a labour report. Pluckers on hill-country estates are required to meet a daily quota, typically 18 to 20 kilogrammes. Work begins at 7.30 a.m. and continues in all weathers. Housing on many estates consists of line rooms built in the colonial period, and access to piped water is inconsistent.
Questions. 1. What is the purpose of each text? (2) 2. Who is each written for? (2) 3. Pick one word from Text A and one from Text B that show the difference in tone. (2) 4. Both texts describe the same people. Explain how differently they present them. (4) 5. Which text would you trust for information, and why? (2) 6. Write two sentences about tea pluckers that would be acceptable in both texts. (3)
Answers. 1. A: to persuade people to visit; B: to inform about working conditions. 2. A: prospective tourists; B: officials, researchers, policymakers or the general public. 3. A: charm, emerald, laughter; B: quota, required, inconsistent. 4. A presents them as part of the scenery — cheerful, picturesque, there to be visited; it gives them no work, no hours and no conditions. B presents them as workers with quotas, fixed hours and inadequate housing, and gives no impression of their feelings at all. A removes the labour; B removes the person. 5. B, because it gives specific figures and makes no emotional appeal. Accept a case for caution about B's own purpose if argued. 6. Model: Tea pluckers work on hill-country estates, beginning early in the morning. They pick leaf by hand, and their work is central to the region's economy.
Marking note. Fifteen marks. Question 4 carries four and needs both halves — what each text includes and what each leaves out.
Writing
Worksheet 8 — A formal letter of complaint
Focus: complaining effectively — firm, factual and specific.
Task. Write a letter of about 150 words to the manager of a bookshop. You ordered a set of six textbooks four weeks ago and paid in full. Only four have arrived, one is damaged, and two telephone calls have not been returned. Request a specific remedy.
Model answer. 18, Lake Road, Nugegoda. 20th August 2026.
The Manager, Vidya Book House, Colombo 4.
Dear Sir or Madam,
Order No. 4471 — incomplete and damaged delivery
I placed the above order for six textbooks on 23rd July and paid the full amount of Rs. 8,400 at the time of ordering.
Four books were delivered on 5th August. Two titles are still outstanding, and one of the four that arrived, the Grade 11 science text, has a torn spine and detached pages.
I telephoned your office on 8th and 14th August. On both occasions I was told that someone would return my call, and on neither occasion did anyone do so.
I should be grateful if you would despatch the two outstanding titles and a replacement for the damaged book within seven days, or refund Rs. 4,200 in respect of the three books I have not received in usable condition.
Yours faithfully, K. Wijesinghe
Marking guide. Two marks for layout; one for subject line; two for the facts in order with dates and figures; two for a firm but civil tone; two for a specific remedy with a deadline; two for accuracy; one for length. Twelve marks.
Teaching note. The three things that make a complaint work are dates, figures and a stated remedy. A letter that only expresses annoyance earns few marks and, in life, gets no result.
Worksheet 9 — An article for the school magazine
Focus: an engaging opening, a developed middle and an ending that lands.
Task. Write an article of about 250 words for the school magazine on: The one thing I would change about our school. Give it a title. Open in a way that makes the reader continue, argue one change only, and end with something worth remembering.
Model answer. THE FIFTEEN MINUTES WE THROW AWAY
Every morning, between the second bell and the start of the first period, this school loses fifteen minutes. I have timed it. The bell goes at 7.30. Teaching begins, on a good day, at 7.45.
The time disappears into the ordinary business of a school: the register, notices read aloud that were already on the board, a class of forty settling into thirty-eight chairs. None of it is anybody's fault. All of it is avoidable.
Fifteen minutes a day is seventy-five minutes a week. Over a school year it comes to roughly forty-five hours, which is more than a whole term of one subject. We would not tolerate losing a term of mathematics. We tolerate it every year without noticing, because we lose it in fifteen-minute pieces.
What I would change is simple. Move the register to the end of the day, when the room is settled and nobody is learning anything anyway. Put notices on a single board by the gate and expect pupils to read them, as we expect them to read everything else.
I am not asking for a longer day. I am asking for the day we already have.
Marking guide. Three marks for a title and an opening that earns attention; six for one argument genuinely developed with evidence; three for an effective ending; four for structure and paragraphing; four for accuracy and range. Twenty marks.
Teaching note. The commonest failure is listing five changes instead of arguing one. The task says the one thing, and a candidate who ignores that has not answered the question, however well they write.
Worksheet 10 — Full examination writing practice
Focus: choosing, planning and writing under time pressure. Allow forty minutes for the whole sheet.
Task. Choose ONE of the following and write about 250 words. Spend five minutes planning before you begin.
(a) An account of a day that did not go as expected.
(b) A speech to your class on why reading matters more than it appears to.
(c) An article: Should schools teach pupils how to manage money?
(d) A description of a person you know well, without naming their profession or relationship to you.
The five-minute plan — teach this before the writing.
1. Underline the key words in the question. Two minutes wasted here saves ten later. 2. Decide your ending first. Writing towards a known ending is far easier than discovering one at word 240. 3. Write four short paragraph headings, not sentences. 4. Note three specific details you intend to use — a name, a number, an object. 5. Begin.
Marking guide. Content and relevance 8; organisation and paragraphing 4; language accuracy 5; vocabulary and sentence variety 3. Twenty marks.
Marking note for the teacher. Mark the plan as well as the essay, at least for the first few attempts. A candidate whose plan bears no relation to what they wrote has not learnt to plan, and telling them so early is worth more than a comment on their vocabulary.
Teaching note. Option (d) is the one to push at able candidates. Describing a person without the two easiest labels forces them to characterise through behaviour, which is precisely the skill Literature will ask for.