4.2 Part 5 Story Comprehension & 1-to-4-Word Gap Filling

Part 5 of the A2 Flyers Reading and Writing paper is sentence completion based on a story. It has 7 questions and 7 marks. Children read a story, then complete sentences about it by writing one, two, three or four words. The 2026 format page summarises this as reading a story and completing sentences. The Handbook for Teachers (2024) adds the details that actually cost marks.

There is one text and one picture. The picture provides context for the story but does not provide answers to the questions. A child who answers from the drawing — “there is a castle”, “the boy looks sad” — without checking the sentences against the story is not doing Part 5. The picture may help the child enter the scene. The marks live in the words.

The part tests two official skills at once: reading and understanding a story, and recognising different words and phrases with similar meanings. That second skill is paraphrase. The gapped sentence is usually not a photocopy of a story sentence. It is the same fact turned around.

The completed question papers go to Cambridge to be marked. Children must follow the instructions and keep within the word limits. Five words on a four-word line is not a “nearly right” bonus. It is outside the instruction.

The picnic turnaround (Handbook model)

The Handbook’s own teaching example is the whole method in one pair of sentences:

• Story shape: “Last Sunday, our family went to the park to have a picnic.”
• Same meaning, turned around: “Our family had a picnic in the park last Sunday.”

Nothing new is added. Nothing true is dropped. The order changes. went to the park to have a picnic becomes had a picnic in the park. A gapped sentence might hide any piece of that turnaround:

• Our family _____ in the park last Sunday. → had a picnic (3 words)
• Our family had a picnic _____ last Sunday. → in the park (3 words)
• The family went to the park _____. → last Sunday (2 words) or to have a picnic (4 words), depending on the line.

The child who only hunts for the exact story string “went to the park to have a picnic” will not see had a picnic. The child who invents “enjoyed a lovely lunch” has left the story’s words and will often misspell besides. Stay true to the story; use the story’s words; fit the new sentence.

Pronouns, names and here/there

To understand the story, children need practice in identifying different ways of referring to people or objects, and in identifying what is being referred to, especially pronouns and adverbs such as here and there.

A gapped sentence that says “_____ helped Tom come down slowly” may need Mr Blake or the teacher, not he, if he would be unclear, or he if the sentence already names the teacher. The story may say “Mr Blake showed them how to put on a helmet” and later “Mr Blake helped him come down”. The gapped sentence can use either the name or the teacher.

Here and there are Flyers-small and easy to miss. If the story says the children arrived at the castle and were tired there, a sentence may read “The children were tired and thirsty _____.” The answer can be at the castle or when they arrived, depending on the line, as long as it is 1–4 words and true. There can be the whole answer when the gapped sentence has already named the place in another way, or when there is the word the new sentence needs.

A method that protects the seven marks

1. Look at the picture only to enter the scene: who is there, where are they, what is the topic.
2. Read the whole story once. Do not start writing.
3. Read the example gapped sentences so you can see the turnaround style.
4. For each of the seven sentences, underline the words that are already printed. They tell you which fact is being asked for.
5. Find that fact in the story. It may use different words.
6. Write 1–4 words that make the new sentence true, usually using words from the story.
7. Count the words. Copy the spelling. Check that the completed sentence is grammatical.

Do not answer from the picture when the story and the picture could disagree. The picture will not name Mr Blake, will not say nine o’clock, and will not tell you that Mum drove them. Those facts are in the text.

Worked story (original teaching item)

The story below is a classroom model, not a copied sample paper. There is one picture in the real task: two children outside a sports centre with a swimming-pool sign. That picture does not tell you the teacher’s name, the time, or who drove.

Tom’s Saturday at the sports centre

Last Saturday, Tom went to the new sports centre with his sister Emma. Their mum drove them there after breakfast because the swimming pool opened at nine o’clock. Tom wanted to swim, but Emma preferred the climbing wall. They agreed to do both.

First they swam for half an hour. The water was colder than Tom expected, so he only stayed in the pool for twenty minutes. Emma laughed and said he was like a penguin. Then they went to the climbing wall. A teacher called Mr Blake showed them how to put on a helmet. Tom climbed higher than Emma, but he was frightened when he looked down, so Mr Blake helped him come down slowly.

At twelve o’clock they were hungry. Their mum was waiting in the café with sandwiches and orange juice. Tom told her about the cold water and the high wall. “Can we come again next Saturday?” he asked. Mum smiled and said yes, if they finished their homework on Friday.

Now the gapped sentences. Each is a turnaround, not a photocopy.

1. Tom went to the sports centre with Emma _____. → last Saturday (2 words). The story leads with the time; the gapped sentence puts the time at the end, like the picnic example.
2. Their mum _____ to the sports centre after breakfast. → drove them (2 words). Went by car is the meaning; the story’s verb is drove.
3. The swimming pool _____ at nine o’clock. → opened (1 word). Do not write “opened at nine o’clock” — that is five words and repeats the printed time.
4. Emma _____ the climbing wall to swimming. → preferred (1 word) or liked only if the story used liked; here the story’s word is preferred. A four-word answer such as preferred the climbing wall would clash with the words already printed after the gap.
5. The water in the pool was _____ Tom expected. → colder than (2 words). Comparative + than, copied from the story.
6. _____ showed Tom and Emma how to put on a helmet. → Mr Blake (2 words) or A teacher (2 words) or The teacher (2 words). The picture cannot give this name.
7. Mum waited for them _____ with sandwiches and juice. → in the café (3 words). There would only fit if the sentence had already named the café.

What a wrong answer looks like

• From the picture: “Tom was happy.” The picture may show a smile; the sentence asked for a time, a name, or a place from the text.
• Too many words: “opened at nine o’clock this morning” — five or more words, and this morning is not in the story.
• Near-synonym not in the story: “Mum transported them” — the story says drove.
• Pronoun muddle: writing she for Mr Blake, or he for Emma.
• Misspelling a copied word: prefered, sandwitches, cafè. The Handbook says: copy the spelling correctly when taking words from the text.

Counting to four

Cambridge counts words the way the instruction reads: 1, 2, 3 or 4 words. Classroom practice:

• last Saturday = 2
• in the café = 3
• colder than = 2
• Mr Blake = 2
• drove them there = 3, and may be too many if the sentence already has to the sports centre
• at twelve o’clock = 3

If your first draft is five words, cut a word that the printed sentence already contains. Do not cut the word that carries the new fact.

Hyphenated forms are rare at Flyers. If you are unsure whether something is one word or two, look at the story: write it as the story writes it.

Time, handwriting and the rest of the paper

Part 5 is 7 marks of 48. After Part 4’s ten grammar gaps, a practical classroom split is about 6–7 minutes here: one story read, seven sentences, a spelling pass. Parts 6 and 7 still remain. A child who copies whole story sentences onto every line will run out of time and will break the four-word limit.

Write in clear letters. Joined-up writing that a marker cannot read loses marks. If you change an answer, make the correction neat. The marker does not know the child and will not “guess what you meant”.

Traps that lose Part 5 marks

• Treating the picture as an answer sheet.
• Hunting only for an exact story string and missing the picnic-style turnaround.
• Writing five words because “more detail is better”.
• Inventing a nicer verb than the story’s verb.
• Losing he / she / they / there / here in a long paragraph.
• Misspelling a word that is printed in the story a few centimetres above the line.

Lock the rule: the picture is context; the story is the source; the gapped sentence is a paraphrase; one to four words; copy the spelling. Then Part 6 removes the options altogether.