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PSLE Reading Aloud Passage 5: A News Report (with tips)

How to use this page: this situation calls for a clear, steady tone, not story-excitement and not warmth. Read the situation line, read the passage aloud twice, then check the notes.

The situation​

You are a newsreader presenting a short report on the evening news. Read the passage aloud clearly, as if an audience is listening.

What this tells you: you are being clear, calm, and informative. The tone is steady and confident, think "keeping the listener informed", not "telling an exciting bedtime story". Good pacing and clear delivery are the expression here.

The passage​

Good evening, and welcome to tonight's news. Earlier today, hundreds of volunteers gathered at East Coast Park for the island's largest beach clean-up of the year. Armed with gloves and rubbish bags, families, students, and office workers spent the whole morning combing the sand and clearing litter along the shore, despite the warm and humid weather.

Organisers said the event collected more than two thousand kilograms of waste, most of it plastic bottles and food wrappers. One volunteer described the turnout as "the biggest we have ever seen", adding that many people had brought their young children along to help. The group hopes the clean-up will remind everyone to keep our beaches clean all year round, not just on special occasions, and they plan to return again next month. Reporting live from East Coast Park, this is Channel News, back to you in the studio.

Where the marks are (examiner notes)​

  • Steady and clear wins. A news report is read to inform. A calm, even pace with clear words is exactly the right expression, rushing or over-dramatising reads the situation wrong.
  • Group the information. Read in sensible phrases ("hundreds of volunteers / gathered at East Coast Park / for the island's largest beach clean-up") so the listener can follow the facts. Pausing at commas and full stops shows you understand the report.
  • Handle the quote. "The biggest we have ever seen" is someone speaking, give it a slightly different, livelier colour than the reporting around it, without shouting.
  • Match tone to task. This is the key skill the 2026 format tests: the same reader should sound different here than in a heartfelt speech or an exciting story. A newsreader sounds professional and clear, not sing-song.

Pronunciation tips​

  • volunteers, stress the last syllable: vol-un-TEERS.
  • gathered, soft "th": GA-thurd, not "ga-derd".
  • kilograms, KILL-oh-grams, all three parts clear.
  • occasions, uh-KAY-zhuns, with the soft "zh" in the middle.

Try it​

  1. Read the situation line: "I'm a newsreader, clear, calm, confident."
  2. Read once for accuracy, once for pace, pausing to group the facts.
  3. Ask a listener: could they repeat back two facts from your report? If yes, your delivery was clear enough for the mark.

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