A Comparison of the English Reading Comprehension Passages and Items in the College Entrance Examinations of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China

This paper attempts to compare the difficulty levels of the English reading comprehension passages and items in the nine sets of English tests in the 1999 college entrance examinations of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China by applying Chall and Dale’s (1995a and 1995b) Readability Formula. It has been found that of the nine sets of English tests, Hong Kong’s English Test of the Advanced Supplementary Level is the most difficult one, its reading comprehension passage reaching level 12, comparable to the level for American high school graduates and its reading comprehension items reaching level 5-6, comparable to the level for the American 5th to 6th graders. As for Hong Kong’s Syllabus A English test, Taiwan’s English test in the Joint College Entrance Examination, and Mainland China’s Shanghai English test and English test for overseas students, the difficulty levels of their reading comprehension passages and items are the lowest among the nine English tests, reaching levels 3 to 5, comparable to those for the American 3rd to 5th graders. The other four English tests of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China are in between, ranging from levels 6 to 9.