Reading Comprehension Questions

(TESOL Ideas)

These are two ideas that I picked up from I.S.P. Nation's book.
Nation had the idea that reading comprehension questions should focus on helping the students learn how to read instead of simply testing their reading skills.  To that end, he suggested designing questions that get the students to identify what the reference words in a text refer to.
Below is included an example I did for a recent reading class.  It's only an example, of course, and new sheets will have to be designed for each text, but you hopefully get the idea.

Look at page 35 in your reading source book.  Write in what each reference word (in bold) refers to from the text.

Line 15: its atmosphere: ____________

Line 20: This is called: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Line 22: it is today: ____________________

Line 24: its subsequent condensation: ____________________

Line 28: that block: __________________

Line 36: the one: _________________

Line 38 especially that: __________________

Line 38 which has: _____________________

Answers:

Line 15: its atmosphere: the Earth's

Line 20: This is called: Greenhouse gases such as water vapour and carbon dioxide, as well as clouds and small particles (called 'aerosols'), trap some heat in the lower part of the Earth's atmosphere.

Line 22: it is today: average surface temperature

Line 24: its subsequent condensation: surface water

Line 28: that block: tiny particles

Line 36: the one: warmer period

Line 38 especially that: the atmospheric amounts

Line 38 which has: carbon dioxide

The second idea is an extrapolation from Nation's book.  Nation suggested designing questions that get students to identify the head of a noun phrase.  Or, in more complex sentences, get students to identify which nouns are the subjects of which verbs.
I've modified this idea slightly into an activity where students have to identify the main subject and the main verb in each sentence.  Students are encouraged to write down only the head noun and the head verb (i.e. only one word each).  The exception is the passive voice, in which case auxiliaries are allowed to show that it's in the passive.
As with the above example, this has to be slightly redesigned for each reading, but a recent example I used in class is below, and a generic version of the sheet is on Google Docs Here.

Main Subject	Main Verb
(3 subjects)

Which verbs are in the passive?

Answers

Main Subject	Main Verb
document	answers
issues	(be) clarified
Climate	is
weather	change
changes	involve
climate	(is) influenced
climate	(is) controlled
radiation	(is) absorbed
radiation	(is) balanced
gases	trap
This	(is) called
temperature	be
currents	redistribute
evaporation, condensation, precipitation	redistribute
events	cause
eruptions	put
Variations	change
events	last
changes	caused
activities	change
amounts	increasing