📖 The Story: "The Mystery of the Missing Telescope"

Read the following story carefully, then answer the questions below.

Sarah had been saving her pocket money for eight months to buy a telescope. She wanted to study the stars and planets, just like her favourite astronomer, Dr. Maria Santos, whom she had met at the science museum last year. Dr. Santos had encouraged Sarah to pursue her interest in astronomy and even gave her a book about constellations.

Finally, on her fourteenth birthday, Sarah's parents surprised her with the telescope she had been dreaming about. It was a beautiful silver instrument that could magnify objects up to 200 times. Sarah was absolutely thrilled and spent her first evening observing the craters on the moon, which appeared so close she felt she could almost touch them.

The next morning, Sarah woke up early to clean her telescope before school. However, when she went to her bedroom window where she had left it the night before, the telescope was gone. Her heart sank. She searched everywhere—under her bed, in the wardrobe, even in her younger brother Tom's room, thinking he might have borrowed it.

"Mum, Dad!" Sarah called frantically. "My telescope is missing!" Her parents helped her search the entire house, but there was no sign of it anywhere. Sarah's father suggested they check the garden, thinking perhaps it had fallen out of the window, but they found nothing.

Just as Sarah was about to give up hope, she heard a familiar voice from the garden next door. "Sarah! Is this what you're looking for?" It was Mrs. Chen, their elderly neighbour, holding Sarah's telescope carefully in her hands.

"I found it in my garden this morning," Mrs. Chen explained with a smile. "I think the strong wind last night must have blown it off your windowsill. I was going to bring it over after breakfast." Sarah felt a wave of relief wash over her. She thanked Mrs. Chen profusely and promised to be more careful about securing her telescope in the future.

That evening, Sarah successfully observed Jupiter and three of its moons. As she gazed through her telescope, she thought about how sometimes the simplest explanations are the correct ones, and how helpful neighbours can turn a disaster into just a minor inconvenience.

📝 Part A: Multiple Choice Questions

✅ Part B: True or False

📋 Part C: Fill in the Blanks

a) Sarah met Dr. Maria Santos at the _________________ last year.

b) The telescope was _________________ in colour and could magnify objects up to _______ times.

c) Sarah's neighbour, _________________, found the telescope in her _________________.

d) At the end of the story, Sarah observed _________________ and three of its _________________.

💭 Part D: Short Answer Questions

🎯 Part E: Critical Thinking

📚 Part F: Vocabulary and Language