Previous research has indicated that children comprehend more of material of high interest than material of low interest, when each child is given a mixture of both types. In the present study of fifth-grade children, each child received either all high-interest material or all low-interest material. Interests were assessed using a picture-rating technique. One week later, each child read cloze passages corresponding to that child's highest or lowest rated topics. Cloze responses were scored both for exact replacement and for use of synonyms. Results indicated that children comprehended more of high-interest than of low-interest material, suggesting that the interest effect is not dependent upon selective response to the more appealing passages in a mixed set. The scoring of synonyms yielded useful data, indicating that high-achieving children and boys produced more synonyms than did low-achieving children and girls. (Author/AA)