You are viewing a free preview of this lesson.
Subscribe to unlock all 10 lessons in this course and every other course on LearningBro.
This is your second full-length CSSE 11+ practice paper. Treat this as a final dress rehearsal for the real exam. Time yourself carefully and work through both papers under exam conditions.
Read the following passage carefully.
Before satellites circled the Earth and before GPS guided every journey, there were map makers — cartographers who travelled the world on foot, horseback, and by ship to chart unknown lands. Their work was painstaking, dangerous, and often thankless. Yet without them, the modern world as we know it could not exist.
One of the most remarkable cartographers in history was a woman named Marie Tharp. Born in 1920 in Michigan, USA, Marie grew up at a time when women were discouraged from pursuing careers in science. She ignored the doubts of others and studied geology and mathematics at university, eventually joining the Lamont Geological Observatory in New York in 1948.
At Lamont, Marie was not allowed on the research ships — that privilege was reserved for men. Instead, she worked in the laboratory, painstakingly plotting thousands of sonar readings taken from the ocean floor onto detailed maps. It was repetitive, exacting work that demanded extraordinary patience and precision.
In 1952, Marie noticed something remarkable in her data. Running down the centre of the Atlantic Ocean was a deep valley — a rift. This was evidence of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a massive underwater mountain range. More importantly, it supported the theory of continental drift — the idea that the continents had once been joined together and had slowly moved apart over millions of years.
When Marie presented her findings, her colleague Bruce Heezen dismissed the idea, calling it "girl talk." But Marie was certain of her data. She spent months gathering more evidence until Heezen — and eventually the entire scientific community — could no longer deny what the maps clearly showed. Marie Tharp had helped prove one of the most important scientific theories of the twentieth century.
Her maps of the ocean floor were published in 1977 and changed how we understand our planet. She received numerous awards later in life, but for decades her contribution was overlooked. Marie Tharp died in 2006, and today she is finally recognised as one of the great pioneers of modern earth science.
Q1. What is a cartographer? (1 mark)
Q2. Why was Marie Tharp not allowed on the research ships? (1 mark)
Q3. What did Marie discover in 1952, and why was it significant? (3 marks)
Q4. How did Bruce Heezen initially respond to Marie's findings? What does his phrase "girl talk" reveal about attitudes at the time? (3 marks)
Q5. "It was repetitive, exacting work that demanded extraordinary patience and precision." What does this sentence suggest about Marie's character? (2 marks)
Q6. The passage says Marie's contribution was "overlooked" for decades. Why do you think this happened? Use evidence from the passage. (3 marks)
Q7. Choose the word closest in meaning to "painstaking" as used in the passage. (1 mark)
(a) Painful (b) Quick and careless (c) Extremely careful and thorough (d) Simple and easy
Q8. Why is Marie Tharp's story still important today? What lessons can we learn from it? (3 marks)
Q9. Suggest an alternative title for this passage and explain why it would be appropriate. (3 marks)
Q10. Choose the correct spelling. (5 marks)
| Sentence | Options |
|---|---|
| The scientist made a ___ discovery. | revalutionary / revolutionary / revolusionary |
| She worked with great ___. | acuracy / accuracy / accurecy |
| The theory was highly ___. | controversal / controversial / contravercial |
| Her ___ was finally recognised. | achievment / acheivment / achievement |
| The evidence was ___. | undenieable / undeniable / undenyable |
Q11. Add the missing punctuation. (5 marks)
"Everyone should study science, even if they do not plan to become a scientist."
Write a persuasive argument in favour of this statement. Use at least three persuasive techniques and organise your work into clear paragraphs. Write approximately 150–200 words.
Q1. 8,467 + 5,958 = ? (2 marks)
Q2. 12,003 - 6,847 = ? (2 marks)
Q3. 574 x 36 = ? (2 marks)
Q4. 3,240 / 15 = ? (2 marks)
Q5. Calculate 3/4 + 5/6. Give your answer as a mixed number. (2 marks)
Q6. Find 45% of 680. (2 marks)
Q7. A television costs 480 pounds. In a sale, the price drops by 15%. What is the sale price? (2 marks)
Q8. What is 5/8 of 104? (1 mark)
Q9. Calculate 15.3 - 7.86 + 2.4 (2 marks)
Q10. A number rounded to the nearest ten is 470. What is the largest possible value of the number? (1 mark)
Q11. A regular hexagon has a perimeter of 42 cm. What is the length of one side? (1 mark)
Q12. A circle has a radius of 7 cm. Using pi = 22/7, calculate the circumference. (2 marks)
Q13. Share 200 pounds between two charities in the ratio 3:7. How much does each charity receive? (2 marks)
Q14. The mean of four numbers is 18. Three of the numbers are 15, 17, and 22. What is the fourth number? (2 marks)
Q15. A train leaves Bristol at 09:47 and arrives in Cardiff at 10:39. Another train leaves Bristol at 14:20. If it takes the same amount of time, when does it arrive in Cardiff? (3 marks)
Q16. A cuboid has a length of 8 cm, width of 5 cm, and height of 4 cm. What is its volume? What is the total surface area? (3 marks)
Q17. In a class of 40 pupils, 3/8 play football, 1/5 play tennis, and the rest play neither sport. How many play neither sport? (2 marks)
Q18. A shop sells T-shirts for 12 pounds each and caps for 8 pounds each. Aisha buys 3 T-shirts and some caps. She spends 68 pounds in total. How many caps did she buy? (3 marks)
Q19. The sum of three consecutive even numbers is 72. What are the three numbers? (2 marks)
Subscribe to continue reading
Get full access to this lesson and all 10 lessons in this course.