“我有個朋友，兩個兒子的母親，她老公是英國人，家裏說英語，孩子們在Harrow International School讀書，按理說英文應沒問題？但他們去考11 Plus ，也沒法駕馭英文卷裏的閱讀理解!” 有學生家長曾跟我說。
（簡單來説，要入讀英國的頂尖公立中學和私校，就必須在11-12嵗期間,拿到優秀的11 Plus成績）
對在本地學校讀書的香港學生來説 ，11 Plus的英文卷自然更難，因本地學校給學生做的閱讀理解題目，大多只問What（文章說什麽）, 而且大部分答案在文章裏就能找到。11 Plus則着重問 How（作者怎樣表達自己），哪怕能判斷出作者用什麽修辭，也是不夠的，還要深度分析作者的用意，和作者怎樣達到 his or her intended effects 等。
我的經驗是，幫香港學生克服對 11 Plus reading comprehnsion section的恐懼的方法之一，是我也參與回答問題的過程中：上課時，我和學生先各自把文章看完，然後各自做題目，每做完一題，大家停一停，比較一下雙方的答案，我也仔細地解釋我得到我的答案的步驟。一段時間後，學生不但會慢慢悟出答題竅門，而且能吸收對他/她有長遠益處的寫作技巧。
Below is my demonstration of how 11 Plus reading comprehension can be taught
閱讀理解題目來自這個鏈接：https://media.abacus11plus.co.uk/file/11PlusEnglishPracticePapers/Haberdashers-Askes-School-English-Paper-2017.pdf
Question
Re-read lies 56-71. Explain how the writer makes this a tense moment in the story. You should support your answer with evidence selected from these two paragraphs. (6 marks)
He pressed on; maybe he’d imagined it. No. There it came again. A definite bump. He peered down into the water and in the dim light he saw them… hundreds of them, a seething mass in the water, balled up and tangled together like the writhing hair of some underwater Medusa. Eels. All around him. Eels of all sizes, from tiny black silvers to huge brute twice the length of the one he’d caught. The water was alive with them, wriggling, twisting, turning over and over…They surged against his legs and he stumbled. His wounded hand splashed down into the water and he felt hungry mouths tug the blooded handkerchief from his hand and drag it away into the murky depths.
He panicked, tried to run for the shore but slipped and, as his feet scrabbled to get a hold, he tumbled into the deep part of the loch. For a moment his head went under and he was aware of eels brushing against his face. One wrapped itself round his neck and he pulled it away with his good hand. Then his feet touched the bottom and he pushed himself up to the surface. He gulped in a mouthful of air, but his waders were filled with water now…water and eels, he could feel them down his legs, trapped by the rubber.
Student’s response
The writer makes a tense moment in the story because there were eels circling round him, as the eels were of all sizes and the water was alive with them.
Michelle’s response
When the writer first introduces the eels, he uses a series of short sentences to indicate their presence: “Maybe he’d imagined it. No. There it came again. A definite bump.” In doing so, he succeeds in creating an atmosphere of suspense: is there an eel or not?
To highlight the horror of the eels, the writer compares them to “the writhing hair of some underwater Medusa,” making an allusion to that monster in Greek myth that has a hair of snakes.
To let the reader appreciate the danger the boy is in, the writer makes a point of describing how, after the eels have torn the bloodied handkerchief off the boy, the handkerchief is dragged by the eels “into the murky depths.” The implication is if the boy loses his footing again, he, too, may end up in waters that are dark and unimaginably deep.
When the boy rises to the surface of the lake and discovers the mere act of swimming upwards has resulted in so many eels slipping into his waders (“his waders were filled with water now…water and eels, he could feel them down his legs, trapped by the rubber”), the reader has a more vivid idea of just how many eels there are in the lake.
Come Write Like Michelle 