Working out what the text suggests but does not state directly: inferring feelings and motives from clues, combining several pieces of evidence, and justifying an answer with 'how do you know?' reasoning.
Where your child meets this in real life: Working out how a friend is feeling from how they act, or understanding what a character in a film really wants
Questions 16 to 28 of the English section are all about one reading passage: 7 multiple-choice questions, then 6 short written answers. That is nearly half the English marks.
SEAGReady breaks reading between the lines into 3 steps, taught in order so each skill builds on the last.
Infer how a character feels when the feeling is not named by interpreting one or more action, body-language or speech clues in context and checking that the feeling fits the available evidence.
Combine two or more relevant details, of the same or different types and from one or more parts of a text, to infer an unstated event, situation, plan, motive, realisation, quality or other conclusion, then test it against all the evidence.
Answer 'how do you know?' questions by naming the exact evidence in the text that supports an inference, choosing the quotation that genuinely proves the point.
These two questions come from “The Wrong Shadow”, our free sample reading passage. Each one shows the lines of the story it needs. To practise like the real test, read the whole story and answer all its questions on the full sample page.
- Line 1: Nia arrived for final rehearsal and sat at the lighting desk beside the stage.
- Line 2: Her job was to turn a floor-level lamp towards a cardboard moon on cue.
- Line 3: She had marked the cue in blue pencil.
- Line 4: She knew the scene and could hear the next line in her head.
- Line 5: Still, her thumb pressed a fold into the corner of the cue sheet.
Refer to: Lines 1–5
- Line 14: It was the correct cue, but the strange shape had appeared before she touched the lamp control.
- Line 15: She would check before she blamed anything.
Refer to: Lines 14–15
This is the exact interactive worked example your child sees in SEAGReady. Step through it and watch the method build up.
Read this extract from a story. 'Thomas stood outside the assembly hall, waiting for his turn to sing. His hands would not stay still, and he kept reading the same line of the song sheet over and over. When Miss Rice called his name, he swallowed hard and walked slowly to the stage.'
How was Thomas feeling? Use the clues in the extract.
Thomas's hands would not stay still, and he kept rereading the same line.
Step 1 of 5
Read this extract from a story. 'Thomas stood outside the assembly hall, waiting for his turn to sing. His hands would not stay still, and he kept reading the same line of the song sheet over and over. When Miss Rice called his name, he swallowed hard and walked slowly to the stage.'
How was Thomas feeling? Use the clues in the extract.
Thomas was feeling nervous; his restless hands, repeated reading, hard swallow and slow walk all support this inference.
The key insight: An action is a clue, not a code for one feeling. Test a possible feeling against the other actions and the situation before deciding.
Common mix-up: Answering 'excited' from his restless hands alone. Restless hands can show several feelings. This answer uses one ambiguous clue and ignores his repeated reading, hard swallow and slow walk, which together support nervousness.
These are the misconceptions we see most often in reading between the lines, including the ones our practice questions are specifically designed to catch.
Struggling with reading between the lines? The real gap is often in one of these earlier topics.
Sitting the SEAG test this November? Read our last-month revision plan, Paper 1 vs Paper 2 and test day guide.
SEAGReady finds the exact step where your child gets stuck, teaches it with worked examples like the one above, and brings it back for review so it sticks.
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