FRASERBURGH ACADEMY
Intermediate English –
Close Reading
Tasks
S5/6
Tone
“The most unusual thing I ever stole? A snowman.
Midnight. He looked magnificent: a tall, white mute”
1. Why are these lines strange? What sort of tone does this establish? (2)
“It took some time. Reassembled in the yard, he didn’t look the same. I took a run and booted him. Again. Again. My breath ripped out in rage. It seems daft now. Then I was standing alone amongst lumps of snow, sick of the world.”
2. These lines tell the reader a lot about the speaker’s attitude or tone. How does the speaker feel about their theft, and how do you know this? (2)
“So, what have the English ever done for us? Well, nothing obviously. Except enabling ambitious Scots to make vast amounts of money running the most successful empire in history from Barbados to Ottawa to Hong Kong.”
3. The writer opens with a question to which he immediately gives an answer: “Well, nothing obviously.”
a) Which word best describes the tone of this answer: ironic; sad; humorous; severe? (1)
b) How does the sentence immediately following reinforce this tone? (2)
“Star Wars (1977). A technically dazzling and enjoyable science fiction film for children of all ages. The plot is the bad guys (the Galatic Empire) vs. the good guys (the rebels). You’ll root for the good guys and hope the beautiful young princess will be rescued by two young Prince Charmings. You’ll still enjoy the film on TV.”
4. Which of these describe the above article best: ironic; humorous; sad or colloquial? Choose one and explain with reference to the article. (2)
Sentence Structure.
“It would take me years to live down the disgrace. In the meantime I must hurry home as fast as my dismounted legs could carry me. If only I could catch sight of that wretched Rob Roy eating some more grass by the roadside! If only I hadn’t let him go! If only I could begin my ride all over again! How careful I would be!”
1. Show how the sentence structure emphasises the narrator’s sense of shame and panic at losing his horse. (2)
“Scrooge became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old City knew.”
2. How does Dickens use sentence structure to emphasise the dramatic way in which his character Scrooge has reformed? (2)
‘“Er, excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me, do you mind? Excuse me would you mid keeping it down just a little? Excu ... look, are you just gonna SHUT UP!!??!!” About nine times out of ten, this is exactly the sort of thing you never say to the person behind you in the cinema.’
3. Show how the sentence structure and punctuation create a convincing picture of someone in a cinema plucking up the courage to complain to someone who is disturbing him by talking. (4)
“Of all the bad deeds that, under the cover of the darkness, had been committed within wide London’s bounds since night hung over it, that was the worst. Of all the horrors that rose with an ill scent upon the morning air, that was the foulest and most cruel.”
4. This comment is made about Bill Sykes’s murder of Nancy in Dickens’s ‘Oliver Twist’. How does Dickens use sentence structure to emphasise the dramatic nature of the deed? (2)
Figures of Speech
“They’ll take suggestion as a cat laps milk.”
1. In this quotation from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’, two villains are planning to trick two other characters. Explain how this simile reveals the speaker is very confident they will succeed. (2)
“Farfrae and Lucetta might have been seen flitting around the town like two butterflies – or rather like a bee and a butterfly.”
2. What impression do you get of the couple from the first simile ‘like two butterflies’? What difference does the change of simile after the dash make to this impression? (2)
“To her horror and amazement, round the bend of the river she saw a shaggy, tawny wave-front of water advancing like a wall of lions.”
3. The writer is describing the tidal wave of muddy water following a dam bursting. To what extent is the image of the ‘wall of lions’ effective? (2)
“The old man was looking at me with blazing eyes.
‘He is safe,’ he cried. ‘You can not follow in time ... He is gone ... he has triumphed...’
There was more in those eyes than in any common triumph. They had been hooded like a bird of prey, and now they flamed with a hawk’s pride. A white fanatic heat burned in them, and I realised for the first time the terrible thing I had been up against.”
4. Pick out all the words which suggest images of a bird of prey and fire. How do these images help you to imagine the character of the old man? (4)
Word Choice and Expression
“I could have slunk into tears at that moment but I managed to control my feelings. Half an hour afterwards I slunk into the stable yard with a sinking heart. No one seemed to be about.”
1. Quote the word that suggests the writer is so embarrassed he does not wish to be seen. (1)
“A lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire”
2. Explain the feelings the word ‘feeble’ arouses in the reader compared with a word like ‘small’. (2)
“Tom cringed as Mr Connor leaned in towards him.”
3. What does ‘cringed’ tell us about the relationship between the two characters?
“I gazed upon the schoolroom into which he took me, as the most forlorn and desolate place I had ever seen. I see it now. A long room, with three long rows of desks, and six of forms, and bristling all round with pegs for hats and slates. Scraps of old copybooks and exercises litter the dirty floor. There is a strange unwholesome smell upon the room, like mildewed corduroys, sweet apples wanting air, and rotten books.”
4. Describe the atmosphere of the schoolroom the writer builds up. (4)
Practice in Word Choice questions.
1. More than any other city river, the Thames is associated with the mysterious margins of society. In Dickens it is laden with corpses, as black and foreboding as the Styx*. Nor was it any accident that the notorious Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens of the 18th century were ranged on the far bank of the river, on the other side of no-man's-land. Boundaries are places where laws and social rules become uncertain, where licence thrives and anything can happen. They are also places to which people who feel themselves to be marginal, out on the far edge of society, naturally graduate.
*Styx: in Greek mythology, the underground river across which the dead were ferried to the underworld.
A sinister aspect of the Thames emerges from the second paragraph.
Chose TWO phrases from the extract and , by close examination of the language used, show how each phrase helps create this sinister aspect. (4)
2. At Dockside, just beneath Tower Bridge on the south bank, one can wander among empty warehouses that still smell of cinnamon, where tramp fires smoulder on the upper floors and Tooley Streeters sleep out the day on acrid sacks. It used to be called Saint Saviour's Dock, and was rechristened "Savoury Dock" because of the stench of "Folly Ditch", the open sewer that flowed into it.
The language of this extract centres on the sense of smell.
By close reference to three separate words from these lines, show how effective each word is in contributing to the atmosphere of the scene as a whole. (3)
3. A response of sorts has come from the US Congress. As a condition for permitting the site to go ahead, it insisted that a warning sign should be erected when it closes down. This would have to be capable of alerting future generations of the risk of opening up this unwanted tomb. It would be the most momentous "Keep Out" sign in history, a statement so forceful that it would drive people - or any other form of intelligent life - away from the area until AD 12,000.
How is the idea contained in the idea “momentous” developed in the rest of the sentence? (2)
4. The panellists put forward proposals for figurative warnings-cartoons showing a stick figure collapsing from the effects of radiation, or a contorted face like Munch's The Scream. They also recommended written messages lengthy explanations of the dump's contents in English, French, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Spanish and possibly the language of the local Mescalero Apache Indians.
“…and possibly the language of the local Mescalero Apache Indians.”
Comment as fully as you can on the significance of these words as a conclusion to the paragraph. (3)
5. But few doubt that the lorries (on average five a day) of nuclear-poisoned trash will eventually start rumbling across the southern desert, laden with waste destined for the ancient seabed. The US government is unlikely to abandon its newly-dug underworld. They drilled 2,150ft into the ground to build it, and they have already spent $1. 5bn on the project.
The effectiveness of the so-called "Sign of the Ages" to warn the heirs to the planet away from their unwanted inheritance remains in doubt. It is hard to believe that, however expert the Americans claim to be, they have the slightest idea of how their utterances will be received in 200 years' time, let alone in another epoch.
By commenting on particular words or phrases, show how the writer conveys the dramatic nature of the whole project. (4)
(Questions 1 and 2 refer to a passage which is an extract from the book ‘Deep Play’ in which the writer, Paul Pritchard, describes a day on Creag Meagaidh, a mountain in the Scottish Highlands.)
1. I stopped being scared (line 31)
Show how the writer’s word choice in this paragraph indicates how his feelings had changed as his predicament had worsened. (4 marks)
2. Look at lines 46-54.
By referring to the writer’s language, show how he builds up a feeling of tension as he describes what happens in this paragraph. You may refer to sentence structure, punctuation, word choice or any other technique. (4 marks)
(The following question refers to a feature article from the Women’s section of The Herald newspaper which satirise the tyranny of the Beauty Industry and adherents.)
3. Look at paragraph 4 (line 24 onwards)
How does the writer’s choice of words reflect her changing attitude to the Beautiful One in the airport? (4 marks)
(The following question refers to an article in The Observer newspaper which discusses the main factors responsible for the high rate of heart disease in the west of Scotland)
4. Look at the sentence ‘In the process . . . suet-sodden dumping ground’ (lines 41-43)
Comment fully on how the writer’s word choice in this sentence emphasises the extent of the city’s health problem. (2 marks)
(The following question refers to an article from the Sunday Times which warns of the demise of the newspaper and traces the development of journalism on the Internet.)
5. In line 9, the writer states ‘it has all happened so quickly’.
How does the writer’s word choice in the rest of this paragraph suggest otherwise? (2 marks)
(The following question refers to an article taken from the Independent on Sunday which explores the extent and implications of the Internet revolution for everyone.)
6. ‘A future in which ideas proliferate faster . . .’ (line 94)
How does the writer’s word choice extend the idea of proliferation and speed in the first three sentences of this paragraph? (3 marks)
(The following question refers to part of a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, a famous American writer of horror fiction. The extract to which the question refers, an Egyptian mummy addresses a group of doctors who are about to perform an autopsy on him.)
7. By looking closely at the language used, show how Poe achieves humorous effect throughout the mummy’s speech (lines 52-73). You may refer to tone, sentence structure, word choice or any other appropriate feature.(4 marks)