Free Year 7 Specialist and technical vocabulary... Practice | Skillo

Year 7 students facing their third NAPLAN need to be confident with specialist and technical vocabulary — dual meanings. Investigate the role of vocabulary in building specialist and technical knowledge, including terms that have both everyday and technical meanings. Skillo has targeted practice questions for this exact skill, mapped to the Australian Curriculum v9.0, free and ready to go.

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What is tested: Specialist and technical vocabulary — dual meanings

  • Investigate the role of vocabulary in building specialist and technical knowledge, including terms that have both everyday and technical meanings.
  • Questions are based on original Australian passages
  • Text types include narrative, informative and persuasive

Sample questions

Question 1Easy

Read the passage below, then answer the question. Zac had submitted what he privately considered his finest piece of writing — a short story about a lighthouse keeper who discovers that the light she tends has been guiding something other than ships. His English teacher returned it with a single comment written in red at the top: 'Ambitious, but you've buried the lead.' Zac stared at the phrase, unsure whether it was praise or criticism. He re-read his story and slowly understood: he had saved his most arresting idea — the revelation of what was really being guided — for the final paragraph, when it should have been present, in some form, from the very beginning. In this passage, 'you've buried the lead' means that Zac —

A) has written a story that is too long and needs to be shortened.
B) has failed to develop his main character in a convincing way.
C) has used too many metaphors, making the story difficult to follow.
D) has placed the most important or compelling element of his story too late.

Answer: Option D is correct — The passage clarifies the meaning when Zac realises he saved his most arresting idea for the final paragraph rather than establishing it earlier, which is what 'burying the lead' means in writing.

Question 2Medium

During the marine science excursion, Priya observed a strong ocean __________ pushing the research buoy rapidly northward along the coast.

A) flow
B) stream
C) current
D) rush

Answer: In physical geography and oceanography, 'current' is the technical term for a continuous, directed movement of water or air. 'Flow', 'stream', and 'rush' are everyday synonyms for moving water but lack the precise technical meaning used in marine science contexts to describe named ocean movements such as the East Australian Current.

Question 3Hard

During the experiment, Priya recorded the electrical ___ flowing through the copper wire using a digital ammeter connected to the circuit.

A) flow
B) current
C) stream
D) movement

Answer: In physics and electrical science, 'current' is the technical term for the flow of electric charge through a conductor, measured in amperes. 'Flow', 'stream', and 'movement' are everyday synonyms that describe motion in general but have no precise technical meaning in the context of electrical circuits.

How to use Skillo for Year 7 Reading

  1. Select Year 7 and Reading on the home screen
  2. Use Quick Practice — questions on specialist and technical vocabulary — dual meanings will appear as part of the session
  3. Check the Skill Breakdown on your profile to track your accuracy on specialist and technical vocabulary — dual meanings specifically
  4. Review explanations after each question to understand the reasoning behind correct answers

Skillo is free, requires no email or account details, and is built specifically for Australian students. Every question is mapped to the Australian Curriculum v9.0 and filtered by skill so your child practises exactly what they need.

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