Duncanrig Secondary School
Department of English
Second Year Course
Book
Winnipeg Drive, East Kilbride, G758ZT. Telephone number: (01355) 588800
1
Dear Parent / Guardian,
This booklet is designed to ensure that your child has opportunity to practise skills learnt in the
classroom. In English, skills are taught and practised in the classroom. However, skills in English are also
practised in other areas of the school curriculum and, most importantly, at home. The amount of home study in
which a pupil engages is an essential ingredient to their success in school. As well as learning and using the
rules of written and spoken English, we wish to engender good reading habits in our pupils.
Pupils who meet with success in English - who will be able to sit National 5 and those who pass the Higher
course - are good readers. The skills that are tested by external exams further up the school (for example:
vocabulary, spelling, grammar, punctuation; understanding, analysis and evaluation) are immeasurably
improved by good personal reading habits which have been developed from a young age.
This is where you, as a parent or guardian, can have a very effective impact on your child’s skills. By
encouraging your child to read, and to read varied and challenging literature, you will increase their enjoyment
and understanding of language. We appreciate greatly the support of parents and guardians; by working in
partnership with you we believe we can help each child fulfil their potential in English. These skills are also
highly transferable and, to colleges, universities and employers, highly desirable.
The Department of English has now been delivering the Curriculum for Excellence course for three years. This
course provides a framework for improving the learning, attainment and achievement of all young people in
Scotland. It is not just about examinations but is also about preparing children and young people with the skills
for learning, work and life. The course will mean national Literacy and Numeracy assessments in Third Year
and examinations at National 4 or National 5 level in Fourth Year. You can find out more about these exams
here:
http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/45674.html
I hope that your child will enjoy English in Second Year. More importantly, I hope that they will find it
challenging, interesting and useful. If you have any questions about English at Duncanrig, please call me at
the school or e-mail me at: [email protected]
There are some places in this booklet which ask for your signature, such as the one below. This is merely to
confirm that your child has shown you information that we would like you to see.
Many thanks,
Miss J F Whiteford
Department of English
Parent / Guardian Signature
2
Welcome to Second Year English
Dear Pupil,
This is your course book for English – it is designed to be very similar to the one you have completed in First
Year. You must bring it to your English class when your teacher tells you to do so. It has some homework in it
for you to do and your teacher will tell you when you have to complete each task. You should try to do your
best in all your work in English, including the work in this booklet.
In Second Year you will have English four periods a week. You will always have homework for English. This
may be homework set by the classroom teacher and may include Personal Reading. Set homework tasks may
include:





Completing or redrafting essays
Completing Close Reading exercises
Completing work related to a class text or topic
Preparation of a Solo or Group Talk
Researching a topic or reading the class text
You should try to do as much Personal Reading as possible. You will be able to borrow books from the school
library, you can also borrow books from your local library or bring your own books to class. If you don’t know
what to read, have a chat with your teacher of English. Good personal reading habits are essential for making
good progress in English and you will find English easier if you really try with your reading at home.
If you have a problem with your work you must speak to your classroom teacher: he or she is there to help
you. You should also approach him or her if you have any questions about the things you are doing in the
classroom or the homework which is set.
If you have homework you must ensure you do it in plenty of time: try to look at it the day you get it to ensure
you know what to do. If you don’t understand anything, ask your teacher. It is important that homework is
submitted on time and that it is your best effort.
English is a very enjoyable subject. It is also a subject which is very important in school and beyond. I hope
you enjoy your time in Second Year and that you try your best to fulfil your potential in the subject.
Miss Whiteford
Department of English
You should sign in the space below: this is to show that you’ve read the information above.
Pupil Signature
3
Knowledge about Language – Word classes
You have already looked at these in First Year. The next few pages will remind you about the rules you have
gone over and refresh your memory.
Nouns
are naming words. For example: pen, floor, window, paper.
Pronouns
are words we use in place of nouns. For example: he, she, it, them.
Adjectives
are describing words. For example: tall, thin, round, small.
Verbs
are doing words. For example: walk, throw, drink, eat.
Adverbs
are words which describe the verb. For example: quickly, secretly, soon.
Prepositions
are words which show a relationship between things. For example: on, under.
Conjunctions
are joining words. For example: and, but, when.
If we understand to which class a word belongs, it may help us understand its meaning or context.
NOUNS
A noun is a naming word. There are FOUR different types of noun in English:
A common nounis a word which names something.
For example: table, pen, girl, cat, computer, trousers, ticket.
A proper noun
is a word which refers to a particular place, person or thing.
For example: Duncanrig, Scotland, William Shakespeare, University of Glasgow.
An abstract noun
is a word which describes something we cannot see, hear, or touch.
For example: fear, justice, truth, curiosity, relaxation, bravery.
A collective noun
is a word which describes a group of people, animals or objects as a group.
For example: a flock of birds, a range of mountains, a team of players.
PRONOUNS
Pronouns are not nouns: they are words we use instead of nouns. For example:
I, me, we, us, he, she, him, her, it, they, them, ours, yours.
TASK 1
Fill in the correct type of word below.
The word “patience” is an
.
The word “pencil” is a
.
The word “her” is a
.
4
Knowledge about Language – Word classes
Nouns
Task 2
Look at the paragraph below. Underline all the nouns. Then write “CN” above the common nouns,
“AN” above the abstract nouns and “PN” above the proper nouns.
This paragraph is taken from a story about the German god “Woden”.
“Tiu, Ziu or Tyr, were three names for one of Woden’s sons. Tyr was the brother of Thor and his mother,
Frigga, was very proud of Tyr’s courage in war and of his skill and strength in battle. The soldiers of the
Northland cried to him for help as often as they did to his father Woden. Tyr’s sign was a sword and the brave
old kings of Norway and their followers used to engrave his name upon their bright steel blades that they might
please the great warrior who lived in Asgard. They thought that if Tyr saw his name written on their swords he
would give help to the man who owned the sword and would help him keep his blade sharp. There are many
stories about Tyr’s adventures and they tell us about all the different people that he helped. Tyr’s name has
been given to the day before Woden’s Day, and when Tuesday comes, try to be as true, brave and swift as
Tyr son of Woden.”
Task 3
Look at the sentences below and fill in the missing nouns.
1
It was a very dark
because the
2
The
3
The girl had a growing sense of
4
At the top of the slide, John was very
5
The
was shining very brightly and everyone wanted to swim in the
because her pet kitten had run away.
because it was very high.
made sure that everyone had copied down their
for that night. He said he would check it the next
5
.
was not out.
.
Knowledge about Language – Word classes
Adjectives
An adjective is a describing word and it usually gives us more information about a noun or pronoun.
For example: fat, thin, heavy, light, rough, smooth, black, white, old, young.
Task 4
The passage below is from the Greek legend of Narcissus. Read it and underline all the adjectives.
“Down in the very centre of the woods there was a clear blue spring. No lonely shepherds ever brought their
thirsty flocks there to drink, no fierce lions or other wild beasts came to it in the night time. No fallen leaves or
dead branches fell into the beautiful pool but the lush green grass grew closely around the tarn all the year
round. One day a young boy hunter found the tranquil lake and, because he was very thirsty, he stooped down
to drink from the pellucid pond. As he quickly bent over to drink he saw, for the first time, his own face and he
did not know who it was.
At first, the thought that it might be a beautiful water fairy with shining eyes and a smiling mouth. “Nothing has
escaped me yet and I shall stay until this curly-haired creature come out of the water” said the bewildered boy.
He completely forgot his hunt; he forgot absolutely everything, and could only think about watching for the
elusive water sprite. When the full moon and the bright stars came out in the black sky of night, the boy was
still quietly sitting by the clear pool. ”
Task 5
Try to use two adjectives to fill in each of the blanks below.
1
The car was
2
They looked at the
3
The plane flew through the
4
The crowd were screaming for the
and
.
and
man.
and
sky.
and
6
pop star.
Knowledge about Language – Word classes
Verbs
A verb is a word, or a group of words, that tells us what a person or thing is doing or being. Verbs are
sometimes called “doing words”. For example: run, talk, write, swing, bite, take, found, see, learn,
practise, read.
Task 6
Read the sentences below and fill in the missing verb.
1
The boys got up early to
a football match.
2
Mark had to
3
Tom’s mum had to
him out of the games shop.
4
The police had to
the suspect.
5
The ice had begun to
some rice for his dinner.
.
Adverbs
An adverb is a word which tells us more about words which are not nouns. Adverbs usually help with
questions such as how?" (or "in what way?), when?, where?, why? and to what extent?. In English, they often
end in -ly. For example: quickly, punctually, suddenly, defiantly, sometimes, yesterday, only, less, very.
Task 7
Look at the sentences below and try to fill in an appropriate adverb.
1
The baker
put the icing on the cake.
2
Jason
knocked over a vase of roses.
3
The five o’clock bus
arrives on time.
4
Daniel fell over and
twisted his ankle.
7
Knowledge about Language – Word classes
Verb Tenses
One of the most important functions of the verb is to indicate the time at which an action takes place. There
are two tenses in English: PAST and PRESENT. There are some examples below.
Present
Speak
Walk
Play
For example:
Past
Spoken
Walked
Played
Present
Drive
Work
Sleep
Past
Drove
Worked
Slept
I am going to jump on the roundabout.
(Present)
I jumped on the roundabout.
(Past)
Present
Run
Say
Is
Past
Ran
Said
Was
(“jamp” is not a word.)
Task 8
The paragraph below is written in the PAST tense. Fill in the missing words.
“When I
a child I
sister although sometimes I
in a quiet little town. I
to school with my
ahead. When school had finished we
with our friends. It was different in those days as children
outside
more freedom.”
The paragraph below is written in the PRESENT tense. Fill in the missing words.
“Now I
an adult and I
only a few people. Most children
they
in a big city. There
a lot of traffic and we
to school by car. After school they don’t
television instead. Children
outside,
less freedom nowadays.
Task 9
The table below has some verbs already filled in – write in the PAST or PRESENT verb in the spaces.
Present
Buy
Past
Present
Eat
Past
Gone
Get
Present
Make
Felt
Tell
Seen
Strike
8
Past
Knowledge about Language – Word classes
Prepositions
A preposition is a word which links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. The word or
phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition. For example: on, over, beneath,
beside, between, across, except, in, from, of, like, during, with.
Task 10
Look at the sentences below and underline all of the prepositions that you can find.
1
Alison climbed aboard the ship. She began to look for her cabin which was behind the bridge
of the ship and under the captain’s cabin.
2
George’s bunk was above Lennie’s. He liked this way because it meant that Lennie could keep
all his junk under his own bed and not on George’s.
3
Beneath the silvery moon, the boat on the lake was a dark silhouette. Inside the boat, the sailor
was trying to get into his cabin.
4
The red car seemed to be following the black car.
Now write one sentence using one preposition.
Can you think of one preposition that is not listed on this page?
9
Knowledge about Language – Word classes
Conjunctions
A conjunction is a word that links words, phrases, or clauses. For example: And, or, but, nor, so, for, yet, as,
wherever, while, that, until, what, when, since, because.
Task 11
Look at the sentences below. Turn each example into ONE sentence using a conjunction. USE A
DIFFERENT WORD EACH TIME. Try not to use “and”.
1
The boy was late for school. He had a good reason.
2
Gregory was not playing at his best today. He was still suffering from a previous injury.
3
Henry was very tired. He could not go to bed until nine o’clock.
4
The bags were very heavy. They were full of shopping.
5
There was a choice of two meals on the menu. One was pizza, one was pasta.
10
Knowledge about Language – Punctuation and Meaning
Task 12
The passage below is from the Greek legend of Castor and Pollux. You must add the correct
punctuation (for example, commas, full stops, apostrophes, colons and so on) to the paragraph. You
must also put in capital letters where they are needed. Mark clearly where you make the changes.
“ among the star pictures in the sky may be found one called gemini or the twins the ancient greeks used to
believe that twin brothers named castor and pollux had been really placed in the sky the brothers once lived in
Sparta their mother was the lovely leda and one of their sisters was the beautiful helen whose capture caused
the famous trojan war the brothers were devoted to each other as twins are said to be and one was never
seen without the other being near their love for their sisters was very great and once when helen was captured
by the famous warrior theseus these twin brothers found her and brought her safely back to her mothers
house
castor was very fond of horses he could tame the wildest one that was ever caught and lead it around like a
tame animal as soon as his magic touch had tamed its fiery spirit the horse would know that castor was its
master he could ride better than anyone in the kingdom for no horse had ever thrown him pollux was just as
famous in boxing and wrestling he taught young people many tricks of fighting with hand and foot he was the
leader in all the games
the two brothers were proud to be allowed to go with other heroes in quest of the golden fleece they all
journeyed on a ship called the argo one night the ship got into a very turbulent storm and everyone thought
that it was only the sweet music of Orpheus that stilled the waters however when they looked at castor and
pollux they saw that stars had appeared on their heads then they realised that they had been saved because
even the olympian gods knew that the brothers were very special and very loyal to each other ”
11
Knowledge about Language – Figurative Language – Imagery 1
Figurative language contains images and comparisons. The writer describes something through the use of
unusual comparisons, for effect, to make it more interesting, or to make things clearer. Two common
techniques in figurative language are similes and metaphors.
A simile is where two things are directly compared because they share a common feature. The word AS or
LIKE is used to compare the two words. For example, “Andrew is very greedy: he eats like a pig!”
A metaphor also compares two things, but it does so more directly without using as or like. For example, “The
boy had the heart of a lion.”
What makes figurative language effective is the shared qualities between the thing being described and the
thing being used to describe. “Eats like a pig” is a good image because it tells us that Andrew was eating very
noisily and greedily, more like an animal than a person. “Heart of a lion” is a good image because it suggests
that they boy was very brave, fearless like a lion. Both examples involved animals but they mean different
things. They are effective because of the connotations of each image: what the image suggests or makes us
think about.
Task 13
Look at the examples below. Try to explain why the images are effective.
The girl was jumping for joy.
Time is a thief
People in glass houses should not throw stones
I’ll give you some free money when I see pigs fly
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Knowledge about Language – Figurative Language – Imagery 2
The passage below is from the novel “Cider with Rosie” by Laurie Lee. In this extract, Lee is telling us about
his first memories of being put in a field by his sisters.
“The June grass, amongst which I stood, was taller than I was, and I wept. I had never been so close to grass before. It
towered above me and all around me, each blade tattooed with tiger-skins of sunlight. It was knife-edged, dark, and a
wicked green, thick as a forest and alive with grasshoppers that chirped and chattered and leapt through the air like
monkeys.
I was lost and didn’t know where to move. A tropic heat oozed from the ground, rank with sharp odours of roots and
nettles. Snow-clouds of elder-blossom banked in the sky, showering upon me the fumes and flakes of their sweet and
giddy suffocation. High overhead ran frenzied larks, screaming, as though the sky were tearing apart. I was lost and I did
not expect to be found again. I put back my head and howled, and the sun hit me smartly on the face like a bully.
From this daylight nightmare I was awakened by the appearance of my sisters. They came scrambling and called up the
steep rough bank, and parting the long grass found me. Faces rose, familiar, living; huge shining faces hung up like
shields between me and the sky.”
Task 14
There are six examples of imagery listed above. Pick three different images and try to explain why you
think the image is effective. (What are the connotations of each image? Think about what is being
compared and why it is an effective comparison. What are the shared qualities of the image and the
thing being described?)
IMAGE 1
IMAGE 2
IMAGE 3
13
Close Reading - One
What is Close Reading?
Whether you write an essay or answer a series of questions based on a text, you are attempting to show that
you understand certain reading purposes. When reading any text, you will be expected to:

Understand the main idea in a passage, understand the gist of it;

Select specific, individual pieces of information from a text;

Understand ideas or feelings a writer presents in a text;

Identify and understand writer's attitudes, beliefs and argument;

Understand and appreciate a writer's use of language.
In Close Reading texts this really means that you should understand that different questions ask you to show
awareness of different purposes. Questions can be grouped into three broad areas:
Analysis
This means identifying a literary technique, saying what it is, and giving an example.
Evaluation
This means how and why a technique is effective and what impact it has on your reading of
the text.
Understanding This type of question tests how well do you understand what is being conveyed to the reader.
In this type of question you have to be sure to use your own words where possible.
Types of Text
In the Close Reading activities you will have to read and answer questions on a piece of text. The texts will
usually come from prose Fiction and Non-fiction. You'll find it easier to understand these different types of
writing if you're familiar with the features of each.
Fiction Texts
Fictional texts are stories so will have all the features of imaginative writing. The piece of text could be taken
from a novel or short story. Here are some of the key features of these texts:

The setting of the story (where it takes place) will be made clear early on in the passage

There will be characters - probably one or two main ones

There will be a main idea (a theme) explored in the passage

The main idea will relate to the main characters - they will be involved with the theme

Something will happen to the characters or the extract will lead up to something happening

The story is usually written in the THIRD PERSON. Language will be used imaginatively. The writer
will employ literary techniques to convey her or his ideas.
14
Close Reading - Two
Non-fiction texts include newspaper articles, magazine articles, information leaflets, diaries, travel writing and
autobiographies. Any one of these could be the text of a Close Reading activity.
Non-fiction texts, of whatever genre, all have one thing in common: they are based on facts. That is, things
that have actually happened or are true. Let's look at the key features of some non-fiction texts:

They can present information and ideas about a topic.

They can present a point of view about the topic.

The layout might include headlines, subheadings, and pictures.

The main idea is introduced early on in the passage and then developed in subsequent paragraphs.

The style of writing is usually straightforward and factual, especially in newspaper extracts.
If it is an extract from an autobiography or a diary, it will be a personal piece of Writing recording thoughts and
feelings about life experiences and will use more imaginative language. It will usually be written in the first
person.
If it is a piece of travel Writing, a place will be described in detail and the writer's thoughts and feelings about
that place will be made clear. It will usually be written in the first person.
Non-fiction texts are all around us in the form of newspapers, magazines, advertisements, junk mail - the list is
endless! Try to read as many examples as you can so that you become familiar with this type of Writing. When
you are reading, think about what techniques the writer uses to convey their information in an interesting way.
Task 15
Can you think of three examples of a fiction text? The first one has been done for you
Title
Skellig
Author David Almond
Title
Author
Title
Author
Title
Author
Can you think of two examples of a non-fiction text?
15
Close Reading - Three
Now that you've revised the features of different types of writing, you're ready to test how much you can
remember by completing this test.
Task 16
Fill in the blanks in the following passage.
The texts in your Close Reading examination will be either fiction or non-fiction. Three different types of nonfiction writing are ________________, _____________ and _________________ .
There are several key features of a non-fiction text. A non-fiction text will present __________ about a topic. A
non-fiction text will be written in a ____________ and ___________ style. The author might put across his or
her ________ of __________ .
Especially in newspapers and magazines, the layout might include
____________ , ______________ and ______________ .
-
Two types of non-fiction writing
are written in the 1st person. These are __________________ and ___________________ .
-
Fiction texts in the Close Reading paper will be extracts from _____________ or _________________ .
-
What are the key features of fiction texts?
The story will describe 1 or 2 main
________________ . A __________ will be explored throughout the story. The style of writing will be
_______________ . The story is usually written in the _______ person.
Questions about Meanings in Context
In many Close Reading activities you will be asked to explain how the context (the surrounding words and
sentences) helps you to understand the meaning of a word. For example, look at the passage below. You may
be asked a question which asks you to explain the meaning of “vicarious” in paragraphs 1 and 2:
“At first I was angry at him, frightened for him, but now suddenly I get this rush of joy, watching him race out
there into the cold level space of the stilled river, free and warm and vivacious in that smoothed and frozen
silence. I think he’s done it, I think he’s across the river and safe and there’s a buzzy glow of vicarious
accomplishment starting to well up within me, but then there’s a cracking noise and he falls…”
Do you know what it means? If you do you still need to refer to the rest of the passage to show how the
meaning is reflected in the words around it. You must look at the context. The word “accomplishment” is right
next to the word “vicarious” which tells us that something has been achieved. The fact that the narrator is
watching his friend and that he says “I think he’s done it” shows us that the achievement is his friend’s. What
does this tell us when we put all of this information together? It helps us arrive at the meaning of “vicarious” .
From the context we can see that it must mean that the narrator is experiencing this achievement through his
friend. So, generally, “vicarious” means to experience something through someone else.
Remember that in your answer you must give the meaning and quote the words from the context which helped
you to understand – even if you knew the meaning of the word anyway.
16
(Continued on the next page)
Close Reading - Four
The Answer
The word “vicarious” means to experience something through another person. The word “accomplished”
shows that something has been achieved and the fact that the writer says, “I think he’s done it” shows the
reader that it is through another person that he is experiencing this incident.
In this type of question you must:

Write what you think the word means

Write which words helped you to figure it out.
Task 17
Read the passages below then answer the questions which follow.
“ It wasn’t often you had this kind of intuition about someone, 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 of seeds
into her bag.”
How does this paragraph help you to understand the meaning of the word ‘intuition’?
“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.”
How does this paragraph help you to understand the meaning of the word ‘taxidermy’?
17
Close Reading - Five
Questions on effectiveness
Writers choose their words carefully because they want to convey a certain meaning or idea. Perhaps they
want to influence the reader’s opinion on something, perhaps they want you to make you think or feel a certain
way. Sometimes writers are trying to highlight a particular aspect of something. When you are attempting this
type of question it is quite common to be asked about imagery: similes, metaphors and other figures of
speech.
When you are attempting questions of this type you must:

Decide what is being compared

Think about how the image works – what are the shared qualities of the things being mentioned

Think about the effect of the technique
Questions about figurative language (‘figures of speech’)
You should already be familiar with the following terms - perhaps you even learned them in primary school!
Here is some revision just in case:
Simile
a comparison that uses the words ‘like’ or ‘as’
Metaphor
a comparison that says one thing is something else; it cannot be, but the two things have
something(s) in common.
Personification Giving human or living qualities to something dead/inanimate
Alliteration
Repetition of the same consonant sounds at the start of 2+ words to add impact to what is
being said
Onomatopoeia The term used for words that try to reflect the sound they are describing
Task 18
There are some examples of images below. Write down which technique is being used for each of the
six examples.
She was like a bear with a sore head.
The sea crawled up the cliff face.
Juliet is the sun.
Sean felt as nervous as a prisoner in front of a jury.
The woman sailed into the room.
He was as cold as ice.
18
Close Reading - Six
Task 19
Read the paragraph below.
The Caithness coastline is peppered with surfing spots, but the jewel in the crown and the target for dedicated
wave riders lies within spitting distance of Thurso town centre at a reef break called Thurso East. In the right
conditions, the swell there rears up over kelp-covered slabs into a fast-moving, barrelling monster of a wave
considered world class by those in the know.
Explain fully why the underlined phrase is an effective description of the wave.
Task 20
Read the paragraph below.
“Only Ken Fox and his band, together with pet dog Freebie, two ferrets and two cockatiels, tour in the
traditional way, squelching out of their winter quarters from behind the Cambridgeshire hedgerows just before
Easter and heading in convoy for the first of the 6,000 miles they will complete by the end of October.
Explain fully why you think the writer uses the word “squelching”.
Task 21
Read the paragraph below.
“But luckily, Mrs Moonface does not call on me. She has a piece of chalk in her right hand. She is waving it
around like a dagger as she spews algebra gibberish at a hundred miles a minute.”
How does the writer make Mrs Moonface’s behaviour seem threatening?
19
Close Reading - Seven
Task 22
Read the paragraph below.
“I am now primed. My heart is thumping against my ribs, one by one, like a hammer pounding out a musical
scale on a metal keyboard. Bing. Bang. Bong. Bam. I am breathing so quickly that I cannot breathe, if that
makes any sense.”
Identify any one technique used by the writer in this section to suggest John’s growing excitement
and explain how it does so.
Task 23
Read the paragraph below.
“Whenever a hummingbird dares an investigatory hover, a burly member of the observatory team rushes
forward, waving his arms around.
How does this description create an effective contrast?
Task 24
Read the paragraph below.
“Living life in the fast lane means hummingbirds need a continuous supply of fuel.”
Explain the effectiveness of this image.
20
Close Reading - Eight
Task 25
Read the paragraph below.
“Bran Castle is certainly dramatic, perched on the edge of a rock peak, its ramparts standing out against the
dark mountain backdrop. But as it was the former summer royal residence, parts of it inside seem rather cosy
and welcoming.”
What contrasting impressions does the writer give of Bran Castle?
Task 26
Read the sentence below. Comment on the effectiveness of the writer’s use of the simile “delicate as
mice”.
Voices assailed the cell quietly and intermittently, as delicate as mice.
Task 27
Read the paragraph below.
“On the west is a huge brooding stone circle, the Ring of Brodgar. On the east, like three elegant women
conversing at a cocktail party, are the Standing Stones of Stenness. The purpose of these may be mysterious,
but a short seven miles away is the Neolithic village called Skara Brae.”
Identify the figure of speech used by the writer to describe the Standing Stones of Stenness. What
does it suggest about the stones?
21
Close Reading - Nine
A very common type of question is one that asks you to think about the effectiveness of specific words chosen
by the writer. Remember that writers choose to use certain words and phrases to have a particular effect on
the reader – whether it is to create a certain image or to evoke some kind of emotional response.
In order to do this successfully writers must select words that hold certain connotations. A connotation is the
associated image or feeling that springs to mind when we read a certain word. This might well be different
from the denotation of the word. The denotation of a word is its basic meaning as a dictionary would define it.
When answering questions, try to think about the connotations – what does a particular word suggest?
Task 28
Read the paragraph below.
“Though sales of some celebrity magazines are slipping, figures show the new publications are thriving. In
America, the thirst for star images is so strong that one photographer was recently paid £70,000 for a single
picture.”
What does the word ‘thirst’ suggest about the American attitude towards celebrity gossip?
Task 29
Read the paragraph below.
“But though some role models, such as Gareth Gates, the singer, or Tiger Woods, the golfer, can maintain
they are blazing a trail for others to follow, can less worthy idols cause damage?”
What does the writer’s use of the expression ‘blazing a trail’ tell you about Gareth Gates and Tiger
Woods?
22
Close Reading - Ten
Task 30
Read the paragraph below.
“‘Potatoes to bag up," he called over the shoulder of a customer, and Henry made his way down to the cellar,
where a bin of potatoes awaited him. He always tried to hurry the job because the cellar was dark and damp
and he often heard rats scurrying across the floor. One day, a grey rat squirted out of a bag of potatoes and
Henry had leapt with fright, his heart exploding in his chest. He was afraid of a lot of things - the closet door
that never stayed closed in his bedroom, spooky movies about vampires - but most of all, the rats.'”
What is unusual about the writer’s use of the word ‘squirted’?
Task 31
Read the paragraph below.
“ Mrs Tallis read the seven pages of The Trials of Arabella in her bedroom, at her dressing table, with the
author’s arm around her shoulder the whole while. Briony studied her mother’s face for every trace of shifting
emotion, and Emily Tallis obliged with looks of alarm, snickers of glee and, at the end, grateful smiles and
wise, affirming nods.”
What does the word “obliged” suggest about Emily’s reaction to the play?
23
Close Reading - Eleven
In Close Reading papers there are some questions which ask you to understand what is written and to
demonstrate your understanding by re-phrasing parts of the text in your own words. This type of question
comes up regularly in the Close Reading exam. If you are being asked to write in your own words you must do
this or you will not be able to get the marks.
Task 32
Read the paragraph below.
“Last year Kerri Cameron, aged 19 and a little bored with her job as a horse-riding instructor, was looking up
job vacancies on the internet.”
In your own words, explain fully why Kerri Cameron was looking up job vacancies on the internet.
Task 33
Read the paragraph below.
“Surfers generally guard their local breaks jealously. It’s considered essential to keep your mouth shut about
your ‘secret spot’, in case you find it overrun with visitors.”
In your own words, explain why surfers ‘guard their local breaks jealously.’
Task 34
Read the paragraph below.
“ Luckily we have decided to send their father down first as a guinea pig to test out how scary this experience
was likely to be for our seven, five and two-year old.”
In you own words explain fully why their father was sent down first.
24
Close Reading - Twelve
Tone and Style questions
In Close Reading activities and tests you may be asked to identify and comment on the tone, mood or style of
a particular text or section of the text. This means you need to think about the word choice, literary techniques
and structure create this tone, mood or style.
Task 35
Read the paragraph below.
“Strangely, the encounter was every bit as impressive as rubbing shoulders with mountain gorillas in the wilds
of Africa or performing slow-motion underwater ballets with dolphins in the Bahamas.”
In your own words what does the writer’s use of the word ‘strangely’ tell you about his reaction to the
encounter with the hummingbirds?
Task 36
Read the paragraph below.
“The door creaked open. A draught a cold air blew up from the stairs to the dark crypt and the hairs on our
arms stood on end. The faint light from the flickering candle disappeared; there was a muffled scream, a
sound of running footsteps and then some raised voices.”
Explain fully what the writer suggests by using the word ‘flickering’ when describing the candle?
Task 37
Read the paragraph below.
She has fixed her sights on a new star: David Sneddon, first winner of the television show Fame Academy.
She cornered Sneddon at two television appearances, though it is early days in her “acquaintance” with him.
Yet she felt forced to defend him indignantly against a TV presenter who, she thought, had not shown
Sneddon sufficient respect. Hicks is no deluded young teen: she is a 28-year-old electrical engineer. But she
freely admits to an “addiction” to the latest musical sensations…
What does the underlined statement tell you about the writer’s attitude towards Katherine’s
behaviour?
25
Close Reading - Thirteen
(Tone – continued)
Task 38
Read the paragraph below.
“I think they were Anna’s hummingbirds, black-chinned, broad-billed, blue-throated, magnificent, red and
violet-crowned that morning, but I’m not entirely sure. Later, I asked other bird-watchers about similar-looking
hummers around “their” feeding stations, but they weren’t sure either. I left them bickering over the difference
between the sapphire blue throat of a broad-bill and the cobalt blue throat of a blue-throat.”
What does the writer’s use of the word “bickering” tell you about his attitude to the bird watchers?
Task 39
Read the paragraph below.
“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.”
Explain fully why the underlined expression might be considered to be surprising.
Task 40
Read the paragraph below.
“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.”
What effect does the writer create by using the underlined expression?
26
Close Reading - Fourteen
“Write Down a Word / Expression” Questions
Another common type of question in Close Reading is one that asks you to “write down a word” or “write down
an expression” from the passage. If the question asks you for one word, quote only one word. If you are asked
for an expression, you are usually expected to quote two or more words. If you are asked to write down an
expression or a word from the passage, remember, you must quote the actual words used in the text.
Task 41
Read the paragraph below.
“We need them to help organise local stuff. You always have individuals who will boycott everything, but we
understand that most of them are positive.”
Write down a single word from this section meaning “refuse to support or take part”.
Task 42
Read the paragraph below.
“Ken Fox and his wife Julie, their sons, Luke and Alex, and their troupe of Kerri, a new girl rider called Emma
Starr, a man who prefers to be known just as Philip, and a wall-of-death enthusiast of an accountant named
Neil Calladine, now operate the last wall of death in Britain.”
Write down one word from this passage which contains the same idea as “band”, as in “Ken Fox and
his band…”
Task 43
Read the paragraph below.
“My black ballpoint pen shook slightly in my trembling right hand as I wrote out the fateful question: “Gloria, will
you go out with me this Friday?” Beneath that monumental question I drew two boxes.”
Quote two separate words used by the writer to suggest the importance of what John is asking Gloria.
27
Close Reading - Fifteen
Questions about punctuation and sentence structure
Punctuation helps to structure sentences. You should know what these punctuation marks do:
…
Ellipses. These dots show an unfinished sentence or gaps in speech/writing.
:
Colon. This is mostly used to introduce a list, a quotation, an idea, information, an explanation or an
important statement.
-
This can be used like a pair of brackets around information that is added or not necessarily
vital OR on its own to introduced another piece of information.
“”
Inverted commas go around the words that somebody says OR quoted words OR can suggest that
something is ‘so-called’ and not genuine OR that the writer doesn’t agree with the words.
()
Brackets are used to isolate information that is not essential to understanding the main sentence or
clause. The sentence would still make sense if the bracketed part wasn’t there at all. Brackets can be
used to create parenthesis (as can pairs of commas or dashes).
Sentence Structure questions require you to look at either one, or a group of sentence and perhaps explain
why they are written in a particular way. There are many reasons why sentence structure is used. Perhaps it is
to make us think like the character. It could be that the structure helps to emphasise a point. Structure
questions want you to show an understanding between how something is written and the meaning or content
of the sentence. Structure will reinforce or mirror content. Think about the aspects of the sentence that are the
same as aspects of the idea or subject in the passage.
When you are looking at sentence structure you should consider how the sentence is “built” and its effect. Is it
a short or long sentence –what effect does the structure have? Does the sentence have a lot of clauses?
Could this be because the writer is trying to emphasise that there are many things to be considered? If it is a
short, simple sentence – is the writer making a short simple point?
Sometimes, the sentence is constructed in a different way. If you remember your S1 booklet, you learned
about the normal word order of a sentence: Subject
Verb Object. Sometimes the word order is
changed around – this is called inversion. For example, "The dog bit the man" is very similar to "The man bit
the dog." Only the order of words is changed but the meaning alters because the subject of the sentence has
switched places with the object. Inversion is where the normal expected order of events is turned round for
some effect; in this case to create surprise or humour.
Similarly, parenthesis can also be used to change the meaning of a sentence. A simple sentence such as "The
man waited outside the bank" can be made more complex by adding a bit more information: "The man, who
had done nothing to create suspicion, waited outside the bank" The writer may give us the extra information to
add to our understanding and expectation of what is to come but the additional words do not change the
grammar of the sentence. Equally, being told something more about the man does not change the original
meaning of the sentence. This technique can be signalled using commas, brackets or dashes but in each case
is called a parenthesis. A phrase in parenthesis is one that is giving extra information. What you must do in
Close Reading activities is decide what effect this information has: does is reinforce the writer’s point, does it
change how you view the information around it? When writing about structural techniques it is important to fully
detail the effect of the technique.
28
Close Reading - Sixteen
You may remember you looked at sentence construction in your S1 course booklet. (This told you about
clauses and how sentences are constructed.) There are different classes of sentences. Some are:
Statements
We usually talk in statements. They are ‘normal’ sentences.
Questions
These sentences ask something. (Remember to use a question mark at the end!)
Rhetorical Questions
Appear to ask something but don’t really require an answer or the answer is obvious.
Commands
Tell us to do something.
Exclamations
Show excitement, shock, surprise… It may end in an exclamation mark or a full stop.
Writers also use repetition as a structural technique to reinforce meaning. The repetition of certain words or
phrases is used by the writer to emphasise an idea – you must say what idea is being emphasised.
Sometimes it is even where a sentence is placed. Is it at the beginning or the end of a paragraph; is it in a
paragraph by itself? What effect does the placing of a sentence have? How does it help to reinforce meaning?
Look at the questions below. Your answers should focus on the various structural techniques used.
Remember to think about: sentence length, punctuation, word order, repetition. And the effect of these
techniques.
Task 44
Read the paragraph below.
“Ken is lucky that Julie can drive one of the trucks, change the 2-ft high tyres, and make sure Alex does his
school lessons on his laptop, cook, making sandwiches and dish out the £2 tickets.”
How does the structure of the whole sentence help to reinforce how busy Julie is between Easter and
October?
Task 45
Read the paragraph below.
“BUT it may not all be that bad, indeed, other academics argue that the likes of Beckham and Madonna are
even good for you.”
Why does the writer put the word ‘BUT’ in capital letters at the beginning of the second paragraph?
29
Close Reading - Seventeen
Task 46
Read the paragraph below.
“According to the South-Eastern Arizona Bird Observatory, it is the hottest hummingbird-watching spot in the
state. Thousands of “hummers” arrive in April and May stay until early October.”
Why has the writer put the word “hummers” in inverted commas?
Task 47
Read the paragraphs below.
“I am sitting in school, in Maths, with a paper in my hand. No, it is not my algebra homework. It is not a quiz
that I have finished and am waiting to hand in to Mrs Moonface. The piece of paper in my hand has nothing to
do with any school subject. Nor is it really a piece of paper at all.
It is really my fate, masquerading as paper.”
Why does the writer place the sentence above in a paragraph of its own?
Task 48
Read the lines below.
“The 1,000 strong audience gathered at the Hyatt hotel in downtown Washington DC was stunned. He had
fainted.”
How does the writer signal the dramatic nature of this event to the reader?
30
Close Reading – Eighteen
Task 49
Read the line below.
“a-l-o-p-e-c-o-i-d”
Why does the writer separate the letters in this word with dashes?
Task 50
Read the paragraph below.
“Rameses I Station, usually called Cairo Railway Station, is a century old, like the railway system itself, which
stretches from Alexandria on the shores of the Mediterranean, to Aswan on the Upper Nile, at the northern
edge of Lake Nasser – the border of Sudan on the south side.”
Why, in your opinion, does the writer use a long opening sentence?
Link Questions
Questions asking you how two different sections of the text link together are quite common. In many cases you
will need to find a linking word such as “yet”, “however” or “but”. Then you need to consider whether the two
parts linked by this word are similar in content (do they develop the same point further?) or whether the link
signifies a turning point or change in direction for the text. You need to communicate clearly that you
understand the meaning of each part of the text. Link sentences refer back to a previous point in the passage
and introduce the next part of the passage. You must show your awareness of this and provide evidence if the
question asks for it.
Answers to link questions should have four parts to them:

Identify which part of the sentence links back

Identify the idea or the text that is be referred to before the link sentence

Identify which part of the sentence links forward

Identify the idea or the text that is being referred to after the link sentence
When you are answering link sentence type questions, try to follow this structure as it should help you address
the task correctly.
31
Close Reading – Nineteen
There is not enough space to include entire passages in this booklet so you cannot identify the evidence which
is needed from the surrounding paragraphs of a link sentence. However, you should be able to identify which
part refers forward and which part refers back in a sentence.
Task 51
Read the line below.
“But it is the sea, not the houses or people, which dominates the strand.”
Which part of this sentence refers back to a previous point in the passage? Which one refers forward?
Task 52
Read the line below.
“Yet this violent, uncared-for, desecrated place looks out on the longest, widest and most beautiful of all the
reaches of the Thames.”
Show how the word “Yet” makes an important turning-point in the writer’s line of thought.
Task 53
Read the line below.
“The year 1996, when they were unleashed upon the country, still touched me with a faint, naive regret. I
remember Mao Zedong’s belief that the Chinese were a blank sheet of paper on which could be written a
poem of creative and unending revolution. But men turned out to be different, of course. Between 1966 and
1968, China sank into a terrified collective madness. Nobody was safe.”
Show that the sentence “But men turned out to be difference, of course” acts as an important link in
the account of the Cultural Revolution given above.
32
Close Reading – Twenty
What have you learned about Close Reading? Recap Quiz – Part One
Task 54
Fill in the blank spaces using what you have learned about Close Reading.
1
Non-fiction texts include
2
Fiction texts include
3
The questions in the Close Reading exam will be identified as analysis,
and
.
4
I must use only my own words when the question says
5
The connotations of a word means
6
and a denotation of a word means
.
A rhetorical question is
.
It may be used to
.
7
Personification is when
8
Similes should compare two similar things using the words
9
Ellipsis is when
or
.
.
33
Close Reading – Twenty
What have you learned about Close Reading? Recap Quiz – Part Two
Task 55
1
Fill in the blank spaces using what you have learned about Close Reading.
An exclamation mark shows
.
2
A link sentence is one which
and
3
4
.
A dash can be used to
.
Brackets are used to
.
5
When you are asked about the meaning of a word in context you should do two things:
and
.
6
A colon is used to
.
7
The tone of an article is created by
and
Some tones are:
8
I should only quote from the passage if
9
When I am finished I should
.
and
.
.
.
34
Close Reading – Self Evaluation
What are my strengths and targets?
Task 56
1
Fill in the blank spaces. Try to think very carefully about your answers.
The type of Close Reading questions I find the easiest are:
This is because:
2
The questions I feel I need to work on are
I would like to work on these because
3
I can improve my skills in English by
35
Critical Evaluation of Literature
A step by step guide
“A Sound of Thunder”
by Ray Bradbury
36
Critical Evaluation of Literature
Task 52 – Read the story and attempt the questions
Ray Bradbury, "A Sound of Thunder," in R is for Rocket, (New York: Doubleday, 1952)
1
The sign on the wall seemed to quaver under a film of sliding warm water. Eckels felt his eyelids blink over his
stare, and the sign burned in this momentary darkness:
2
TIME SAFARI, INC.
SAFARIS TO ANY YEAR IN THE PAST.
YOU NAME THE ANIMAL.
WE TAKE YOU THERE.
YOU SHOOT IT.
3
Warm phlegm gathered in Eckels' throat; he swallowed and pushed it down. The muscles around his mouth
formed a smile as he put his hand slowly out upon the air, and in that hand waved a check for ten thousand
dollars to the man behind the desk.
4
"Does this safari guarantee I come back alive?"
5
"We guarantee nothing," said the official, "except the dinosaurs." He turned. "This is Mr. Travis, your Safari
Guide in the Past. He'll tell you what and where to shoot. If he says no shooting, no shooting. If you disobey
instructions, there's a stiff penalty of another ten thousand dollars, plus possible government action, on your
return."
6
Eckels glanced across the vast office at a mass and tangle, a snaking and humming of wires and steel boxes,
at an aurora that flickered now orange, now silver, now blue. There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning
all of Time, all the years and all the parchment calendars, all the hours piled high and set aflame.
7
A touch of the hand and this burning would, on the instant, beautifully reverse itself. Eckels remembered the
wording in the advertisements to the letter. Out of chars and ashes, out of dust and coals, like golden
salamanders, the old years, the green years, might leap; roses sweeten the air, white hair turn Irish-black,
wrinkles vanish; all, everything fly back to seed, flee death, rush down to their beginnings, suns rise in western
skies and set in glorious easts, moons eat themselves opposite to the custom, all and everything cupping one in
another like Chinese boxes, rabbits into hats, all and everything returning to the fresh death, the seed death,
the green death, to the time before the beginning. A touch of a hand might do it, the merest touch of a hand.
8
"Unbelievable." Eckels breathed, the light of the Machine on his thin face. "A real Time Machine." He shook his
head. "Makes you think, If the election had gone badly yesterday, I might be here now running away from the
results. Thank God Keith won. He'll make a fine President of the United States."
9
"Yes," said the man behind the desk. "We're lucky. If Deutscher had gotten in, we'd have the worst kind of
dictatorship. There's an anti everything man for you, a militarist, anti-Christ, anti-human, anti-intellectual. People
called us up, you know, joking but not joking. Said if Deutscher became President they wanted to go live in
1492. Of course it's not our business to conduct Escapes, but to form Safaris. Anyway, Keith's President now.
All you got to worry about is-"
10
"Shooting my dinosaur," Eckels finished it for him.
11
"A Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Tyrant Lizard, the most incredible monster in history. Sign this release. Anything
happens to you, we're not responsible. Those dinosaurs are hungry."
12
Eckels flushed angrily. "Trying to scare me!"
37
13
"Frankly, yes. We don't want anyone going who'll panic at the first shot. Six Safari leaders were killed last year,
and a dozen hunters. We're here to give you the severest thrill a real hunter ever asked for. Traveling you back
sixty million years to bag the biggest game in all of Time. Your personal check's still there. Tear it up."Mr.
Eckels looked at the check. His fingers twitched.
14
"Good luck," said the man behind the desk. "Mr. Travis, he's all yours."
15
They moved silently across the room, taking their guns with them, toward the Machine, toward the silver metal
and the roaring light.
Answer the following questions in sentences in your jotter:
When is the story set
What significant event has recently happened in the country Eckels lives?
How does Eckels feel about the new president?
In what kind of world does Eckles live?
What is Eckels about to do?
How is Eckels feeling at the point in the story?
16
First a day and then a night and then a day and then a night, then it was day-night-day-night. A week, a month,
a year, a decade! A.D. 2055. A.D. 2019. 1999! 1957! Gone! The Machine roared.
17
They put on their oxygen helmets and tested the intercoms.
18
Eckels swayed on the padded seat, his face pale, his jaw stiff. He felt the trembling in his arms and he looked
down and found his hands tight on the new rifle. There were four other men in the Machine. Travis, the Safari
Leader, his assistant, Lesperance, and two other hunters, Billings and Kramer. They sat looking at each other,
and the years blazed around them.
19
"Can these guns get a dinosaur cold?" Eckels felt his mouth saying.
20
"If you hit them right," said Travis on the helmet radio. "Some dinosaurs have two brains, one in the head,
another far down the spinal column. We stay away from those. That's stretching luck. Put your first two shots
into the eyes, if you can, blind them, and go back into the brain."
21
The Machine howled. Time was a film run backward. Suns fled and ten million moons fled after them. "Think,"
said Eckels. "Every hunter that ever lived would envy us today. This makes Africa seem like Illinois."
22
The Machine slowed; its scream fell to a murmur. The Machine stopped.
23
The sun stopped in the sky.
24
The fog that had enveloped the Machine blew away and they were in an old time, a very old time indeed, three
hunters and two Safari Heads with their blue metal guns across their knees.
25
"Christ isn't born yet," said Travis, "Moses has not gone to the mountains to talk with God. The Pyramids are
still in the earth, waiting to be cut out and put up. Remember that. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler-none of
them exists." The man nodded.
38
26
"That" - Mr. Travis pointed - "is the jungle of sixty million two thousand and fifty-five years before President
Keith."
27
He indicated a metal path that struck off into green wilderness, over streaming swamp, among giant ferns and
palms.
28
"And that," he said, "is the Path, laid by Time Safari for your use.”
29
It floats six inches above the earth. Doesn't touch so much as one grass blade, flower, or tree. It's an antigravity metal. Its purpose is to keep you from touching this world of the past in any way. Stay on the Path. Don't
go off it. I repeat. Don't go off. For any reason! If you fall off, there's a penalty. And don't shoot any animal we
don't okay."
30
"Why?" asked Eckels.
31
They sat in the ancient wilderness. Far birds' cries blew on a wind, and the smell of tar and an old salt sea,
moist grasses, and flowers the color of blood.
32
"We don't want to change the Future. We don't belong here in the Past. The government doesn't like us here.
We have to pay big graft to keep our franchise. A Time Machine is finicky business. Not knowing it, we might kill
an important animal, a small bird, a roach, a flower even, thus destroying an important link in a growing
species."
33
"That's not clear," said Eckels.
34
"All right," Travis continued, "say we accidentally kill one mouse here. That means all the future families of this
one particular mouse are destroyed, right?"
35
"Right"
36
"And all the families of the families of the families of that one mouse! With a stamp of your foot, you annihilate
first one, then a dozen, then a thousand, a million, a billion possible mice!"
37
"So they're dead," said Eckels. "So what?"
38
"So what?" Travis snorted quietly. "Well, what about the foxes that'll need those mice to survive? For want of
ten mice, a fox dies. For want of ten foxes a lion starves. For want of a lion, all manner of insects, vultures,
infinite billions of life forms are thrown into chaos and destruction. Eventually it all boils down to this: fifty-nine
million years later, a caveman, one of a dozen on the entire world, goes hunting wild boar or sabre-toothed tiger
for food. But you, friend, have stepped on all the tigers in that region. By stepping on one single mouse. So the
caveman starves. And the caveman, please note, is not just any expendable man, no! He is an entire future
nation. From his loins would have sprung ten sons. From their loins one hundred sons, and thus onward to a
civilization. Destroy this one man, and you destroy a race, a people, an entire history of life. It is comparable to
slaying some of Adam's grandchildren. The stomp of your foot, on one mouse, could start an earthquake, the
effects of which could shake our earth and destinies down through Time, to their very foundations. With the
death of that one caveman, a billion others yet unborn are throttled in the womb. Perhaps Rome never rises on
its seven hills. Perhaps Europe is forever a dark forest, and only Asia waxes healthy and teeming. Step on a
mouse and you crush the Pyramids. Step on a mouse and you leave your print, like a Grand Canyon, across
Eternity. Queen Elizabeth might never be born, Washington might not cross the Delaware, there might never be
a United States at all. So be careful. Stay on the Path. Never step off!"
39
"I see," said Eckels. "Then it wouldn't pay for us even to touch the grass?"
40
"Correct. Crushing certain plants could add up infinitesimally. A little error here would multiply in sixty million
years, all out of proportion. Of course maybe our theory is wrong. Maybe Time can't be changed by us. Or
39
maybe it can be changed only in little subtle ways. A dead mouse here makes an insect imbalance there, a
population disproportion later, a bad harvest further on, a depression, mass starvation, and finally, a change in
social temperament in far-flung countries. Something much more subtle, like that. Perhaps only a soft breath, a
whisper, a hair, pollen on the air, such a slight, slight change that unless you looked close you wouldn't see it.
Who knows? Who really can say he knows? We don't know. We're guessing. But until we do know for certain
whether our messing around in Time can make a big roar or a little rustle in history, we're being careful. This
Machine, this Path, your clothing and bodies, were sterilized, as you know, before the journey. We wear these
oxygen helmets so we can't introduce our bacteria into an ancient atmosphere."
41
"How do we know which animals to shoot?"
42
"They're marked with red paint," said Travis. "Today, before our journey, we sent Lesperance here back with
the Machine. He came to this particular era and followed certain animals."
43
"Studying them?"
44
"Right," said Lesperance. "I track them through their entire existence, noting which of them lives longest. Very
few. How many times they mate. Not often. Life's short, When I find one that's going to die when a tree falls on
him, or one that drowns in a tar pit, I note the exact hour, minute, and second. I shoot a paint bomb. It leaves a
red patch on his side. We can't miss it. Then I correlate our arrival in the Past so that we meet the Monster not
more than two minutes before he would have died anyway. This way, we kill only animals with no future, that
are never going to mate again. You see how careful we are?"
45
"But if you come back this morning in Time," said Eckels eagerly, you must've bumped into us, our Safari! How
did it turn out? Was it successful? Did all of us get through-alive?"
46
Travis and Lesperance gave each other a look.
47
"That'd be a paradox," said the latter. "Time doesn't permit that sort of mess-a man meeting himself. When such
occasions threaten, Time steps aside. Like an airplane hitting an air pocket. You felt the Machine jump just
before we stopped? That was us passing ourselves on the way back to the Future. We saw nothing. There's no
way of telling if this expedition was a success, if we got our monster, or whether all of us - meaning you, Mr.
Eckels - got out alive."
48
Eckels smiled palely.
49
"Cut that," said Travis sharply. "Everyone on his feet!"
50
They were ready to leave the Machine.
51
The jungle was high and the jungle was broad and the jungle was the entire world forever and forever. Sounds
like music and sounds like flying tents filled the sky, and those were pterodactyls soaring with cavernous gray
wings, gigantic bats of delirium and night fever.
52
Eckels, balanced on the narrow Path, aimed his rifle playfully.
53
"Stop that!" said Travis. "Don't even aim for fun, blast you! If your guns should go off - - "
54
Eckels flushed. "Where's our Tyrannosaurus?"
55
Lesperance checked his wristwatch. "Up ahead, We'll bisect his trail in sixty seconds. Look for the red paint!
Don't shoot till we give the word. Stay on the Path. Stay on the Path!"
56
They moved forward in the wind of morning.
40
57
"Strange," murmured Eckels. "Up ahead, sixty million years, Election Day over. Keith made President.
Everyone celebrating. And here we are, a million years lost, and they don't exist. The things we worried about
for months, a lifetime, not even born or thought of yet."
58
"Safety catches off, everyone!" ordered Travis. "You, first shot, Eckels. Second, Billings, Third, Kramer."
59
"I've hunted tiger, wild boar, buffalo, elephant, but now, this is it," said Eckels. "I'm shaking like a kid."
60
"Ah," said Travis.
61
Everyone stopped.
62
Travis raised his hand. "Ahead," he whispered. "In the mist. There he is. There's His Royal Majesty now."
Answer the following questions in sentences in your jotter:
Where does the Time Machine take the hunters?
What are the rules about travelling in time?
What is the most important rule of time travel and why?
How are the dinosaurs selected to be hunted?
What do you think about Eckels at this point?
63
The jungle was wide and full of twitterings, rustlings, murmurs, and sighs.
64
Suddenly it all ceased, as if someone had shut a door.
65
Silence.
66
A sound of thunder.
67
Out of the mist, one hundred yards away, came Tyrannosaurus Rex.
68
"It," whispered Eckels. "It......
69
"Sh!"
70
It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil god,
folding its delicate watchmaker's claws close to its oily reptilian chest. Each lower leg was a piston, a thousand
pounds of white bone, sunk in thick ropes of muscle, sheathed over in a gleam of pebbled skin like the mail of a
terrible warrior. Each thigh was a ton of meat, ivory, and steel mesh. And from the great breathing cage of the
upper body those two delicate arms dangled out front, arms with hands which might pick up and examine men
like toys, while the snake neck coiled. And the head itself, a ton of sculptured stone, lifted easily upon the sky.
Its mouth gaped, exposing a fence of teeth like daggers. Its eyes rolled, ostrich eggs, empty of all expression
save hunger. It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside trees and bushes, its
taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep wherever it settled its weight.
41
71
It ran with a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons. It moved into a sunlit area warily, its
beautifully reptilian hands feeling the air.
72
"Why, why," Eckels twitched his mouth. "It could reach up and grab the moon."
73
"Sh!" Travis jerked angrily. "He hasn't seen us yet."
74
"It can't be killed," Eckels pronounced this verdict quietly, as if there could be no argument. He had weighed the
evidence and this was his considered opinion. The rifle in his hands seemed a cap gun. "We were fools to
come. This is impossible."
75
"Shut up!" hissed Travis.
76
"Nightmare."
77
"Turn around," commanded Travis. "Walk quietly to the Machine. We'll remit half your fee."
78
"I didn't realize it would be this big," said Eckels. "I miscalculated, that's all. And now I want out."
79
"It sees us!"
80
"There's the red paint on its chest!"
81
The Tyrant Lizard raised itself. Its armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins. The coins, crusted with
slime, steamed. In the slime, tiny insects wriggled, so that the entire body seemed to twitch and undulate, even
while the monster itself did not move. It exhaled. The stink of raw flesh blew down the wilderness.
82
"Get me out of here," said Eckels. "It was never like this before. I was always sure I'd come through alive. I had
good guides, good safaris, and safety. This time, I figured wrong. I've met my match and admit it. This is too
much for me to get hold of."
83
"Don't run," said Lesperance. "Turn around. Hide in the Machine."
84
"Yes." Eckels seemed to be numb. He looked at his feet as if trying to make them move. He gave a grunt of
helplessness.
85
"Eckels!"
86
He took a few steps, blinking, shuffling.
87
"Not that way!"
88
The Monster, at the first motion, lunged forward with a terrible scream. It covered one hundred yards in six
seconds. The rifles jerked up and blazed fire. A windstorm from the beast's mouth engulfed them in the stench
of slime and old blood. The Monster roared, teeth glittering with sun.
89
The rifles cracked again, Their sound was lost in shriek and lizard thunder. The great level of the reptile's tail
swung up, lashed sideways. Trees exploded in clouds of leaf and branch. The Monster twitched its jeweler's
hands down to fondle at the men, to twist them in half, to crush them like berries, to cram them into its teeth and
its screaming throat. Its boulderstone eyes leveled with the men. They saw themselves mirrored. They fired at
the metallic eyelids and the blazing black iris,
90
Like a stone idol, like a mountain avalanche, Tyrannosaurus fell.
42
91
Thundering, it clutched trees, pulled them with it. It wrenched and tore the metal Path. The men flung
themselves back and away. The body hit, ten tons of cold flesh and stone. The guns fired. The Monster lashed
its armored tail, twitched its snake jaws, and lay still. A fount of blood spurted from its throat. Somewhere inside,
a sac of fluids burst. Sickening gushes drenched the hunters. They stood, red and glistening.
92
The thunder faded.
93
The jungle was silent. After the avalanche, a green peace. After the nightmare, morning.
94
Billings and Kramer sat on the pathway and threw up. Travis and Lesperance stood with smoking rifles, cursing
steadily. In the Time Machine, on his face, Eckels lay shivering. He had found his way back to the Path, climbed
into the Machine.
95
Travis came walking, glanced at Eckels, took cotton gauze from a metal box, and returned to the others, who
were sitting on the Path.
96
"Clean up."
97
They wiped the blood from their helmets. They began to curse too. The Monster lay, a hill of solid flesh. Within,
you could hear the sighs and murmurs as the furthest chambers of it died, the organs malfunctioning, liquids
running a final instant from pocket to sac to spleen, everything shutting off, closing up forever. It was like
standing by a wrecked locomotive or a steam shovel at quitting time, all valves being released or levered tight.
Bones cracked; the tonnage of its own flesh, off balance, dead weight, snapped the delicate forearms, caught
underneath. The meat settled, quivering.
98
Another cracking sound. Overhead, a gigantic tree branch broke from its heavy mooring, fell. It crashed upon
the dead beast with finality.
99
"There." Lesperance checked his watch. "Right on time. That's the giant tree that was scheduled to fall and kill
this animal originally." He glanced at the two hunters. "You want the trophy picture?"
100
"What?"
101
"We can't take a trophy back to the Future. The body has to stay right here where it would have died originally,
so the insects, birds, and bacteria can get at it, as they were intended to. Everything in balance. The body
stays. But we can take a picture of you standing near it."
102
The two men tried to think, but gave up, shaking their heads.
103
They let themselves be led along the metal Path. They sank wearily into the Machine cushions. They gazed
back at the ruined Monster, the stagnating mound, where already strange reptilian birds and golden insects
were busy at the steaming armor. A sound on the floor of the Time Machine stiffened them. Eckels sat there,
shivering.
104
"I'm sorry," he said at last.
105
"Get up!" cried Travis.
106
Eckels got up.
43
Answer the following questions in sentences in your jotter:
How does Eckels feel when he sees the Tyrannosaurus Rex for the first time?
How does Eckels react?
What rule does he break?
How do the other hunters react?
How do the leaders of the trip feel about Eckels at this point?
How do you feel about Eckels now?
107
"Go out on that Path alone," said Travis. He had his rifle pointed, "You're not coming back in the Machine.
We're leaving you here!"
108
Lesperance seized Travis's arm. "Wait-"
109
"Stay out of this!" Travis shook his hand away. "This fool nearly killed us. But it isn't that so much, no. It's his
shoes! Look at them! He ran off the Path. That ruins us! We'll forfeit! Thousands of dollars of insurance! We
guarantee no one leaves the Path. He left it. Oh, the fool! I'll have to report to the government. They might
revoke our license to travel. Who knows what he's done to Time, to History!"
110
"Take it easy, all he did was kick up some dirt."
111
"How do we know?" cried Travis. "We don't know anything! It's all a mystery! Get out of here, Eckels!"
112
Eckels fumbled his shirt. "I'll pay anything. A hundred thousand dollars!"
113
Travis glared at Eckels' checkbook and spat. "Go out there. The Monster's next to the Path. Stick your arms up
to your elbows in his mouth. Then you can come back with us."
114
"That's unreasonable!"
115
"The Monster's dead, you idiot. The bullets! The bullets can't be left behind. They don't belong in the Past; they
might change anything. Here's my knife. Dig them out!"
116
The jungle was alive again, full of the old tremorings and bird cries. Eckels turned slowly to regard the primeval
garbage dump, that hill of nightmares and terror. After a long time, like a sleepwalker he shuffled out along the
Path.
117
He returned, shuddering, five minutes later, his arms soaked and red to the elbows. He held out his hands.
Each held a number of steel bullets. Then he fell. He lay where he fell, not moving.
118
"You didn't have to make him do that," said Lesperance.
119
"Didn't I? It's too early to tell." Travis nudged the still body. "He'll live. Next time he won't go hunting game like
this. Okay." He jerked his thumb wearily at Lesperance. "Switch on. Let's go home."
120
1492. 1776. 1812.
121
They cleaned their hands and faces. They changed their caking shirts and pants. Eckels was up and around
again, not speaking. Travis glared at him for a full ten minutes.
122
"Don't look at me," cried Eckels. "I haven't done anything."
44
123
"Who can tell?"
124
"Just ran off the Path, that's all, a little mud on my shoes-what do you want me to do-get down and pray?"
125
"We might need it. I'm warning you, Eckels, I might kill you yet. I've got my gun ready."
126
"I'm innocent. I've done nothing!"
127
1999.2000.2055.
128
The Machine stopped.
129
"Get out," said Travis.
130
The room was there as they had left it. But not the same as they had left it. The same man sat behind the same
desk. But the same man did not quite sit behind the same desk. Travis looked around swiftly. "Everything okay
here?" he snapped.
131
"Fine. Welcome home!"
132
Travis did not relax. He seemed to be looking through the one high window.
133
"Okay, Eckels, get out. Don't ever come back." Eckels could not move.
134
"You heard me," said Travis. "What're you staring at?"
135
Eckels stood smelling of the air, and there was a thing to the air, a chemical taint so subtle, so slight, that only a
faint cry of his subliminal senses warned him it was there. The colors, white, gray, blue, orange, in the wall, in
the furniture, in the sky beyond the window, were . . . were . . . . And there was a feel. His flesh twitched. His
hands twitched. He stood drinking the oddness with the pores of his body. Somewhere, someone must have
been screaming one of those whistles that only a dog can hear. His body screamed silence in return. Beyond
this room, beyond this wall, beyond this man who was not quite the same man seated at this desk that was not
quite the same desk . . . lay an entire world of streets and people. What sort of world it was now, there was no
telling. He could feel them moving there, beyond the walls, almost, like so many chess pieces blown in a dry
wind ....
136
But the immediate thing was the sign painted on the office wall, the same sign he had read earlier today on first
entering. Somehow, the sign had changed:
137
TYME SEFARI INC.
SEFARIS TU ANY YEER EN THE PAST.
YU NAIM THE ANIMALL.
WEE TAEK YU THAIR.
YU SHOOT ITT.
138
Eckels felt himself fall into a chair. He fumbled crazily at the thick slime on his boots. He held up a clod of dirt,
trembling, "No, it can't be. Not a little thing like that. No!"
139
Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead.
140
"Not a little thing like that! Not a butterfly!" cried Eckels.
141
It fell to the floor, an exquisite thing, a small thing that could upset balances and knock down a line of small
dominoes and then big dominoes and then gigantic dominoes, all down the years across Time. Eckels' mind
whirled. It couldn't change things. Killing one butterfly couldn't be that important! Could it?
45
142
His face was cold. His mouth trembled, asking: "Who - who won the presidential election yesterday?"
143
The man behind the desk laughed. "You joking? You know very well. Deutscher, of course! Who else? Not that
fool weakling Keith. We got an iron man now, a man with guts!" The official stopped. "What's wrong?"
144
Eckels moaned. He dropped to his knees. He scrabbled at the golden butterfly with shaking fingers. "Can't we,"
he pleaded to the world, to himself, to the officials, to the Machine, "can't we take it back, can't we make it alive
again? Can't we start over? Can't we-"
145
He did not move. Eyes shut, he waited, shivering. He heard Travis breathe loud in the room; he heard Travis
shift his rifle, click the safety catch, and raise the weapon.
146
There was a sound of thunder.
Answer the following questions in sentences in your jotter:
What do Lesperence and Travis make Eckels do as a punishment to clean up the past?
How does Travis feel about Eckels as they travel home?
Why does he feel like this?
What are the first things Eckels notices when he returns to the future?
What is the most significant thing that has changed?
How do you think the world has changed?
Task 53 – Use a dictionary to look up this vocabulary from the story
Phlegm
Subliminal
Aurora
Taint
Salamanders
Paradox
Annihilate
Subtle
Expendable
46
Critical Evaluation of Literature
Getting Started
Once you have read a literary text, you will often be asked to respond to it by writing a Critical Evaluation of Literature.
This is an extended piece of Writing and you will always be asked to focus on a particular aspect of the text. You will
never be asked to simply retell the story or write down everything you know about the text. Here is our task for the short
story we have just read.
How does the writer create a tense and effective turning point in the story?
When you are writing a CEL, you should aim to make four or five points. A ‘point’ just means one of the ideas
you have that you think proves or illustrates something about your task. So, in this CEL, everything you write
about should have something to do with how the writer creates a tense and effective turning point in the
story.
It might help you to think about this in a different situation: a lawyer in a
court has to present pieces of evidence to prove that what they say is true.
They tell the court what is that they want to prove and then they show the
judge and jury some evidence that backs up what they have just said.
They usually go into detail, explaining exactly what the evidence shows
so that the judge and jury can weigh up what evidence has been presented
before they decide whether or not the lawyer is speaking truthfully.
In a CEL you do a similar task: you tell your reader something you believe
is true about the story you have read. You present a piece of evidence –
usually a quotation – that backs up your point. You then go on and explain
in detail exactly what the evidence shows.
Task 54 - Make a note of what each of these important terms mean in this context:
Critical
Evidence
Evaluation
Task
Literature
Quotation
Point
Prove
47
Critical Evaluation of Literature
Organising your point into a paragraph
You will need to refer back to this page for the next four activities
Use the structure below to make sure that your paragraph contains all the right parts. There
are four things to include:
Topic Sentence – this is like a label for your paragraph. It is a statement that addresses
some aspect of the task. It’s a good idea to check your task after you’ve written a topic
sentence. Ask yourself: will this paragraph answer the task you have been set?
Background information – this is the part of your paragraph where you get to tell a bit of the
story. You need to have chosen your quotation by now, because your aim is to clearly
introduce the evidence. Try to keep this part of your paragraph to a couple of sentences at
the most.
Quotation/Evidence – almost always, this is a direct quotation from the text. There are a few
rules about how it should be presented.





Finish your background information with a colon (:)
Take a new line
Indent (a couple of centimetres from the left hand margin) the whole quotation
Use quotation marks “….” round about the carefully copied quotation
Start your next new sentence on a new line.
Explanation – this should be the longest part of your paragraph and should explain in detail in
what ways the evidence you have given shows that your topic sentence is true. Here are
some good questions to try to answer:





Is there a particular language or literary technique being used? How does it work?
What does it show you about the tension created around the turning point?
What does this show about character, setting or theme?
How does it make you feel?
In what way does this address the task?
48
Task 55 - Spot the difference - Topic Sentences and Background Information
Lots of pupils get confused between these two. For each sentence below, you have to ask:


Does it make a point or a statement that would need evidence to prove?
Is it simply a statement about something that appears in the story?
In this task, you should sort the sentences into two categories. Mark each sentence as follows: Topic
Sentences – TS; Background Information – BI
Here are some sample sentences
TS or BI
A menacing atmosphere is created through Bradbury’s characterisation of Travis.
When Eckels steps off the path, Travis is furious and threatens to leave him behind.
The dinosaur is characterised as if it were made of metal and stone like a machine.
A tense mood is created by Eckels’ nervousness around Travis.
In the first part of the story Eckels plans to go on a Time Safari.
The dinosaur crashes through the jungle.
Eckels discovers a butterfly on the sole of his boot when he gets back.
Bradbury’s frightening description of Tyrannosaurus suggests the power and size of the beast.
Task 56 - Choosing quotations – some are definitely better than others!
For this task, you have to try to select the best quotation from the choices given that would provide evidence to
prove the topic sentence. Here’s a step by step approach:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Find the quotation in the story.
Check what is happening in the story around the quotation.
Look carefully at the topic sentence to see if the quotation really does prove this point.
Think about what you might try to show with this evidence
a. Techniques
b. Ideas from the story
5. Explain why you have chosen one and why you have rejected the other two.
Your answers – for each example:



Circle, underline or highlight the best quotation for the topic sentence
In the box below, write down the techniques or ideas you think the quotation shows
Also write down why you have chosen this quotation over the other two.
49
Critical Evaluation of Literature
Example 1
A
“This is Mr. Travis, your Safari Guide in the Past.”
A menacing atmosphere is created
through Bradbury’s characterisation
of Travis.
B
“‘Don’t go off it. I repeat. Don’t go off. For any reason! If you
fall off there is a penalty.’”
C
“‘So what? Travis snorted quietly.’”
A
“The jungle was wide and full of twitterings, rustlings,
murmurs and sighs.
Your answer
Example 2
Suddenly it all ceased, as if someone had shut a door.
Silence.
Tension is established through
Bradbury’s sentence structure
before the turning point.
A sound of thunder.
Out of the mist, one hundred yards away, came
Tyrannosaurus Rex.”
B
“Everyone stopped.”
C
“‘Turn around,” commanded Travis. “Walk quietly to the
Machine. We’ll remit half your fee.’”
Your answer
50
Critical Evaluation of Literature
Explaining techniques and ideas
For this final task before you start writing your CEL you should remind yourself of what the Explanation part of
your paragraph is all about. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
How does the language technique you’ve chosen work in the example you’ve chosen?
What does the technique suggest to you about the aspect of the story you are writing about?
What does it show you about the tension created around the turning point?
How does it make the main character feel?
How does it make you feel?
In what way does it prove the point you made in your topic sentence?
Have these questions to hand when you are working on your paragraphs – they will help you write detailed explanations.
Remember that not every question will be relevant for every point.
Task 57 - Explaining techniques and ideas
True or False? Mark each statement appropriately.
You should give a general definition of the language technique you have identified in your quotation.
You should comment on what the evidence shows about the aspect of the text you are explaining.
You should include a personal response (what you think or feel).
You should put the quotation into your own words.
You should tell the next bit of the story.
You should link your explanation to your topic sentence.
You should link your comments to the overall CEL task.
You are now ready to embark on a CEL on ‘A Sound of Thunder’ by Ray Bradbury. Here’s a reminder of your task.
How does the writer create a tense and effective turning point in the story?
51
Critical Evaluation of Literature
Writing an introduction
Every CEL you write must have one. It should include the following five elements:
S – a sentence summary of the play, novel, poem or film you have studied.
T – the title of the text – in inverted commas. For example: “A Sound of Thunder”.
A – the author’s full name. For example: Ray Bradbury. In the rest of your CEL, you use
the author’s surname to refer to them. Don’t use their first name unless you know them personally!
R – reference to your task. This is important! Use the words of the task you have been set to say
what your CEL is going to be about.
T – the type of text you are writing about – short story, novel, play, poem, film, non-fiction essay.
There’s not any particular order in which these elements should appear. Here are a couple of examples:
“A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury is a short story about a man’s terrifying experience on a time
travelling dinosaur hunt. The turning point is effectively used by the author to create a tense
atmosphere through his use of a range of language techniques.
Language techniques are brilliantly used to create a tense atmosphere by Ray Bradbury in his short
story, “A Sound of Thunder”. The story is set in the future and is about a man seeking the ultimate in
thrill-seeking who, after the turning point in the story, ends up with more than he bargains for.
Task 58 – writing your introduction
Mark on these exemplars the five elements listed above. Use the START initials to label
each introduction. Now write your own introduction.
52
Critical Evaluation of Literature
Point 1 - Character Study
Your first point will focus on the main character and how Bradbury uses Eckels’ character to show how tense the turning
point is. Usually you will write about the main character in a story or novel. The idea is not to simply gather all the
information you know about them, but to try to work out how their character or personality affects the big ideas in the
story.
Task 59 – character traits
From the bank of ideas make two lists: one of your character's positive traits and the other of the weaknesses and flaws
that he must overcome throughout the course of the story. Write them on the correct side.
Eckels
Good qualities
Flaws
Has no self awareness
Is dedicated to his hobby
Has travelled extensively
Is willing to try new things
Easily intimidated
Is selfish
Arrogant
Can appear to be very capable
Cowardly
Panics in difficult situations
Is rich
Can recognise a good leader
Now select one of the positive traits and one of the flaws and select a quotation to support each trait. Here’s an example:
Good quality: Can recognise a good leader:
“Thank God Keith won. He’ll make a fine President of the United States”
Flaw: Panics in difficult situations:
“‘Why, why,’ Eckels twitched his mouth. ‘It could reach up and grab the moon.’”
53
Good quality:
Quotation:
Flaw:
Quotation:
Select one of the quotations. Choose the one you think you might be able to write the most about. Highlight it in the box
above.
Task 60 – Topic sentences
You need to think about your topic sentence. The opening sentence of your paragraph should introduce who your
chosen character is and briefly explain what their role is in the story and why you have chosen to analyse their
personality. Here’s a topic sentence for the example quotation:
Eckels is the main character in “A Sound of Thunder” and he seems very confident until the turning
point in the story. Eckels is an interesting character as he has many flaws.
Now you need to write your own Topic Sentence:
Task 61 – Background information
You now need to think about your background information. You need to focus on what is happening in the story around
the point of the quotation you have selected. Here’s our example. After you have read it, go and write your own
background information.
Eckles’ flaws are most apparent at the turning point when the reader realises that he is cowardly when
he first sees the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Although he is an experienced hunter he completely panics when
the dinosaur appears:
Task 62 - Quotation
You now need to think about your quotation. Remember to set it out correctly! Check back to remind yourself if you can’t
remember.
“‘Why, why,’ Eckels twitched his mouth. ‘It could reach up and grab the moon.’”
54
Task 63 - Explanation
Finally you should now write your explanation. Remember to link your comments to your topic sentence and
your quotation. Here’s an example to give you some ideas:
Eckles panics at this stage as he is overwhelmed by the size of the dinosaur. The metaphor
that the dinosaur could “grab the moon” emphasises the size of the dinosaur as Eckles cannot
compare the dinosaur to anything familiar and cannot seem to even estimate how tall the
Tyrannosaurus is. The tension is clear in this quotation as Eckles mouth “twitched” with
nerves. This moment indicates a real change in Eckles from someone who is confident to
someone who is terrified.
55
Critical Evaluation of Literature
Point 2 - Turning Point
It is now time to think about writing your paragraph on the turning point. To help you prepare for this the turning point of
the story is printed below for you to re-read.
Extract 1
It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil god,
folding its delicate watchmaker's claws close to its oily reptilian chest. Each lower leg was a piston, a thousand pounds
of white bone, sunk in thick ropes of muscle, sheathed over in a gleam of pebbled skin like the mail of a terrible warrior.
Each thigh was a ton of meat, ivory, and steel mesh. And from the great breathing cage of the upper body those two
delicate arms dangled out front, arms with hands which might pick up and examine men like toys, while the snake neck
coiled. And the head itself, a ton of sculptured stone, lifted easily upon the sky. Its mouth gaped, exposing a fence of
teeth like daggers. Its eyes rolled, ostrich eggs, empty of all expression save hunger. It closed its mouth in a death grin.
It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside trees and bushes, its taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches
deep wherever it settled its weight.
It ran with a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons. It moved into a sunlit area warily, its
beautifully reptilian hands feeling the air.
"Why, why," Eckels twitched his mouth. "It could reach up and grab the moon.”
"Sh!" Travis jerked angrily. "He hasn't seen us yet."
"It can't be killed," Eckels pronounced this verdict quietly, as if there could be no argument. He had weighed the
evidence and this was his considered opinion. The rifle in his hands seemed a cap gun. "We were fools to
come. This is impossible."
"Shut up!" hissed Travis.
"Nightmare."
"Turn around," commanded Travis. "Walk quietly to the Machine. We'll remit half your fee."
"I didn't realize it would be this big," said Eckels. "I miscalculated, that's all. And now I want out."
"It sees us!"
"There's the red paint on its chest!"
The Tyrant Lizard raised itself. Its armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins. The coins, crusted with
slime, steamed. In the slime, tiny insects wriggled, so that the entire body seemed to twitch and undulate, even while the
monster itself did not move. It exhaled. The stink of raw flesh blew down the wilderness.
"Get me out of here," said Eckels. "It was never like this before. I was always sure I'd come through alive. I had
good guides, good safaris, and safety. This time, I figured wrong. I've met my match and admit it. This is too much for
me to get hold of."
"Don't run," said Lesperance. "Turn around. Hide in the Machine."
"Yes." Eckels seemed to be numb. He looked at his feet as if trying to make them move. He gave a grunt of
helplessness.
"Eckels!"
He took a few steps, blinking, shuffling.
"Not that way!"
The Monster, at the first motion, lunged forward with a terrible scream. It covered one hundred yards in six
seconds. The rifles jerked up and blazed fire. A windstorm from the beast's mouth engulfed them in the stench of slime
and old blood. The Monster roared, teeth glittering with sun.
The rifles cracked again. Their sound was lost in shriek and lizard thunder. The great level of the reptile's tail swung up,
lashed sideways. Trees exploded in clouds of leaf and branch. The Monster twitched its jeweler's hands down to fondle
at the men, to twist them in half, to crush them like berries, to cram them into its teeth and its screaming throat. Its
boulder-stone eyes leveled with the men. They saw themselves mirrored. They fired at the metallic eyelids and the
blazing black iris.
Like a stone idol, like a mountain avalanche, Tyrannosaurus fell.
Thundering, it clutched trees, pulled them with it. It wrenched and tore the metal Path. The men flung
themselves back and away. The body hit, ten tons of cold flesh and stone. The guns fired. The Monster lashed its
armored tail, twitched its snake jaws, and lay still. A fount of blood spurted from its throat. Somewhere inside, a sac of
fluids burst. Sickening gushes drenched the hunters. They stood, red and glistening.
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Task 64 – metaphors and similes
Look carefully at the description of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Pick out similes or metaphors the author uses to describe
the dinosaur. What is the dinosaur being compared to and what effect does this have?
Feature
Quotation
Metaphor or
simile
Compared or
likened to
Effect
Legs
E.g. “Each lower leg
was a piston…”
Metaphor
Piston/machine
This suggests
dinosaur’s great
strength and also
evokes the
movement and
shape of its legs.
Claws
Skin
Teeth/ Mouth
Size/Weight
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Task 65 – constructing your paragraph
Space is provided on the following page for you to write your paragraph.
Select one of the quotations which interests you most from the turning point section of the story (paragraphs 63-93).
Here’s an example, but you should choose your own:
“Its mouth gaped, exposing a fence of teeth like daggers.”
Now that you have identified and noted the quotation you can start writing your paragraph. There is a space for this on
the next page. You need to think about your topic sentence. The opening sentence of your paragraph should introduce
the fact that you will be writing about the turning point. Look at the exemplar before writing your own original sentence:
The most significant moment during the turning point is when the dinosaur appears for the first time.
You now need to think about your background information. You need to focus on what is happening in the story around
the quotation you have selected. Again, write your own about the quotation you have chosen:
As the whole point of the time travelling is to hunt the Tyrannosaurus Rex, there is a real feeling of
climax when the dinosaur arrives. The tension at this moment is very clearly depicted through the
extensive description of the Tyrannosaurus Rex:
Finish this with a colon and add your quotation in its place in the paragraph.
Finally you should now write your explanation. Remember to link your comments to your topic sentence and your
quotation. Use the list of possible questions in the introductory tasks to help you.
The metaphor comparing the dinosaur’s teeth with a fence indicates the large number of teeth that the
dinosaur has. While the simile comparing the dinosaur’s teeth to daggers emphasises the sharpness of
the teeth. The combined images give the impression that the dinosaurs teeth are particularly deadly.
The image is pretty horrifying and it creates a real feeling of fear. The tense atmosphere comes from
Eckles fear of dying or being hurt.
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Task 65
Write your paragraph here:
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Critical Evaluation of Literature
Point 3 - Setting
In this task, you are going to try to show how the setting changes from the beginning to the end of the story and explain
how it helps you appreciate the change in atmosphere after the turning point.
Re-read these extracts taken from the beginning and end of the story.
Extract 2 – the beginning
The sign on the wall seemed to quaver under a film of sliding warm water. Eckels felt his eyelids blink over his
stare, and the sign burned in this momentary darkness:
TIME SAFARI, INC.
SAFARIS TO ANY YEAR IN THE PAST.
YOU NAME THE ANIMAL.
WE TAKE YOU THERE.
YOU SHOOT IT.
Warm phlegm gathered in Eckels' throat; he swallowed and pushed it down. The muscles around his mouth
formed a smile as he put his hand slowly out upon the air, and in that hand waved a check for ten thousand dollars to the
man behind the desk.
"Does this safari guarantee I come back alive?"
"We guarantee nothing," said the official, "except the dinosaurs." He turned. "This is Mr. Travis, your Safari
Guide in the Past. He'll tell you what and where to shoot. If he says no shooting, no shooting. If you disobey instructions,
there's a stiff penalty of another ten thousand dollars, plus possible government action, on your return."
Eckels glanced across the vast office at a mass and tangle, a snaking and humming of wires and steel boxes,
at an aurora that flickered now orange, now silver, now blue. There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of
Time, all the years and all the parchment calendars, all the hours piled high and set aflame.
A touch of the hand and this burning would, on the instant, beautifully reverse itself. Eckels remembered the
wording in the advertisements to the letter. Out of chars and ashes, out of dust and coals, like golden salamanders, the
old years, the green years, might leap; roses sweeten the air, white hair turn Irish-black, wrinkles vanish; all, everything
fly back to seed, flee death, rush down to their beginnings, suns rise in western skies and set in glorious easts, moons
eat themselves opposite to the custom, all and everything cupping one in another like Chinese boxes, rabbits into hats,
all and everything returning to the fresh death, the seed death, the green death, to the time before the beginning. A
touch of a hand might do it, the merest touch of a hand.
"Unbelievable." Eckels breathed, the light of the Machine on his thin face. "A real Time Machine." He shook his
head. "Makes you think, If the election had gone badly yesterday, I might be here now running away from the results.
Thank God Keith won. He'll make a fine President of the United States."
"Yes," said the man behind the desk. "We're lucky. If Deutscher had gotten in, we'd have the worst kind of
dictatorship. There's an anti everything man for you, a militarist, anti-Christ, anti-human, anti-intellectual. People called
us up, you know, joking but not joking. Said if Deutscher became President they wanted to go live in 1492. Of course it's
not our business to conduct Escapes, but to form Safaris. Anyway, Keith's President now. All you got to worry about is-"
"Shooting my dinosaur," Eckels finished it for him.
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Extract 3 – the end
The room was there as they had left it. But not the same as they had left it. The same man sat behind the same
desk. But the same man did not quite sit behind the same desk. Travis looked around swiftly. "Everything okay here?" he
snapped.
"Fine. Welcome home!"
Travis did not relax. He seemed to be looking through the one high window.
"Okay, Eckels, get out. Don't ever come back." Eckels could not move.
"You heard me," said Travis. "What're you staring at?"
Eckels stood smelling of the air, and there was a thing to the air, a chemical taint so subtle, so slight, that only a
faint cry of his subliminal senses warned him it was there. The colors, white, gray, blue, orange, in the wall, in the
furniture, in the sky beyond the window, were . . . were . . . . And there was a feel. His flesh twitched. His hands twitched.
He stood drinking the oddness with the pores of his body. Somewhere, someone must have been screaming one of
those whistles that only a dog can hear. His body screamed silence in return. Beyond this room, beyond this wall,
beyond this man who was not quite the same man seated at this desk that was not quite the same desk . . . lay an entire
world of streets and people. What sort of world it was now, there was no telling. He could feel them moving there,
beyond the walls, almost, like so many chess pieces blown in a dry wind ....
But the immediate thing was the sign painted on the office wall, the same sign he had read earlier today on first
entering. Somehow, the sign had changed:
TYME SEFARI INC.
SEFARIS TU ANY YEER EN THE PAST.
YU NAIM THE ANIMALL.
WEE TAEK YU THAIR.
YU SHOOT ITT.
Eckels felt himself fall into a chair. He fumbled crazily at the thick slime on his boots. He held up a clod of dirt,
trembling, "No, it can't be. Not a little thing like that. No!"
Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead.
"Not a little thing like that! Not a butterfly!" cried Eckels.
It fell to the floor, an exquisite thing, a small thing that could upset balances and knock down a line of small
dominoes and then big dominoes and then gigantic dominoes, all down the years across Time. Eckels' mind whirled. It
couldn't change things. Killing one butterfly couldn't be that important! Could it?
His face was cold. His mouth trembled, asking: "Who - who won the presidential election yesterday?"
The man behind the desk laughed. "You joking? You know very well. Deutscher, of course! Who else? Not that
fool weakling Keith. We got an iron man now, a man with guts!" The official stopped. "What's wrong?"
Eckels moaned. He dropped to his knees. He scrabbled at the golden butterfly with shaking fingers. "Can't we,"
he pleaded to the world, to himself, to the officials, to the Machine, "can't we take it back, can't we make it alive again?
Can't we start over? Can't we-"
He did not move. Eyes shut, he waited, shivering. He heard Travis breathe loud in the room; he heard Travis
shift his rifle, click the safety catch, and raise the weapon.
There was a sound of thunder.
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Task 66 – using your senses
Bradbury uses the senses to paint a vivid picture of the time machine. Complete the table below to record
what Eckels can see, hear, smell and touch. You should use a quotation and a description in each box.
What can Eckels…
At the start
At the end
See?
Hear?
Smell?
No smells are mentioned
Touch?
In both extracts, the idea of a sixth sense or intuition is suggested. In the space below, write down two
quotations which tell you what Eckels seems to feel.
At the start:
At the end:
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Now that you have gathered all the sensory information, you should be able to spot the similarities and
differences. Your task is to write a short paragraph. An opening sentence has been written for you:
The setting at the end is the same as it was at the beginning in what Eckels can see. He can see…
The differences are….
Finally, can you explain why you think Bradbury might have done this?
Bradbury changes the setting very slightly because….
Task 67 - personification
Personification is a technique used by writers to give human or living characteristics to objects that are not
alive. How does the description of the Time Machine make it seem as though it is alive? You should try to
find two separate examples.
Example 1
Example 2
How could you describe the character that is given to the Time Machine? Write a couple of sentences about
this.
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Task 68 – writing your paragraph
Now you are ready to write a paragraph about how the setting helps you to better appreciate the
turning point in the story.
Your topic sentence should clearly state the point you want to prove in your paragraph. Look back at the
examples.
Background Information: you need to mention that the two places you are referring to are from the beginning
and the end of the story.
Quotation – choose from the selection you have identified. Make sure it illustrates your point.
Explanation – use the table to help you explain the technique you’ve used in the quotation. Then write about
how it helps you understand more about the importance of the turning point. Finally state what atmosphere is
created by the descriptions.
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Critical Evaluation of Literature
Point 4 - The end of the story
We have already looked in detail at the changes to the setting from the start of the story to the end. Now we
need to look more closely at what happens at the end and how the writer emphasises the turning point through
the final events.
Task 69 – summarising the final events
We are going to start by summarising the closing moments of the story. Complete each sentence:
The Time Safari office is different on Eckels’ return in that __________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________ .
Eckels realises that the cause of the change is ___________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________ .
Eckels wants to try to put things right by ________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________ .
Travis’s response to what Eckels has done is ____________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________ .
Task 70 – explaining a metaphor
Look at the last line of the story and answer the questions. “There was a sound of thunder.”
What is it referring to here?
Where else in the story is this phrase used? What was it referring to?
This metaphor (because it’s not actually thunder that is being heard) is used to describe two different things. Can you
see any connection between the two? Think about who/what causes the sound.
Why do you think Travis reacts so strongly to Eckels’ behaviour on the Time Safari?
What does it tell you about the change that has happened in their world?
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Task 71 – writing your final point
Now have a go at writing your own paragraph about this. Use the answers to the questions to help you. Here’s a Topic
Sentence and a quotation to get you started:
The impact of the turning point is brutally conveyed through the closing events of the story.
“He heard Travis breathe loud in the room; he heard Travis shift his rifle, click the safety catch, and
raise his weapon.
There was a sound of thunder.”
Some helpful questions to consider for your explanation
What does Travis’s reaction to Eckels reveal about his character?
What else might Travis have treated like this?
What is making the ‘sound of thunder’?
What ideas do we associate with thunder?
What is Bradbury’s message about the world in the future?
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Critical Evaluation of Literature
Task 72 - Writing a conclusion
At the end of your CEL you should include a conclusion which should contain the following elements:
S – Summarise your essay
T – Task: make sure your reader knows you’ve addressed it
O – Opinion about how successfully the writer has done what you’ve highlighted.
P – Personal response to the text
For example:
In conclusion, Ray Bradbury very effectively creates tension in ‘A Sound of Thunder’, leading up to the turning
point and beyond, in the chilling outcome of the short story. He achieves this though convincing
characterisation, a believable setting and vivid description of events. This was a disturbing short story which
made me think about the impact scientific capability could have on a civilisation.
Mark on this exemplar the four elements listed above. Use the STOP initials to label each element.
Then write your own conclusion below.
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English Course Book
This is your opportunity to respond to the exercises in English with which you have been issued. You
should try to think about your answers and attempt to offer constructive criticism.
1
Which section of the booklet did you find the most helpful?
2
Which section of the booklet did you enjoy working on the most?
3
Is there a section of the booklet which you did not really enjoy? (If so, please explain why.)
4
Do you feel that any part of the booklet was unnecessary? (If so, please explain why.)
5
Is there anything you would have liked to have seen included in this booklet which was not?
6
How long, on average, did it take you to complete the homework exercises?
7
Have you any further comments to make about the layout and presentation of this booklet?
Parental signature
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