HAST reading practice: working out a word from its context

Quick Answer

When a HAST reading question asks what a word means, cover the word, read the sentence before and after, and test each option in its place. This page from Braintree Coaching Australia has two original passages and ten such questions, with the reasoning written out for every option. HAST has no separate verbal reasoning section.

Who is this practice for, and which HAST level?

Level named: this set is pitched at children in Year 6 who are preparing for the Junior level of the Secondary HAST, for Year 7 entry. ACER lists the Secondary programme as designed for entry into Years 7 to 11, at Junior, Middle and Senior levels, and the Primary programme as designed for entry into Years 5 and 6. Your child's school confirms which programme and level its children sit.

That is a different level from our HAST Year 8–9 vocabulary list, which is a 495-word list for older children. This page does not teach a list. It practises one skill: using the sentence around a word to decide which of its meanings is meant.

Both passages and all ten questions are original work by Braintree Coaching Australia. They are not ACER questions and not from any published HAST booklet. This page does not state how many word-in-context questions a real HAST paper contains, because ACER does not publish a count.

How do I work out a word I do not know?

Many English words carry several meanings. A child who has met "bank" only as a place for money will meet it as the side of a creek. So the question is rarely "do you know this word?" It is "which meaning fits this sentence?"

Use cover and substitute:

1. Cover the word with a finger and read the sentence without it.
2. Read the sentence before and after. Note what they are about.
3. Say in your own words what would fit the gap.
4. Substitute each option into the sentence in place of the word.
5. Keep the option that still makes sense with the sentences on both sides. Cross out the rest.

Worked model. Joel sat on the bank and watched the water slide past.

• Cover "bank": Joel sat on the ___ and watched the water slide past.
• The sentence is about water and sitting, so the gap is a place beside water.
• Try "a place where money is kept": Joel sat on a place where money is kept and watched the water? It fits grammar, not sense.
• Try "to tilt an aircraft to one side": Joel sat on a tilt? No.
• Try "the sloping ground along the edge of a river or creek": it fits. That is the meaning here.

Notice that every option was a real meaning of "bank". The wrong ones were wrong only because of this sentence.

Passage 1 and questions

Original passage by Braintree Coaching Australia. Each question names the paragraph and the word in bold.

The Night Ferry

1. For thirty years Nina's uncle had run the night ferry across Marlow Bay, and for thirty years nobody else had been allowed to touch the wheel. On the evening of the storm warning, a deckhand rang in sick, and he beckoned her up to the wheelhouse.

2. "She's an old boat," he said, "but she is sound. Every plank has been checked and every seam sealed. Whatever the passengers think, she will not let us down." Nina wished she felt as sure as his voice.

3. They left the shelter of the headland and the ferry began to pitch, lifting on each swell and then dropping into the trough behind it. Nina's stomach did the same. Her uncle's hands closed over hers on the wheel. "Don't fight it," he said. "Ride it. And look, we have a fair wind behind us. The storm is helping us home, not hunting us."

4. Behind the ferry the little tender bounced on its rope, empty and white, the small boat they kept in case anyone ever had to be taken off in a hurry. Nina watched it and tried to count the seconds between its leaps.

5. By the time they reached the far jetty, the rain was coming sideways. Her uncle talked of other storms: one that took the roof off the ticket hut, another that had not spared the old pier, which lay in pieces on the beach the next morning. "But we're still here," he said, and he laughed, and she realised her hands had stopped shaking.

Question 1. In paragraph 2, what does "sound" mean?

• A. A noise that can be heard.
• B. In good condition, not damaged.
• C. A narrow stretch of water between larger areas.
• D. To measure how deep water is.

Question 2. In paragraph 3, what does "pitch" mean?

• A. To throw something.
• B. A dark, sticky substance used to seal wood.
• C. How high or low a musical note is.
• D. To rise and fall steeply.

Question 3. In paragraph 3, what does "fair" mean?

• A. Favourable, helping something along.
• B. Light in colour.
• C. Just and equal.
• D. An outdoor event with stalls and rides.

Question 4. In paragraph 4, what does "tender" mean?

• A. Gentle and caring.
• B. Sore when touched.
• C. A small boat towed behind a larger one.
• D. A formal offer to do work for a set price.

Question 5. In paragraph 5, what does "spared" mean?

• A. Kept extra in reserve.
• B. Left unharmed.
• C. Gave up something that could be done without.
• D. Made thin and lean.

Passage 2 and questions

Original passage by Braintree Coaching Australia.

The School Orchard

1. Eleven years ago, Eastwood Public School turned a bare strip of land beside its oval into an orchard. Each class is given a plot to dig, sow and weed, and in return its students keep a record of everything the plot produces.

2. Young trees are delicate. Netting with a fine mesh covers each plot so that birds and fruit bats cannot squeeze through to the blossom. Without it, the students say, there would be nothing to count in autumn.

3. The count matters, because the orchard is a long experiment. Each year the yield is weighed, crate by crate, and written in a ledger kept in the library. In the first harvest the whole orchard gave forty crates. A decade later the same ground was giving almost five times that.

4. Students also learn to summarise what they have counted. Last year the mean weight of an apple was 160 grams, though the smallest was barely 90 and the largest more than 250. A single number, they discovered, hides a great deal.

5. Since last autumn the school canteen has agreed to stock the fruit, selling it at cost to students who would otherwise buy packaged snacks. The money goes back into netting, tools and new trees.

Question 6. In paragraph 1, what does "plot" mean?

• A. A secret plan made by a group.
• B. A small, marked piece of ground.
• C. The storyline of a book or film.
• D. To mark a position on a chart.

Question 7. In paragraph 2, what does "fine" mean?

• A. Of very high quality.
• B. A payment made as a penalty for breaking a rule.
• C. Thin, or made up of very small parts.
• D. Clear and sunny.

Question 8. In paragraph 3, what does "yield" mean?

• A. The amount that is produced.
• B. To give way to traffic.
• C. To surrender to someone stronger.
• D. To bend under force.

Question 9. In paragraph 4, what does "mean" mean?

• A. Unkind, or unwilling to share.
• B. To intend to do something.
• C. To signify or stand for something.
• D. The average of a set of numbers.

Question 10. In paragraph 5, what does "stock" mean?

• A. Farm animals kept for meat or wool.
• B. A liquid used as the base of a soup.
• C. To keep a supply of goods for sale.
• D. A share in the ownership of a company.

Answers and worked explanations

Key: Question 1 B · Question 2 D · Question 3 A · Question 4 C · Question 5 B · Question 6 B · Question 7 C · Question 8 A · Question 9 D · Question 10 C.

In every question below, the three wrong options are real dictionary meanings of the word. They fail because of the sentence, not because they are made up.

Passage 1

Question 1 (B). Planks checked, seams sealed, "will not let us down": the gap needs a word for a boat in good order. "A noise" and "to measure depth" are meanings of sound that make no sense of a hull. "A narrow stretch of water" is a sense of sound too, and a child thinking of the sea might pick it, but the uncle is describing the boat, not the water.

Question 2 (D). "Lifting on each swell and then dropping into the trough" describes a boat moving up and down. "To throw" and "a note's height" are meanings of pitch that need a thrower or a musician. "A sticky substance for sealing wood" belongs on a boat, which is why it tempts, but nothing in the sentence is being sealed.

Question 3 (A). A wind that is "helping us home, not hunting us" is a helpful one. "Light in colour" and "just and equal" are common meanings of fair that cannot describe a wind here. "An outdoor event" is a noun meaning and does not fit "a ___ wind".

Question 4 (C). The tender is "the small boat they kept in case anyone ever had to be taken off", and it is "behind the ferry" on a rope. "Gentle" and "sore" are the meanings most children know. "A formal offer to do work" is real, but a bounce on a rope is not a price.

Question 5 (B). The pier "lay in pieces" after the storm, so the storm did not leave it unharmed. "Kept in reserve" and "thin and lean" are meanings of spare that do not take the storm as their subject. "Gave up what could be done without" (as in spare a dollar) needs a person who is giving.

Passage 2

Question 6 (B). A class is given a plot "to dig, sow and weed", so it is ground. "A secret plan" and "the storyline" are the meanings most children know. "To mark a position on a chart" is a real verb sense, but nobody digs a position.

Question 7 (C). Netting must stop birds and bats "squeezing through", so its holes must be small. "Very high quality" is the meaning most children reach for; netting of high quality would not on its own keep a bat out. "A payment for breaking a rule" and "clear and sunny" do not describe a mesh.

Question 8 (A). The yield is "weighed, crate by crate" and rose from forty crates. It is an amount. "Give way to traffic", "surrender" and "bend under force" are verb meanings that cannot be weighed in crates.

Question 9 (D). The mean is a single number that "hides a great deal", set against a smallest and a largest. That is an average. "Unkind", "to intend" and "to signify" are all real meanings of mean but none of them can be 160 grams.

Question 10 (C). The canteen will "stock the fruit, selling it at cost". It keeps a supply for sale. "Farm animals", "soup base" and "a share in a company" are all real senses of stock; none is a thing a canteen does to apples.

Try the words in a new sentence

Choose three words from Passage 2 (for example plot, fine and mean). For each, write a new sentence that uses a different meaning from the one in the passage. Then cover the word and ask someone to say which meaning you intended.

One possible set, shown only as a model:

• plot: "The plot of the film kept us guessing until the last scene."
• fine: "She paid a fine for returning the book three weeks late."
• mean: "It was mean to leave him out of the game."

If a sentence works for either meaning, make it more specific until only one fits.

Does my child's school use these components?

Not every school sets the same HAST components. ACER's programme page lists Reading Comprehension in both its Primary and Secondary programmes, alongside Abstract Reasoning, Written Expression and a mathematics component, and says all HAST assessments are paper-only. Your child's school confirms which components and which level its children sit. Timings and the number of questions can also vary, so treat any timing you see as indicative until the school confirms it.

For the component list, check ACER's HAST page and ACER's student support page. For how these sections fit together on our site, see the HAST test format guide and the HAST practice hub. To match a programme to your school's package and your child's year level, use the year-band table on the practice hub. For free materials to practise with, see the free mock test pack.

Sources and review

About the texts: both passages, all ten questions, the key and the explanations are Braintree Coaching Australia's own teaching material and original work. They are not ACER questions.

About the facts: the component and level wording above is taken from ACER's HAST programme pages, read on 15 October 2026. ACER does not publish question counts or timings for the components, so this page gives none.

Author: James Rush, content writer, Braintree Coaching Australia.

Review status: a named teacher review has not yet been recorded for this practice set. A second solver worked the ten questions and reached the same answer as the key for every one, but that check was not fully blind, because the solver had seen the answer list. If something is unclear, please tell us.

Last updated: 2026-10-15.