What is retrieval?
Retrieval questions ask you to find information that is written in the text. The answer is right there: you just have to find it.
How to find the answer fast
- Read the question carefully. Underline the key words (names, numbers, places).
- Look at the question word:
| Question word | Look for… |
|---|---|
| Who? | a person or animal |
| Where? | a place |
| When? | a time, date or year |
| How many / how much? | a number |
| What? | a thing or an event |
- Scan the text for the key words. You don’t need to reread everything.
- Read the sentences around the key word to find the exact answer.
Watch out! Wrong answers often use real words and numbers from the passage, but from the wrong part. Check the exact sentence.
Top tip: if the question mentions a paragraph number, go straight there.
📖 The Giant’s Causeway
1On the north coast of County Antrim lies one of the most famous places in Ireland: the Giant’s Causeway. It is made of about 40,000 stone columns that fit together like the pieces of a giant jigsaw. Many of the columns have six sides, and some are taller than a house.
2Scientists explain that the columns were formed around 60 million years ago. Hot, runny rock called lava poured out of the ground and spread across the land. As the lava cooled, it shrank and cracked into these amazing shapes.
3There is also an old legend about the causeway. It tells of an Irish giant called Finn McCool, who built the path across the sea so he could fight a Scottish giant named Benandonner. When Finn saw how enormous Benandonner was, his clever wife disguised Finn as a baby. Benandonner decided that if the baby was that big, its father must be even bigger, and he ran home to Scotland, tearing up the causeway behind him.
4In 1986, the Giant’s Causeway became a World Heritage Site, a place that is protected because it is special to the whole world. Today, visitors come from many countries to walk on the stones and hear the story of Finn McCool.