A set of science exercises annotated for teachers and designed for diagnostic and formative testing are presented with a description of the comprehension testing program. The exercises are meant to develop skills in processing scientific information through critical reading and communication skills. The annotations suggest how teachers may use a range of passages and questions to test vocabulary, content, inference and conceptual comprehension, and how skills needing further development can be identified. Research questions are included. The sources of the material are relevant periodical articles and general science texts. School texts are not used. The exercise questions were written by teachers and were reviewed and pretested for use by students from grade 7 to 10. (CM)