Year 7 Test 1 Reading: original practice questions, not affiliated with ACARA

1The bus to Tarni Creek left Station Street at 4:10 each afternoon, and Neve had never once missed it. Today, though, she let it idle at the kerb for a full minute before she climbed aboard, her violin case clutched against her chest like a shield.

2She took the seat behind the driver, as she always did, and pressed her forehead against the cool window. Outside, the town slid past: the chemist, the fish-and-chip shop, the war memorial with its bored pigeons. Somewhere behind her, the audition panel was probably already tapping the next name onto its list. Her own name, she was certain, had been crossed off it for good.

3“Rough day?” asked Mr Okafor, the driver, glancing in his mirror. He had a voice like gravel being gently shaken in a tin.

4“I played the wrong notes,” Neve said. “In the middle of the piece. My fingers just… went somewhere else.”

5Mr Okafor nodded slowly, as though she had told him something important about the weather. “Years ago I drove this bus into a ditch near Wilson’s Bend,” he said. “Right into it. Forty passengers and one very surprised cow.” He chuckled. “Do you know what everyone remembers about that day?”

6Neve shook her head.

7“That I got them all out and walked them home,” he said. “Nobody has ever mentioned the ditch.”

8Neve almost smiled. The bus rumbled over the creek bridge, and the late sun poured through the windows in long gold stripes. She unclipped the violin case, then stopped, her hand resting on the latch. It wasn’t forgiveness yet. But it was, she thought, the beginning of the idea that she might play again tomorrow.