Post by kendall on Apr 20, 2012 9:17:05 GMT
Hi folks,
I am posting some close reading work which will help you with the general/credit close reading exams.
TACKLING STANDARD GRADE READING QUESTIONS
The Standard Grade Reading exams are getting harder. The Credit Reading exams nowadays use certain types of questions that used to only come up in Higher. The General exams seem now use questions that would once only have appeared in Credit. The examples and practice questions in this unit will help you to prepare for some of the questions you may meet in the General and Credit exams. All the work is based on the exam papers from 2001 to 2003.
The examiners ask you questions to see if you can do certain things as you read. These are called the five purposes. All the questions you are asked will fit at least one of these purposes. They do not tell you on the exam paper which purposes are covered by each question. Many questions cover more than one purpose. We are going to work through these purposes.
Purpose A - to gain an overall impression or gist, of a text
We are not going to be able to practice these questions in isolation. This is because these questions nearly always come at the end of the exam. To answer them, you need to have read the whole passage, and to know it quite well through having answered lots of other questions about it already. There is usually only one Purpose A question in the exam.
Questions from Purpose A are therefore asking you to draw together or sum up what you now understand about the text. Here are some examples.
2002 General Overall, do you feel the story conveys a sense of hope, or of despair? Justify your choice by detailed reference to the text.
2001 Credit The narrator began to feel "like a stranger” in his own home.
By close reference to the text, show how his feelings towards his aunt changed.
2003 Credit What two key questions are answered as a result of the information in the passage?
Purpose B - to obtain particular information from a text
Questions from Purpose B can be some of the most straightforward ones in the exam. Most exam papers also have a lot of marks available for the answers to purpose B questions. Here are some General examples:
Behind them, all kinds of people are perched on the tailgates of a variety of vehicles. Is this some bizarre store for recycled rubbish? Well, in a way it is. In other words, you have found yourself in the middle of your first car boot sale.
Q 1 Write down an expression from Paragraph 2 which shows that the writer thinks this "junk" makes a strange collection.
A bizarre store
He waited at their corner, hands deep in pockets, his shoulder to the dirty, grey sandstone wall. The bell was ringing and he could hear the children streaming out into the playground. When she spotted him she broke into a trot and he retreated round the corner a little to swoop suddenly with a mock roar, bearing her laughing wildly up into his arms. As he set her down he asked quite formally what kind of morning she'd had. She began to speak, and her enthusiasm breathed upwards into his smiling face and beyond in the chill air.
Q 2 The man is shown to be thoughtful and caring towards his daughter. What evidence is there of this in the paragraph above?
A He makes her laugh, and he asks her about her morning at school.
Now you are going to try some examples of Purpose B questions from General papers. Remember that you should quote if you are told to “write down” and that “an expression” should only be a single word or a short phrase.
The truth is that people will buy almost anything if the price is right. Old Playstation games, or genuine second-hand videos, will disappear as if by magic. Even more surprisingly, so will large, rickety (and empty) wooden boxes, elderly baseball caps that were given free with something ten years ago, shabby plastic dinosaurs that have been in many an imaginary battle and a pile of kitchen gadgets such as the tattie peeling machine that always took ages to wash afterwards, the expensive plastic containers with ill-fitting lids and the pancake mixer that liberally sprinkled you with batter every time you tried to use it.
Q 3 “ . . . people will buy almost anything . . . ” The writer gives several examples to prove this statement. Choose any two (APART FROM GAMES AND VIDEOS').
In each case explain the writer thinks it is surprising that anyone should buy them.
Picking up the CV from the coffee table he glanced over the familiar details of his education and career. It looked good, he thought, organised, businesslike. His wife had managed to get a couple of dozen of them run off on her word processor at the office. It was the contents that struck him as pointless.
Q 4 What did the man think “looked good” about his CV?
We were in Dracula's castle sited on the remote Tihuta mountain pass where the Victorian Gothic novelist Bram Stoker based the home of his fictitious vampire - two days' carriage ride from Bistrita in northern Transylvania.
Q 5 Give two pieces of evidence which suggest that Bram Stoker wrote the novel Dracula more than one hundred years ago.
Downstairs was Count Dracula's coffin in a narrow vault, the walls painted with the dramatic scenes of human victims, wolves, skulls, skeletons and the black-cloaked monster himself, red blood dripping from his pointed fangs. Luckily we had decided to send their father down first as a guinea pig to test out how scary this experience was likely to he for our seven-, five- and two- year-olds.
After the screams from the crypt, Matthew decided he would opt for a tour with the light on and I agreed. Even so there was a certain nervousness as we went down the stairs. Suddenly Matthew let out a blood-curdling scream and jumped a foot in the air. "I've just seen a horrible blue hand with long nails, round the side of that door," he screeched.
One vampire hand was quite enough for a seven-year-old. Time for a drink and an ice cream. As we walked up to the main lobby there was "Vampire" red wine for sale, glass vials of red liquid, wooden stakes and probably some garlic stashed under the counter.
Q 6 In your own words explain fully why their father was sent down first.
Q 7 Write down an expression which shows that Matthew did not complete the tour.
Bram Stoker’s story has become mixed up with the historical facts as the novelist based his blood-sucking fictional vampire on the 15th century blood thirsty Prince Vlad Tepes. Vlad was known fondly as Vlad the Impaler
The tourist board makes the most of this confusion between fiction and history, as the worldwide fascination with Dracula lures many a visitor to the country. The most well known sights are the birthplace of Vlad Tepes at the beautiful town of Sighisoara and Bran Castle, commonly known as Dracula’s Castle.
Q 8 What was the real name of the original Dracula?
Q 9 Explain in your own words how Romania benefits from "this confusion between fiction and history".
Now you will see some worked examples of Purpose B questions from Credit papers, and then some for you to try.
"It's your cousin," my mother told me unnecessarily, nervous beside me on the top step as we made a little reception committee with my father for our guests none of us had ever seen.
Q 10 Why was the narrator’s mother “nervous”?
A She was meeting visitors they’d never seen before
He was in the food hall and they were rushing around him. He picked up a wire basket and strolled through the vegetables, doing his best to look interested in a packet of Continental Salad, washed and ready to use.
Q 11 What did the detective do to avoid being noticed in the food hall?
A He picked up a wire basket and pretended to be a shopper.
Now you try some:
Their visit to us was bad timing. We were having a very cold snap, and in another week-when our guests would have gone-it would be November, then December after that, with Christmas fir trees for sale in the village shops. We were to be their last stop before they flew home. I suppose we were a family obligation. Or were we really something else, a different kind of invitation to their travellers' curiosity. . . ?
Q 12 According to the narrator, what were the two possible reasons for the relatives’ visit? Answer in your own words
He was watching a grey-haired lady dressed in a sagging blue raincoat, probably in her sixties. There was something in her movements that was very tense, yet she moved slowly, as if she had been stunned by some very bad news.
She put down the avocados - three of them, packaged in polythene - as if she'd just realised what they were and didn't need them. He followed her as she made her way to the express pay-point and took her place in the queue. He stacked his empty basket and waited on the other side of the cash-points, impersonating a bewildered husband waiting for the wife he'd lost sight of. He watched her counting her coins from a small black purse. The transaction seemed to fluster her.
Q 13 Quote the expression which best suggests why he followed her to the pay-point.
Q 14 In your own words, describe what the detective did to avoid being noticed at the pay-point.
And yet the dodo is more than a cheap laugh: the dodo is an icon. It's a creature of legend, a myth like the Phoenix or the Griffin. But it's a myth that really existed. A living creature so bizarre it didn't need the human imagination to think it up - and an enigma from the first moment human beings laid eyes on it a little more than 500 years ago.
Q 15 Which two words does the writer use to emphasise the strangeness of the dodo?
In 1598, the crew of the Dutch East Indiaman, The Amsterdam, were navigating round the Cape of Good Hope when a storm blew up. After three weeks adrift, their battered vessel came within sight of a tropical island, which they named Mauritius. The island was a god- send. It meant they could rest and repair their boat, but most importantly it meant the half-starved crew could eat.
The fateful encounter now unfolded. The crew quickly came across a large bird, apparently flightless. Then, unable to evade its captors, it was quickly seized by the sailors.
Q 16 What does the writer’s use of the expression “fateful encounter” tell you about the meeting?
Round in shape with a plume of tall feathers, the bird stood about three feet high, the size of an overstuffed turkey or swan. Its wings were small and useless, its head surrounded by a hood of fine feathers giving it the appearance of a monk's cowl. Yet most distinctive of all was its unfeasible looking bill. It was huge and bulbous, possessing a business like hook at the end.
Q 17 In your own words, what does the writer’s use of the expression “unfeasible-looking” tell you about the dodo’s bill?
Purpose C - to grasp ideas or feelings implied in a text
This is the second most common type of question you will find in the exam. You are now going deeper into the text, not just looking at facts and information, but going into feelings. These may be the feelings of the characters in the text, or those of the narrator, or those of the writer. Look at the worked example from General.
At the last corner before the school's street they both halted in an accustomed way and he squatted down to give her a kiss. She didn't mind the ritual but not outside the gates: her pals might see and that would be too embarrassing.
Q 18 “ . . . but not outside the gates . . .” Explain in your own words why the daughter made this condition.
A If her friends saw her dad kissing her she would feel uncomfortable about it.
Now you can try some General, Purpose C questions.
One advert was targeted in a ring of red felt-tip pen. The introduction was in big bold italics: "This time last year I was made redundant. Now I own a £150, 000 house, drive a BMW and holiday in Bali. If you. . . " He opened out the paper and refolded it to the front page to check the headlines.
Q 19 Why do you think one advert in the newspaper was “targeted in a ring of red felt-tip pen”?
He kept walking, on past the pillar-box at the corner of their street. That one was definitely unlucky: nothing he had ever posted there had brought good fortune. No, he would carry on to Victoria Road whose offices and air of industry made it feel a more hopeful point of departure.
Q 20 Explain why the man chose to post his letter in Victoria Road
He saw a mail van pull up at the postbox he was heading for and he quickened his pace. He watched the grey-uniformed driver jump down and unlock the red door. The pillar-box yielded a bulky flow of mail to the driver's hand. The young man handed over his letter with a half-smile although his heart had sunk. One letter in all that flow of paper. And how many were job applications piled randomly, meaninglessly on top of one another? His own would soon be lost in that anonymous crowd. It seemed to him now more than ever like buying a raffle ticket, like doing the football coupon every week. What chance had you got?
Q 21 Explain clearly why “his heart had sunk” when he handed over his letter.
My three brave boys looked at each other and Douglas, the middle one, ran from the room. The eldest, Matthew, who had been taunting his younger brothers about being scared five minutes earlier, went a bit white and looked like he was going to change his mind about the visit.
Q 22 “My three brave boys” Explain fully why this expression might be considered to be surprising.
Dracula’s Kiss was an extremely alcoholic, bright scarlet drink. This fiery concoction must have contained a large quantity of the local plum brandy, known as palinca.
Q 23 What does the expression “fiery concoction” tell you about the Dracula’s Kiss drink?
Next you will see some worked examples of Purpose C questions from Credit papers, and then some for you to try.
A shadow moved behind her in the car. Behind them both the driver was lifting half a dozen assorted white suitcases out of the boot. My mother drew in her breath.
Q 24 “My mother drew in her breath.” What does this tell you about her feelings?
A She is surprised.
Some shoplifters used the pay-point: it was like declaring something when you went through customs, in the hope that the real contraband would go unnoticed. An amateur tactic. It was easy to catch someone with a conscience, someone who wanted to be caught.
Q 25 Quote an expression which shows that the detective thought shoplifters were usually unsuccessful when they used the pay-point.
A “an amateur tactic”
Now you try some:
I'd expected he would look stolid, and assertive, and the very picture of glowing health. Instead the eyes in his pale face flitted among us, like a prying spinster's, missing nothing.
Q 26 What does the last sentence tell us about Walter’s character?
"0h, we've been everywhere! Everywhere!" my aunt explained, pausing at the hatstand to remove her wide-brimmed hat. "Paris. Como. Rome." She crossed them off on those creamed, manicured fingers with their scarlet nails. "Where else, now? Antibes, of course. And we saw a little bit of Switzerland. That was cold!" She walked ahead of us into the sitting-room and made for the fireplace and the crackling log fire. "Capri. That was just heaven. And Naples, of course."
My mother watched her from the hall. "Of course," she repeated, just to herself, under her breath.
Q 27 Look at the last sentence. What does this suggest the mother thought of the aunt’s tales of travel?
You had to blend in, pretend to be one of them, but you also had to observe them, you had to see the hand slipping the "Game Boy" into the sleeve. Kids wore such loose clothes nowadays, baggy jeans
and jogging tops two sizes too big for them. It was the fashion, but it meant they could hide their plunder easily. You had to watch the well-dressed gentlemen as well - the Crombie coat and the
briefcase could conceal a fortune in luxury items.
Q 28 Explain what concerns the detective had about kids.
Q 29 Explain what concerns the detective had about well-dressed gentlemen.
He took her back inside and they made the long journey to the top of the store in silence. For the last leg of it he took her through Fabrics - wondering if they might be taken for a couple, a sad old couple shopping together in silence - and up the back staircase so that he wouldn't have to march her through Admin.
Q 30 In your own words give two pieces of evidence which suggest the detective felt some sympathy towards the woman.
Purpose D- to evaluate the writer's attitudes, assumptions and argument
This is quite an unusual question type. In the years 2001 and 2002 there were no Purpose D questions in either the General or the Credit papers. All our examples come from 2003. Here’s a General example first:
As we walked up to the main lobby there was "Vampire" red wine for sale, glass vials of red liquid, wooden stakes and probably some garlic stashed under the counter. As these tacky, souvenirs revealed, it wasn’t the real Dracula's castle but Hotel Castel Dracula, a three-star hotel built in the mountains to service some of the nearby, ski slopes.
Q 31 In your own words, what is the writer’s attitude to the various goods for sale in the hotel lobby?
A She thinks they are touristy rubbish.
Now you try one:
The architecture (1980s mock castle) reflected the Dracula movies but the setting amid the dramatic scenery of the Tihuta pass is stunning. The "castle" is circled by bats every night and the surrounding forests have more wild bears and wolves than anywhere else in Europe.
Q 32 In your own words, what is the writer’s opinion of the setting of the hotel?
We felt Romania would be a good place to revisit when the boys were older and could hike and camp in the Carpathian wilderness. But if we leave the return visit too long things will have changed dramatically. A Dracula Land theme park is planned to be built by a German or American corporation in medieval Sighisoara next year. Local opinion is divided. On the one hand, there is the desire for tourist money and on the other the realisation that the theme park will change the character of town forever. If the cobbled streets are lined with fast food chains offering "stakeburgers” and garlic bread - Dracula will be turning in his grave.
Q 33 How does the writer feel about the changes planned for the tourist industry in Romania?
Now try a Credit example:
Surely this ridiculous bird, fat, flightless and vulnerable, had simply been caught and eaten to extinction? Too weak or stupid to defend itself, too trusting of humans, the dodo had met its inevitable end. According to ornithologist Julian Hume the fat, comical appearance of the bird is grossly exaggerated. Julian has travelled to Mauritius to investigate what the bird was really like and how it lived. It is here that the only two complete skeletons of the bird exist which have proved just how misrepresented the dodo has been.
Q 34 Which one word sums up the writer’s sympathetic attitude to the dodo?
Purpose E- to appreciate the writer's craft.
In this question type, you are not looking at what the writer says, but at how he or she says it. You are examining the writer’s style and techniques. Even in the general exam, these can be very tricky questions to tackle. It’s hard to give examples of these question types for you to work through because they can look at so many different areas of your knowledge about language. We will start by focusing on one particular type of question about sentence structure.
Sentence structure just means the way that sentences are pout together. English has certain rules about this. You may not be aware of the rules, but you will probably notice if a sentence is constructed in an unusual way. Often a writer will construct an unusual or even “wrong” sentence to grab you attention, or to gain some particular effect.
So whenever you get a question about sentence structure, take a good look at the sentence you are being asked about, and ask yourself a few questions:
1 Is the sentence noticeably long OR noticeably short?
2 Is it a proper sentence or is it somehow incomplete?
3 Is it a. making a statement?
b. asking a question?
c. exclaiming in surprise or anger?
d. giving an order?
4 Does it have any unusual or very noticeable punctuation? What does this punctuation do?
5 Is the sentence in an odd order? Are any of the words in unusual places? (Inverted word order)
Once you have thought through these questions, you should know what it was the examiners found interesting about the structure of the sentence, and you ought to be able to tackle the question.
Let’s look at a worked example:
So if you fancy trying a boot sale, just for the fun of it, here are a few ground rules for participating in this most rewarding game.
Go as a buyer first, if you can. Go early, if you are selling. Many car boot sales that advertise an opening time of 10 am are being set up by seven or eight in the morning. Beware of the antique dealers. They will surround your table at this early hour like wild dogs around a carcass. Invest in a cheap wallpapering table. You can sell out of the boot of your car, but if you have as much junk to get rid of as most of us do, you will need more space than the average hatchback can supply. Take a secure container for your money- preferably a money belt so that you can keep your takings safely about your person. Don't leave handbags lying around; car boot sales are hunting grounds for purse snatchers.
Don't sell old electrical goods: they can be dangerous, and you can be in trouble with the law for doing so. Take lots of food and drink with you: sandwiches, chocolate bars, flasks of tea and coffee, cans of soft drinks.
Q 35 The writer introduces the idea of giving practical advice. How does the sentence structure in the rest of this extract help to show this?
A Many of the sentences are commands. They are written so that they begin with a verb telling you what to do.
Now you try a General sentence structure question:
Gingerly, he tried to reopen the envelope but it was stuck fast and the flap ripped jaggedly.
Q 36 How does the structure of this sentence emphasise the man’s care in opening the envelope?
Here’s a Credit one to try:
The transaction seemed to fluster her, as if she might not have enough money to pay for the few things she'd bought. A tin of lentil soup. An individual chicken pie. One solitary tomato. Maybe she did need the avocados - or something else.
Q 37 How does the writer emphasise that the woman had bought “few things” through the use of sentence structure?
There are many other questions you might encounter which deal with the writer’s craft. Look at the list of information and definitions below. Then try the example questions.
. . . ellipsis – dots used to tail off a sentence or to show gaps in speech or writing
: colon – often used to introduce a list, a quotation, an idea, information, an explanation or a statement
simile – comparison using “like” or “as”
- dash – can be used in a pair like brackets to set aside information which isn’t vital, or may be used singly to introduce a piece of information
“ “ inverted commas – go round the exact words said when someone speaks OR go round the words quoted when a quotation is used OR can imply that something is only “so called” and not genuine
( ) brackets – used to separate off information which is interesting but not vital. The writing would still make sense if the bracketed part was missed out completely
word choice – certain words belong to certain subject groups, or perhaps bring up certain ideas in the mind of the reader, or create certain sorts of atmosphere
comparison – looking at the similarities between two or more things
After all there's a little collection of pressed glass over there that is so irresistible, and the old hand-knitted Shetland shawl that nobody seems to have spotted, and isn't that a genuine stone hot-water bottle lurking among the rubbish . . . ?
Q 38 Why does the writer use ellipsis at the end of the final sentence?
It was now well into the rush hour: traffic gushed by or fretted at red lights and urgent pedestrians commanded the pavements and crossings.
Q 39 Why does the writer use a colon? Is it to introduce a quotation, to elaborate on an idea, or to introduce an explanation?
At the last corner before the school's street they both halted in an accustomed way and he squatted down to give her a kiss. She didn't mind the ritual but not outside the gates: her pals might see and that would be too embarrassing.
Q 40 Why does the writer use a colon? Is it to introduce a quotation, to elaborate on an idea, or to introduce and explanation?
It was easy standing here to recall the bustle of business life. It came to him how much he wanted it, that activity. It was more than just something you did to make money: It was the only life he knew and he was missing out on it, standing on the sidelines like a face in the crowd at a football game.
Q 41 Explain how effective you find the simile in this extract.
The door creaked open.
Q 42 In what two ways does the writer create a frightening atmosphere in this sentence?
We were in Dracula's castle - sited on the remote Tihuta mountain pass where the Victorian Gothic novelist Bram Stoker based the home of his fictitious vampire - two days' carriage ride from Bistrita in northern Transylvania.
Q 43 Why does the writer use dashes in this paragraph?
It wasn’t the real Dracula's castle but Hotel Castel Dracula, a three-star hotel built in the mountains to service some of the nearby, ski slopes. The architecture (1980s mock castle) reflected the Dracula movies but the setting amid the dramatic scenery of the Tihuta pass is stunning. The "castle" is circled by bats every night and the surrounding forests have more wild bears and wolves than anywhere else in Europe.
Q 44 Why does the writer put the word “castle” in inverted commas?
The driver opened the back door of the taxi and my "aunt", as we referred to her - really my mother's aunt's daughter - divested herself of the travelling rugs.
Q 45 What is the function of the dashes?
The transaction seemed to fluster her, as if she might not have enough money to pay for the few things she'd bought. A tin of lentil soup. An individual chicken pie. One solitary tomato. Maybe she did need the avocados - or something else.
Q 46 How does the writer emphasise that the woman had bought “few things” through the use of word choice?
He told her to take a seat while he called security, but when he turned from her she let out a thin wail that made him recoil from the phone. She had both her temples between her hands, as if afraid her head might explode. She let out another shrill wail. It ripped out of her like something wild kept prisoner for years. It seemed to make the room shrink around them.
Q 47 Quote a comparison from this section which shows how emotional or upset the woman was, and explain how effective you find it.
It was like nothing they had ever set eyes on.
Round in shape with a plume of tall feathers, the bird stood about three feet high, the size of an overstuffed turkey or swan. Its wings were small and useless, its head surrounded by a hood of fine feathers giving it the appearance of a monk's cowl. Yet most distinctive of all was its unfeasible looking bill. It was huge and bulbous, possessing a business like hook at the end.
Q 48 “It was like nothing they had ever set eyes on.” Explain the function of this sentence.
But why did the bird come to be called the dodo? It has been argued that the name reflects the bird's nonsensical appearance. Or that it sounds like the noise the bird may have made. In fact the name dodo didn't stick until other names had been tried - "Kermis" after a Dutch annual fair, then "walghvogel” which means "nauseating fowl". The name "dodo" came when the Dutch finally saw its comical side.
Q 49 Explain the writer’s use of a question at the start of this paragraph.
One other important question type
This is a kind of question which only used to come up in the Higher exam. It is a question where you are asked to use the context to help you give the meaning of a word or phrase. In Standard grade these questions will be worth two marks, and there is a set pattern for how to answer them. You will get one mark for giving the meaning, and the second mark for showing how you were able to work out that meaning form the context. For example:
It wasn't often you had this kind of intuition about somebody, but as soon as he saw her looking at the seeds, he was certain she was going to steal them. He moved closer to her, picked up a watering can and weighed it in his hand, as if this was somehow a way of testing it, then he saw her dropping packet after packet into the bag.
Q 50 “It wasn’t often you had this kind of intuition . . .” How does the rest of the paragraph help to explain the meaning of “intuition”?
A Intuition means that you sense or guess something. He guesses that she will steal the seeds and then he watches her doing this.
Now you try one:
When the London dodo died, the animal was stuffed and sold to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Taxidermy not being what it is today, over the next few decades the dodo slowly rotted until it was thrown out in 1755. All, that is, except the moth-eaten head and one leg.
Q 51 Explain how the context helps you understand the meaning of the word “taxidermy” here.
And another important question type
You can spot this type of question by the wording. The question will ask you how the rest of the paragraph carries on an idea introduced in the first sentence. These questions are very easy to answer and a quick way of earning marks. All you have to do is to pick out details from later in the paragraph which go with the ideas introduced in that first sentence.
Look at the worked example:
Downstairs was Count Dracula's coffin in a narrow vault, the walls painted with the dramatic scenes of human victims, wolves, skulls, skeletons and the black-cloaked monster himself, red blood dripping from his pointed fangs. So far on our Romanian holiday, the only blood-sucking had been from the mosquitoes in Bucharest. Luckily we had decided to send their father down first as a guinea pig to test out how scary this experience was likely to he for our seven-, five- and two- year-olds.
Q 52 “Downstairs was Count Dracula’s coffin in a narrow vault, the walls painted with the dramatic scenes” In what ways does the writer convey the “dramatic scenes in the vault?
A The writer uses a list of horrific images such as blood, fangs, wolves, skulls and skeletons.
Now you try some:
All the junk in Scotland meets your befuddled gaze: thousands of unwanted gifts, the “wee something" for Christmas and the "I saw this and thought of you" for your birthday (how you wish they hadn't); then there are the holiday souvenirs. In short, all the stuff with which we tend to clutter our lives and our cupboards has somehow ended up in one place, awkwardly arranged on a vast number of folding tables. Behind them, all kinds of people are perched on the tailgates of a variety of vehicles. Is this some bizarre store for recycled rubbish? Well, in a way it is. In other words, you have found yourself in the middle of your first car boot sale.
Q 53 “All the junk in Scotland meets your befuddled gaze” How does the writer continue the idea of “junk”?
It was depressing to unlock the door of his cubby-hole, switch the light on and see the table barely big enough to hold his kettle and his tea things, the one upright chair, the barred window looking out on a fire-escape and the wall-mounted telephone. He asked her to take the packets of seeds out of her bag put them on the table. She did so, and the sight of the packets, with their gaudy coloured photographs of flowers, made her clench her hand into a fist.
Q 54 The detective found the sight of his cubby-hole “depressing”. Explain how the writer continues this idea in the rest of the paragraph.
Any questions, let me know. You can find the answers on the message board too.
Good luck!
Mrs Kendall
I am posting some close reading work which will help you with the general/credit close reading exams.
TACKLING STANDARD GRADE READING QUESTIONS
The Standard Grade Reading exams are getting harder. The Credit Reading exams nowadays use certain types of questions that used to only come up in Higher. The General exams seem now use questions that would once only have appeared in Credit. The examples and practice questions in this unit will help you to prepare for some of the questions you may meet in the General and Credit exams. All the work is based on the exam papers from 2001 to 2003.
The examiners ask you questions to see if you can do certain things as you read. These are called the five purposes. All the questions you are asked will fit at least one of these purposes. They do not tell you on the exam paper which purposes are covered by each question. Many questions cover more than one purpose. We are going to work through these purposes.
Purpose A - to gain an overall impression or gist, of a text
We are not going to be able to practice these questions in isolation. This is because these questions nearly always come at the end of the exam. To answer them, you need to have read the whole passage, and to know it quite well through having answered lots of other questions about it already. There is usually only one Purpose A question in the exam.
Questions from Purpose A are therefore asking you to draw together or sum up what you now understand about the text. Here are some examples.
2002 General Overall, do you feel the story conveys a sense of hope, or of despair? Justify your choice by detailed reference to the text.
2001 Credit The narrator began to feel "like a stranger” in his own home.
By close reference to the text, show how his feelings towards his aunt changed.
2003 Credit What two key questions are answered as a result of the information in the passage?
Purpose B - to obtain particular information from a text
Questions from Purpose B can be some of the most straightforward ones in the exam. Most exam papers also have a lot of marks available for the answers to purpose B questions. Here are some General examples:
Behind them, all kinds of people are perched on the tailgates of a variety of vehicles. Is this some bizarre store for recycled rubbish? Well, in a way it is. In other words, you have found yourself in the middle of your first car boot sale.
Q 1 Write down an expression from Paragraph 2 which shows that the writer thinks this "junk" makes a strange collection.
A bizarre store
He waited at their corner, hands deep in pockets, his shoulder to the dirty, grey sandstone wall. The bell was ringing and he could hear the children streaming out into the playground. When she spotted him she broke into a trot and he retreated round the corner a little to swoop suddenly with a mock roar, bearing her laughing wildly up into his arms. As he set her down he asked quite formally what kind of morning she'd had. She began to speak, and her enthusiasm breathed upwards into his smiling face and beyond in the chill air.
Q 2 The man is shown to be thoughtful and caring towards his daughter. What evidence is there of this in the paragraph above?
A He makes her laugh, and he asks her about her morning at school.
Now you are going to try some examples of Purpose B questions from General papers. Remember that you should quote if you are told to “write down” and that “an expression” should only be a single word or a short phrase.
The truth is that people will buy almost anything if the price is right. Old Playstation games, or genuine second-hand videos, will disappear as if by magic. Even more surprisingly, so will large, rickety (and empty) wooden boxes, elderly baseball caps that were given free with something ten years ago, shabby plastic dinosaurs that have been in many an imaginary battle and a pile of kitchen gadgets such as the tattie peeling machine that always took ages to wash afterwards, the expensive plastic containers with ill-fitting lids and the pancake mixer that liberally sprinkled you with batter every time you tried to use it.
Q 3 “ . . . people will buy almost anything . . . ” The writer gives several examples to prove this statement. Choose any two (APART FROM GAMES AND VIDEOS').
In each case explain the writer thinks it is surprising that anyone should buy them.
Picking up the CV from the coffee table he glanced over the familiar details of his education and career. It looked good, he thought, organised, businesslike. His wife had managed to get a couple of dozen of them run off on her word processor at the office. It was the contents that struck him as pointless.
Q 4 What did the man think “looked good” about his CV?
We were in Dracula's castle sited on the remote Tihuta mountain pass where the Victorian Gothic novelist Bram Stoker based the home of his fictitious vampire - two days' carriage ride from Bistrita in northern Transylvania.
Q 5 Give two pieces of evidence which suggest that Bram Stoker wrote the novel Dracula more than one hundred years ago.
Downstairs was Count Dracula's coffin in a narrow vault, the walls painted with the dramatic scenes of human victims, wolves, skulls, skeletons and the black-cloaked monster himself, red blood dripping from his pointed fangs. Luckily we had decided to send their father down first as a guinea pig to test out how scary this experience was likely to he for our seven-, five- and two- year-olds.
After the screams from the crypt, Matthew decided he would opt for a tour with the light on and I agreed. Even so there was a certain nervousness as we went down the stairs. Suddenly Matthew let out a blood-curdling scream and jumped a foot in the air. "I've just seen a horrible blue hand with long nails, round the side of that door," he screeched.
One vampire hand was quite enough for a seven-year-old. Time for a drink and an ice cream. As we walked up to the main lobby there was "Vampire" red wine for sale, glass vials of red liquid, wooden stakes and probably some garlic stashed under the counter.
Q 6 In your own words explain fully why their father was sent down first.
Q 7 Write down an expression which shows that Matthew did not complete the tour.
Bram Stoker’s story has become mixed up with the historical facts as the novelist based his blood-sucking fictional vampire on the 15th century blood thirsty Prince Vlad Tepes. Vlad was known fondly as Vlad the Impaler
The tourist board makes the most of this confusion between fiction and history, as the worldwide fascination with Dracula lures many a visitor to the country. The most well known sights are the birthplace of Vlad Tepes at the beautiful town of Sighisoara and Bran Castle, commonly known as Dracula’s Castle.
Q 8 What was the real name of the original Dracula?
Q 9 Explain in your own words how Romania benefits from "this confusion between fiction and history".
Now you will see some worked examples of Purpose B questions from Credit papers, and then some for you to try.
"It's your cousin," my mother told me unnecessarily, nervous beside me on the top step as we made a little reception committee with my father for our guests none of us had ever seen.
Q 10 Why was the narrator’s mother “nervous”?
A She was meeting visitors they’d never seen before
He was in the food hall and they were rushing around him. He picked up a wire basket and strolled through the vegetables, doing his best to look interested in a packet of Continental Salad, washed and ready to use.
Q 11 What did the detective do to avoid being noticed in the food hall?
A He picked up a wire basket and pretended to be a shopper.
Now you try some:
Their visit to us was bad timing. We were having a very cold snap, and in another week-when our guests would have gone-it would be November, then December after that, with Christmas fir trees for sale in the village shops. We were to be their last stop before they flew home. I suppose we were a family obligation. Or were we really something else, a different kind of invitation to their travellers' curiosity. . . ?
Q 12 According to the narrator, what were the two possible reasons for the relatives’ visit? Answer in your own words
He was watching a grey-haired lady dressed in a sagging blue raincoat, probably in her sixties. There was something in her movements that was very tense, yet she moved slowly, as if she had been stunned by some very bad news.
She put down the avocados - three of them, packaged in polythene - as if she'd just realised what they were and didn't need them. He followed her as she made her way to the express pay-point and took her place in the queue. He stacked his empty basket and waited on the other side of the cash-points, impersonating a bewildered husband waiting for the wife he'd lost sight of. He watched her counting her coins from a small black purse. The transaction seemed to fluster her.
Q 13 Quote the expression which best suggests why he followed her to the pay-point.
Q 14 In your own words, describe what the detective did to avoid being noticed at the pay-point.
And yet the dodo is more than a cheap laugh: the dodo is an icon. It's a creature of legend, a myth like the Phoenix or the Griffin. But it's a myth that really existed. A living creature so bizarre it didn't need the human imagination to think it up - and an enigma from the first moment human beings laid eyes on it a little more than 500 years ago.
Q 15 Which two words does the writer use to emphasise the strangeness of the dodo?
In 1598, the crew of the Dutch East Indiaman, The Amsterdam, were navigating round the Cape of Good Hope when a storm blew up. After three weeks adrift, their battered vessel came within sight of a tropical island, which they named Mauritius. The island was a god- send. It meant they could rest and repair their boat, but most importantly it meant the half-starved crew could eat.
The fateful encounter now unfolded. The crew quickly came across a large bird, apparently flightless. Then, unable to evade its captors, it was quickly seized by the sailors.
Q 16 What does the writer’s use of the expression “fateful encounter” tell you about the meeting?
Round in shape with a plume of tall feathers, the bird stood about three feet high, the size of an overstuffed turkey or swan. Its wings were small and useless, its head surrounded by a hood of fine feathers giving it the appearance of a monk's cowl. Yet most distinctive of all was its unfeasible looking bill. It was huge and bulbous, possessing a business like hook at the end.
Q 17 In your own words, what does the writer’s use of the expression “unfeasible-looking” tell you about the dodo’s bill?
Purpose C - to grasp ideas or feelings implied in a text
This is the second most common type of question you will find in the exam. You are now going deeper into the text, not just looking at facts and information, but going into feelings. These may be the feelings of the characters in the text, or those of the narrator, or those of the writer. Look at the worked example from General.
At the last corner before the school's street they both halted in an accustomed way and he squatted down to give her a kiss. She didn't mind the ritual but not outside the gates: her pals might see and that would be too embarrassing.
Q 18 “ . . . but not outside the gates . . .” Explain in your own words why the daughter made this condition.
A If her friends saw her dad kissing her she would feel uncomfortable about it.
Now you can try some General, Purpose C questions.
One advert was targeted in a ring of red felt-tip pen. The introduction was in big bold italics: "This time last year I was made redundant. Now I own a £150, 000 house, drive a BMW and holiday in Bali. If you. . . " He opened out the paper and refolded it to the front page to check the headlines.
Q 19 Why do you think one advert in the newspaper was “targeted in a ring of red felt-tip pen”?
He kept walking, on past the pillar-box at the corner of their street. That one was definitely unlucky: nothing he had ever posted there had brought good fortune. No, he would carry on to Victoria Road whose offices and air of industry made it feel a more hopeful point of departure.
Q 20 Explain why the man chose to post his letter in Victoria Road
He saw a mail van pull up at the postbox he was heading for and he quickened his pace. He watched the grey-uniformed driver jump down and unlock the red door. The pillar-box yielded a bulky flow of mail to the driver's hand. The young man handed over his letter with a half-smile although his heart had sunk. One letter in all that flow of paper. And how many were job applications piled randomly, meaninglessly on top of one another? His own would soon be lost in that anonymous crowd. It seemed to him now more than ever like buying a raffle ticket, like doing the football coupon every week. What chance had you got?
Q 21 Explain clearly why “his heart had sunk” when he handed over his letter.
My three brave boys looked at each other and Douglas, the middle one, ran from the room. The eldest, Matthew, who had been taunting his younger brothers about being scared five minutes earlier, went a bit white and looked like he was going to change his mind about the visit.
Q 22 “My three brave boys” Explain fully why this expression might be considered to be surprising.
Dracula’s Kiss was an extremely alcoholic, bright scarlet drink. This fiery concoction must have contained a large quantity of the local plum brandy, known as palinca.
Q 23 What does the expression “fiery concoction” tell you about the Dracula’s Kiss drink?
Next you will see some worked examples of Purpose C questions from Credit papers, and then some for you to try.
A shadow moved behind her in the car. Behind them both the driver was lifting half a dozen assorted white suitcases out of the boot. My mother drew in her breath.
Q 24 “My mother drew in her breath.” What does this tell you about her feelings?
A She is surprised.
Some shoplifters used the pay-point: it was like declaring something when you went through customs, in the hope that the real contraband would go unnoticed. An amateur tactic. It was easy to catch someone with a conscience, someone who wanted to be caught.
Q 25 Quote an expression which shows that the detective thought shoplifters were usually unsuccessful when they used the pay-point.
A “an amateur tactic”
Now you try some:
I'd expected he would look stolid, and assertive, and the very picture of glowing health. Instead the eyes in his pale face flitted among us, like a prying spinster's, missing nothing.
Q 26 What does the last sentence tell us about Walter’s character?
"0h, we've been everywhere! Everywhere!" my aunt explained, pausing at the hatstand to remove her wide-brimmed hat. "Paris. Como. Rome." She crossed them off on those creamed, manicured fingers with their scarlet nails. "Where else, now? Antibes, of course. And we saw a little bit of Switzerland. That was cold!" She walked ahead of us into the sitting-room and made for the fireplace and the crackling log fire. "Capri. That was just heaven. And Naples, of course."
My mother watched her from the hall. "Of course," she repeated, just to herself, under her breath.
Q 27 Look at the last sentence. What does this suggest the mother thought of the aunt’s tales of travel?
You had to blend in, pretend to be one of them, but you also had to observe them, you had to see the hand slipping the "Game Boy" into the sleeve. Kids wore such loose clothes nowadays, baggy jeans
and jogging tops two sizes too big for them. It was the fashion, but it meant they could hide their plunder easily. You had to watch the well-dressed gentlemen as well - the Crombie coat and the
briefcase could conceal a fortune in luxury items.
Q 28 Explain what concerns the detective had about kids.
Q 29 Explain what concerns the detective had about well-dressed gentlemen.
He took her back inside and they made the long journey to the top of the store in silence. For the last leg of it he took her through Fabrics - wondering if they might be taken for a couple, a sad old couple shopping together in silence - and up the back staircase so that he wouldn't have to march her through Admin.
Q 30 In your own words give two pieces of evidence which suggest the detective felt some sympathy towards the woman.
Purpose D- to evaluate the writer's attitudes, assumptions and argument
This is quite an unusual question type. In the years 2001 and 2002 there were no Purpose D questions in either the General or the Credit papers. All our examples come from 2003. Here’s a General example first:
As we walked up to the main lobby there was "Vampire" red wine for sale, glass vials of red liquid, wooden stakes and probably some garlic stashed under the counter. As these tacky, souvenirs revealed, it wasn’t the real Dracula's castle but Hotel Castel Dracula, a three-star hotel built in the mountains to service some of the nearby, ski slopes.
Q 31 In your own words, what is the writer’s attitude to the various goods for sale in the hotel lobby?
A She thinks they are touristy rubbish.
Now you try one:
The architecture (1980s mock castle) reflected the Dracula movies but the setting amid the dramatic scenery of the Tihuta pass is stunning. The "castle" is circled by bats every night and the surrounding forests have more wild bears and wolves than anywhere else in Europe.
Q 32 In your own words, what is the writer’s opinion of the setting of the hotel?
We felt Romania would be a good place to revisit when the boys were older and could hike and camp in the Carpathian wilderness. But if we leave the return visit too long things will have changed dramatically. A Dracula Land theme park is planned to be built by a German or American corporation in medieval Sighisoara next year. Local opinion is divided. On the one hand, there is the desire for tourist money and on the other the realisation that the theme park will change the character of town forever. If the cobbled streets are lined with fast food chains offering "stakeburgers” and garlic bread - Dracula will be turning in his grave.
Q 33 How does the writer feel about the changes planned for the tourist industry in Romania?
Now try a Credit example:
Surely this ridiculous bird, fat, flightless and vulnerable, had simply been caught and eaten to extinction? Too weak or stupid to defend itself, too trusting of humans, the dodo had met its inevitable end. According to ornithologist Julian Hume the fat, comical appearance of the bird is grossly exaggerated. Julian has travelled to Mauritius to investigate what the bird was really like and how it lived. It is here that the only two complete skeletons of the bird exist which have proved just how misrepresented the dodo has been.
Q 34 Which one word sums up the writer’s sympathetic attitude to the dodo?
Purpose E- to appreciate the writer's craft.
In this question type, you are not looking at what the writer says, but at how he or she says it. You are examining the writer’s style and techniques. Even in the general exam, these can be very tricky questions to tackle. It’s hard to give examples of these question types for you to work through because they can look at so many different areas of your knowledge about language. We will start by focusing on one particular type of question about sentence structure.
Sentence structure just means the way that sentences are pout together. English has certain rules about this. You may not be aware of the rules, but you will probably notice if a sentence is constructed in an unusual way. Often a writer will construct an unusual or even “wrong” sentence to grab you attention, or to gain some particular effect.
So whenever you get a question about sentence structure, take a good look at the sentence you are being asked about, and ask yourself a few questions:
1 Is the sentence noticeably long OR noticeably short?
2 Is it a proper sentence or is it somehow incomplete?
3 Is it a. making a statement?
b. asking a question?
c. exclaiming in surprise or anger?
d. giving an order?
4 Does it have any unusual or very noticeable punctuation? What does this punctuation do?
5 Is the sentence in an odd order? Are any of the words in unusual places? (Inverted word order)
Once you have thought through these questions, you should know what it was the examiners found interesting about the structure of the sentence, and you ought to be able to tackle the question.
Let’s look at a worked example:
So if you fancy trying a boot sale, just for the fun of it, here are a few ground rules for participating in this most rewarding game.
Go as a buyer first, if you can. Go early, if you are selling. Many car boot sales that advertise an opening time of 10 am are being set up by seven or eight in the morning. Beware of the antique dealers. They will surround your table at this early hour like wild dogs around a carcass. Invest in a cheap wallpapering table. You can sell out of the boot of your car, but if you have as much junk to get rid of as most of us do, you will need more space than the average hatchback can supply. Take a secure container for your money- preferably a money belt so that you can keep your takings safely about your person. Don't leave handbags lying around; car boot sales are hunting grounds for purse snatchers.
Don't sell old electrical goods: they can be dangerous, and you can be in trouble with the law for doing so. Take lots of food and drink with you: sandwiches, chocolate bars, flasks of tea and coffee, cans of soft drinks.
Q 35 The writer introduces the idea of giving practical advice. How does the sentence structure in the rest of this extract help to show this?
A Many of the sentences are commands. They are written so that they begin with a verb telling you what to do.
Now you try a General sentence structure question:
Gingerly, he tried to reopen the envelope but it was stuck fast and the flap ripped jaggedly.
Q 36 How does the structure of this sentence emphasise the man’s care in opening the envelope?
Here’s a Credit one to try:
The transaction seemed to fluster her, as if she might not have enough money to pay for the few things she'd bought. A tin of lentil soup. An individual chicken pie. One solitary tomato. Maybe she did need the avocados - or something else.
Q 37 How does the writer emphasise that the woman had bought “few things” through the use of sentence structure?
There are many other questions you might encounter which deal with the writer’s craft. Look at the list of information and definitions below. Then try the example questions.
. . . ellipsis – dots used to tail off a sentence or to show gaps in speech or writing
: colon – often used to introduce a list, a quotation, an idea, information, an explanation or a statement
simile – comparison using “like” or “as”
- dash – can be used in a pair like brackets to set aside information which isn’t vital, or may be used singly to introduce a piece of information
“ “ inverted commas – go round the exact words said when someone speaks OR go round the words quoted when a quotation is used OR can imply that something is only “so called” and not genuine
( ) brackets – used to separate off information which is interesting but not vital. The writing would still make sense if the bracketed part was missed out completely
word choice – certain words belong to certain subject groups, or perhaps bring up certain ideas in the mind of the reader, or create certain sorts of atmosphere
comparison – looking at the similarities between two or more things
After all there's a little collection of pressed glass over there that is so irresistible, and the old hand-knitted Shetland shawl that nobody seems to have spotted, and isn't that a genuine stone hot-water bottle lurking among the rubbish . . . ?
Q 38 Why does the writer use ellipsis at the end of the final sentence?
It was now well into the rush hour: traffic gushed by or fretted at red lights and urgent pedestrians commanded the pavements and crossings.
Q 39 Why does the writer use a colon? Is it to introduce a quotation, to elaborate on an idea, or to introduce an explanation?
At the last corner before the school's street they both halted in an accustomed way and he squatted down to give her a kiss. She didn't mind the ritual but not outside the gates: her pals might see and that would be too embarrassing.
Q 40 Why does the writer use a colon? Is it to introduce a quotation, to elaborate on an idea, or to introduce and explanation?
It was easy standing here to recall the bustle of business life. It came to him how much he wanted it, that activity. It was more than just something you did to make money: It was the only life he knew and he was missing out on it, standing on the sidelines like a face in the crowd at a football game.
Q 41 Explain how effective you find the simile in this extract.
The door creaked open.
Q 42 In what two ways does the writer create a frightening atmosphere in this sentence?
We were in Dracula's castle - sited on the remote Tihuta mountain pass where the Victorian Gothic novelist Bram Stoker based the home of his fictitious vampire - two days' carriage ride from Bistrita in northern Transylvania.
Q 43 Why does the writer use dashes in this paragraph?
It wasn’t the real Dracula's castle but Hotel Castel Dracula, a three-star hotel built in the mountains to service some of the nearby, ski slopes. The architecture (1980s mock castle) reflected the Dracula movies but the setting amid the dramatic scenery of the Tihuta pass is stunning. The "castle" is circled by bats every night and the surrounding forests have more wild bears and wolves than anywhere else in Europe.
Q 44 Why does the writer put the word “castle” in inverted commas?
The driver opened the back door of the taxi and my "aunt", as we referred to her - really my mother's aunt's daughter - divested herself of the travelling rugs.
Q 45 What is the function of the dashes?
The transaction seemed to fluster her, as if she might not have enough money to pay for the few things she'd bought. A tin of lentil soup. An individual chicken pie. One solitary tomato. Maybe she did need the avocados - or something else.
Q 46 How does the writer emphasise that the woman had bought “few things” through the use of word choice?
He told her to take a seat while he called security, but when he turned from her she let out a thin wail that made him recoil from the phone. She had both her temples between her hands, as if afraid her head might explode. She let out another shrill wail. It ripped out of her like something wild kept prisoner for years. It seemed to make the room shrink around them.
Q 47 Quote a comparison from this section which shows how emotional or upset the woman was, and explain how effective you find it.
It was like nothing they had ever set eyes on.
Round in shape with a plume of tall feathers, the bird stood about three feet high, the size of an overstuffed turkey or swan. Its wings were small and useless, its head surrounded by a hood of fine feathers giving it the appearance of a monk's cowl. Yet most distinctive of all was its unfeasible looking bill. It was huge and bulbous, possessing a business like hook at the end.
Q 48 “It was like nothing they had ever set eyes on.” Explain the function of this sentence.
But why did the bird come to be called the dodo? It has been argued that the name reflects the bird's nonsensical appearance. Or that it sounds like the noise the bird may have made. In fact the name dodo didn't stick until other names had been tried - "Kermis" after a Dutch annual fair, then "walghvogel” which means "nauseating fowl". The name "dodo" came when the Dutch finally saw its comical side.
Q 49 Explain the writer’s use of a question at the start of this paragraph.
One other important question type
This is a kind of question which only used to come up in the Higher exam. It is a question where you are asked to use the context to help you give the meaning of a word or phrase. In Standard grade these questions will be worth two marks, and there is a set pattern for how to answer them. You will get one mark for giving the meaning, and the second mark for showing how you were able to work out that meaning form the context. For example:
It wasn't often you had this kind of intuition about somebody, but as soon as he saw her looking at the seeds, he was certain she was going to steal them. He moved closer to her, picked up a watering can and weighed it in his hand, as if this was somehow a way of testing it, then he saw her dropping packet after packet into the bag.
Q 50 “It wasn’t often you had this kind of intuition . . .” How does the rest of the paragraph help to explain the meaning of “intuition”?
A Intuition means that you sense or guess something. He guesses that she will steal the seeds and then he watches her doing this.
Now you try one:
When the London dodo died, the animal was stuffed and sold to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Taxidermy not being what it is today, over the next few decades the dodo slowly rotted until it was thrown out in 1755. All, that is, except the moth-eaten head and one leg.
Q 51 Explain how the context helps you understand the meaning of the word “taxidermy” here.
And another important question type
You can spot this type of question by the wording. The question will ask you how the rest of the paragraph carries on an idea introduced in the first sentence. These questions are very easy to answer and a quick way of earning marks. All you have to do is to pick out details from later in the paragraph which go with the ideas introduced in that first sentence.
Look at the worked example:
Downstairs was Count Dracula's coffin in a narrow vault, the walls painted with the dramatic scenes of human victims, wolves, skulls, skeletons and the black-cloaked monster himself, red blood dripping from his pointed fangs. So far on our Romanian holiday, the only blood-sucking had been from the mosquitoes in Bucharest. Luckily we had decided to send their father down first as a guinea pig to test out how scary this experience was likely to he for our seven-, five- and two- year-olds.
Q 52 “Downstairs was Count Dracula’s coffin in a narrow vault, the walls painted with the dramatic scenes” In what ways does the writer convey the “dramatic scenes in the vault?
A The writer uses a list of horrific images such as blood, fangs, wolves, skulls and skeletons.
Now you try some:
All the junk in Scotland meets your befuddled gaze: thousands of unwanted gifts, the “wee something" for Christmas and the "I saw this and thought of you" for your birthday (how you wish they hadn't); then there are the holiday souvenirs. In short, all the stuff with which we tend to clutter our lives and our cupboards has somehow ended up in one place, awkwardly arranged on a vast number of folding tables. Behind them, all kinds of people are perched on the tailgates of a variety of vehicles. Is this some bizarre store for recycled rubbish? Well, in a way it is. In other words, you have found yourself in the middle of your first car boot sale.
Q 53 “All the junk in Scotland meets your befuddled gaze” How does the writer continue the idea of “junk”?
It was depressing to unlock the door of his cubby-hole, switch the light on and see the table barely big enough to hold his kettle and his tea things, the one upright chair, the barred window looking out on a fire-escape and the wall-mounted telephone. He asked her to take the packets of seeds out of her bag put them on the table. She did so, and the sight of the packets, with their gaudy coloured photographs of flowers, made her clench her hand into a fist.
Q 54 The detective found the sight of his cubby-hole “depressing”. Explain how the writer continues this idea in the rest of the paragraph.
Any questions, let me know. You can find the answers on the message board too.
Good luck!
Mrs Kendall