Read the sentence before the gap and the one after, then decide what the gap must do.
Practice test 1 is free. No card needed.
Missing sentence questions ask which sentence fits a gap, joining what comes before it to what comes after. Children in Year 7 now meet them in Year 8, in the exam expected in June 2027.
Checked by the SelectiveReady team on 12 October 2026 · Updated 27 October 2026 · How we check facts
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ACER says Reading tests finding information in texts, and linking, interpreting, reflecting on and judging their ideas. Gap questions are our way to show the linking: a sentence fits only if it joins what comes before to what comes after.
The questions below are ours and share one passage, The Platypus: Built for Two Worlds, with numbered gaps. Each one shows the answer and the working, so read them together. Read the paragraph aloud with a wrong option in the gap; a clash is easier to hear than to see.
When the first platypus specimen reached Britain in the late 1700s, some scientists suspected a hoax. An animal with the bill of a duck, the tail of a beaver and the fur of an otter seemed too unlikely to be real. [ 1 ] Today we know that the platypus is very real, and that each of its strange features helps it to survive both in rivers and on land.
The platypus spends much of its time hunting in the water, usually at night or around dawn and dusk. When it dives, folds of skin close over its eyes and ears, and its nostrils seal shut. [ 2 ] Its bill is covered with thousands of tiny sensors that detect the faint electrical signals given off when its prey, such as insect larvae, shrimps and worms, move their muscles. By sweeping its bill from side to side, the platypus can find food hidden in the mud of the riverbed.
An adult platypus has no teeth. Instead, it stores its catch in pouches in its cheeks and carries it up to the surface. [ 3 ] It then grinds the food between hard pads in its mouth before swallowing.
On land, the platypus lives in burrows dug into riverbanks. Its webbed front feet, so useful for swimming, would make digging awkward, but the webbing can be folded back to reveal strong claws. The female lays her eggs, usually one or two, in a nest of damp leaves at the end of a long burrow, and feeds the young on milk once they hatch. It is this combination, an egg-laying mammal, that once made the platypus seem impossible, and that still makes it one of the most unusual animals on Earth.
Which sentence best fills gap [ 1 ] in the passage?
Answer: B
Answer: B
Read both sides of the gap. Before it, scientists suspect a hoax; after it, 'Today we know that the platypus is very real'. Only B continues the doubt. C does not fit, since people who thought it fake would not make it popular, and A describes what we know 'today', not what the first scientists believed.
Which sentence best fills gap [ 2 ] in the passage?
Answer: D
Answer: D
The sentence must link the closed eyes and ears before the gap to the bill's sensors after it. D does this: with eyes and ears shut, it needs 'another way', and the next sentence explains that way. B contradicts the closed eyes, C clashes with hunting 'at night or around dawn and dusk', and A is about warmth, not finding food.
Which sentence best fills gap [ 3 ] in the passage?
Answer: A
Answer: A
Check both sides of the gap. Before it, the food is carried 'up to the surface' in the pouches; after it, 'It then grinds the food'. Only A links the two. C sounds natural but contradicts grinding 'before swallowing', D contradicts the hard grinding pads, and B clashes with carrying the food up to the surface.
Work out what the gap must do before reading the options. Then each option is tested against a job, not against a feeling that it sounds right.
These steps are ours, drawn from the working in the answers above.
Read the sentence before the gap and the sentence after it. The missing one has to link them.
Does it continue a doubt, give a reason, or add the next step? Decide before reading the options.
Words like so, then, this and instead point back to something. Check what they point to.
Read the paragraph with the option in the gap. Cross out any option that clashes with a fact nearby.
In the third gap, the missing step sits between two others in a process.
The traps below are wrong options from the questions above, and each one sounds fine on its own. Ask your child which one looked right at first, then reread the sentence after the gap together.
Cut a short article into sentences and ask your child to put a paragraph back in order. Talk about the words that gave the order away.
Cover a sentence in the middle of a paragraph and ask what it must have said. Then uncover it and compare.
Point out linking words as you read together, such as however, so, then and instead. Ask what each one connects.
The real exam is on paper, with answers shaded in a supplied answer booklet. With numbered gaps in play, a good habit is to check the gap number in the question before shading.
Reading shares 55 minutes with Verbal Reasoning. Three questions show the method; a full sitting shows whether your child still reads both sides of each gap under time. Start with Practice test 1: one full practice test with results, with a free account.
It's on screen, laid out as a question booklet beside an answer sheet, and afterwards you'll see results by skill. For more passages with worked answers, see VIC selective entry reading questions, or read about VIC selective entry reading.
Practice test 1 marks every answer and shows results by skill: what your child already does well and the three skills to work on next.
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