Preparing for
National 5
Close Reading
Homework Booklet
Fiction and Non-Fiction
For candidates in S3 and S4
Book 1
1
Passage 1
FROM EALING TO EDINBURGH
It boasts an all-star cast and Hollywood hotshot director, but can the Burke
and Hare story really be turned into romantic comedy? Brian Pendreigh goes
behind the scenes to find out.
1.
It is a horrible night, with that particularly Scottish blend of winter damp and
cold that penetrates every layer of protective clothing and seeps right into the
bones. After a while it starts to snow. Two dark figures come striding out of
the fog, down the dimly lit close. One is carrying a hammer and sickle.
Their talk is of murder. "This is the only way," says the one with the mitts.
They stop by a doorway and he blows out a lamp and everything goes black.
2.
"Cut," yells John Landis, the legendary Hollywood film-maker who has come
to Edinburgh to make a new version of the Burke and Hare story starring
Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis as the eponymous 19th century "bodysnatchers" and local boy Ronnie Corbett as the head of the local militia.
"Let's do one more," says Landis. "That was perfect, but I'm nervous."
3.
On screen it will look like the two figures are the only ones out on the sort of
night when any sane person would be wrapped up indoors. But there are
dozens of people crammed into Mylne's Court, just off Edinburgh's Royal
Mile. Landis, whose previous credits include the comedy classics The Blues
Brothers and An American Werewolf in London and the landmark Thriller
pop video, directs proceedings with the military precision of Napoleon while
looking like a giant seal in his head-to-toe waterproofs, with just a little of
his bespectacled grey-bearded face poking through.
4.
This is not the first film about Burke and Hare. There have been 14 previous
versions, according to Landis, including one written by the Welsh poet Dylan
Thomas. But Landis promises his film will be completely different. "This is
very much a comedy... a classic romantic comedy," he declares.
5.
The story of the film really began five years ago when writer Nick Moorcroft
came to Edinburgh on holiday with his mum. "She harassed me into going
on a ghost tour, and one of the guides told us the story about Burke and
Hare," he says, huddled for shelter in the museum in an out-of-the-way
corner of Edinburgh Castle. "I immediately rang Piers (Piers Ashworth,
Moorcoft's regular writing partner) and said: 'Piers, this is a very interesting
story...' There was a macabre element to it of course, but there was also a
blindingly obvious comedy."
2
6.
William Burke and William Hare were Irish immigrants who came to
Scotland to work on the Union Canal in the early 19th century, an age of
great technical and scientific advances. Edinburgh led the world in medical
study and research and there was an ongoing demand for dead bodies. The
shortage of bodies encouraged the activities of grave-robbers, also known as
"body snatchers" or "resurrectionists".
7.
Burke and Hare sold their first body to the anatomy lecturer Dr Knox when a
tenant at Hare's lodging house died owing Hare rent. The next body
belonged to another tenant, who was ailing, but not quite dead. They decided
to help him on his way. But most of Burke and Hare's corpses were hale and
hearty when they first came across them.
8.
Burke's lover and Hare's wife got involved and they had quite a thriving
business. The problem was people were turning up on the dissecting table
hours after they had been seen alive and apparently in full health. Then there
was the lodger who found a corpse under the bed. In the 12 months from
November 1827 to October 1828 Burke and Hare committed at least 16
murders around the West Port area. Hare testified against Burke and was
freed. Burke was hanged.
9.
Moorcroft and Ashworth completed their script, playing up the humour and
the practical difficulties of killing people and moving bodies around. They
also introduced an element of romance, as Burke is motivated by the desire to
raise money for an all-female version of Macbeth which his actress girlfriend
wants to stage. But as a period film it was going to be expensive and
Moorcroft points out that it was not exactly Austen or Dickens. The script sat
on a shelf while they made St Trinian's instead.
10.
Enter John Landis. He read the script. "Next day he rang to say he wanted to
make it," says Moorcroft. "Everyone in Europe looks at American Werewolf
as the breakthrough film in terms of a genre picture (becoming a mainstream
hit), and I think he has some similarities in Burke and Hare and it felt like the
perfect marriage." Landis came to Edinburgh to research the project, visited
Burke and Hare's old haunts and even went to see Burke's skeleton at the
university's anatomy museum, and his death mask and a notebook made from
his skin at the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.
11.
"I knew who Burke and Hare were, but also like most people I was wrong,"
says Landis. "If you ask people about them, they will say they are graverobbers. And they were never grave-robbers ever. They were murderers. It's
very different, actually terribly psychopathic and sleazy evil people. And the
take in this is to make them kind of charming, romantic heroes... Like Laurel
and Hardy they are terribly sweet - although they kill quite a few people."
12.
There is something larger-than-life, about Serkis with his hammer and sickle,
his broad smile, and his bashed-about top hat, tilted on his head at a jaunty
3
angle. Looking at him and Pegg coming down Mylne's Court in period
costume brings to mind Disney's Pinocchio and the scene in which the fox
Honest John and his mute feline buddy Gideon divert Pinocchio from the
straight and narrow with promises of adventures.
13.
"The thing about Hare in our version anyway is that he's strangely amoral,"
says Serkis, during a break in filming, after retreating through a side door to
the shelter of nearby student accommodation. "He doesn't really think what
he's doing is terribly wrong. He's got a very strong grip of the capitalist
mentality... He's a wheeler-dealer. He's a conman. They fall into what they
do. It's incremental how they get into killing. Hare’s philosophy was that
you're going to die anyway. We're just helping speed up the process a bit."
14.
Pegg goes even further. "What they did was terribly wrong, but … if they
hadn't killed those people then medical science might not have evolved as
quickly, and more people might have died." He says the film "dares" the
audience to sympathise with them, in their rather ham-fisted attempts at
delivering bodies to Dr Knox.
15.
Burke and Hare has a strong supporting cast, including Tom Wilkinson, as
Knox, Isla Fisher, as Burke’s girlfriend, Christopher Lee, Tim Curry, Bill
Bailey and Ronnie Corbett, who looks like a little toy soldier in his ornate
military uniform, with its gold braid, sword and a big cap that adds around a
foot to his height. He and his men have been putting up “missing person”
posters at Edinburgh Castle. Landis is using the location simply as a generic
Edinburgh Old Town setting, because it has the requisite old stone buildings
and cobbled streets and he does not need to worry about traffic or crowds.
16.
Landis is 60 and remains as in love with movie-making as ever. He is clearly
very knowledgeable about Burke and Hare. And despite the romance and the
comedy he promises, the new film will be more accurate than its
predecessors.
17.
The snow makes it impossible to write anything in my notebook, but I extend
a shivering hand and old-school tape-recorder towards him "I've been
standing in the rain and snow for three days," he says. Enthusiastically he
motions me to look at the shot in the monitor. "The snow is gorgeous when
it's backlit like that," he gushes. "I'm happy with the weather. We are getting
our money's worth out of Edinburgh."
18.
Once more Serkis and Pegg emerge out of the fog and Landis is beaming like
a kid who has finally got the toy he wanted.
Adapted from an article in The Scotsman, October 2010
4
Passage 2
IN THE SILENCE
1. The stooks 1 of corn glimmered in the moonlight and boys’ voices could be
heard as they played hide and seek among them. How calm the night was, how
stubbly the field! Iain crouched behind one of the stooks listening, watching for
deepening shadows, his face and hands sweaty, his knees trembling with
excitement. Then quite suddenly he heard the voices fading away from him, as
if the boys had tired of their game and gone home, leaving him undetected.
Their voices were like bells in the distance, each answering the other and then
falling silent. He was alone.
2. The moonlight shimmered among the stooks so that they looked like men, or
women, who had fallen asleep upright. The silence gathered around him, except
that now and again he could hear the bark of a dog and the noise of the sea. He
touched the stubble with his finger and felt it sharp and thorny as if it might
draw blood. From where he was he could see the lights of the houses but there
was no human shape to be seen anywhere. The moon made a white road across
the distant sea.
3. He moved quietly about the field, amazed at the silence. No whisper of wind, no
rustle of creature—rat or mouse—moving about. He was a scout on advance
patrol, he was a pirate among his strawy treasure chests. If he thrust his hand
into one, he might however find not gold but some small nocturnal animal. Very
faintly he heard the soft throaty call of an owl. He was on a battlefield among
the dead.
4. He began to count the stooks and made them twelve in all. It was a struggle for
him for he was continually distracted by shadows and also not at all good at
arithmetic, being only seven years old and more imaginative than mathematical.
Twelve stooks set at a certain glimmering distance from each other. Twelve
treasure chests. Twelve men of straw. He counted them again, and again he got
twelve so he had been right the first time.
5. A cat slanted along in front of him, a mouse in its jaws, its eyes cold and green.
The mouse’s tail was dangling from its mouth like a shoelace. He put out his
hand, but the cat quickly ran away from him towards its busy house, carrying its
prey. Its green eyes were solid and beautiful like jewels.
6. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and began to dry his face. In the
darkness he couldn’t see the handkerchief clearly, it appeared as a vague
ghostly shape, and though it had red spots on it he couldn’t make them out. This
was the quietest he had ever heard the world before. Even the cat had made no
1
Tall bundles of corn tied together.
5
noise when it passed him. During the daytime there was always sound, but now
even the dog had stopped barking. He could hear no sound of water, not any
noise at all. He put his hand out in front of him and could see it only as a faint
shape, as if it were separate from the rest of his body.
7. He looked up at the moon which was quite cold in the sky. He could see the
dark spots on it and it seemed to move backwards into the sky as he looked.
What an extraordinary calm was everywhere. It was as if he had been left in
charge of the night, as if he was the only person alive, as if he must take
responsibility for the whole world. No sound of footsteps could be heard from
the road that lay between the wall and the houses.
8. The silence lasted so long that he was afraid to move. He formed his lips as if to
speak but he didn’t have the courage. It was as if the night didn’t want him to
speak, were forbidding him to do so, as if it were saying to him, This is my
kingdom, you are not to do anything I don’t wish you to do. He could no longer
hear the noise of the sea, as if it too had been commanded to be quiet. It was
like a yellow shield in the distance, flat and made of hammered gold.
9. For the first time in his life he heard the beating of his own heart. Pitter patter it
went, then it picked up power and became stronger, heavier. It was like a big
clock in the middle of his chest. Then as quickly as it had started, it settled
down again and he held his breath.
10.The laden enchanted night, the strangeness of it. He would not have been
surprised to see the stooks beginning to dance, a strawy dance, one which they
were too serious to do in the daytime, when everyone was watching. He felt
daring as well as frightened, that he should be the only one to stay behind, that
he should be the dweller among the stooks. How brave he was and yet how
unreal and ghostly he felt. It was as if the boys had left him and gone to another
country, pulling the roofs over their heads and putting off the switch beside the
bed.
11.This was the latest he had ever been out. He imagined himself staying there all
night and the boys appearing to him in the morning, their faces red with the sun,
shouting and screaming, like warriors. The sun was on their faces like war paint.
They came out of their boxes pushing the lids up, and suddenly there they were
among the stubble with their red knees and their red hands.
12.The stooks weren’t all at the same angle to the earth. As he listened in the
quietness he seemed to hear them talking in strawy voices, speaking in a sort of
sharp, strawy language. They were whispering to each other, deep and rough
and sharp. Their language sounded very odd, not at all liquid and running, but
like the voice of stones, thorns. The field was alive with their conversation.
Perhaps they were discussing the scythe that had cut them down, the boys that
played hide and seek among them. They were busy and hissing as if they had to
speak as much as possible before the light strengthened around them.
6
13.Then they came closer together, and the boys seemed suddenly very far away.
The stooks were pressed against each other, composing a thorny spiky wall. He
screamed suddenly and stopped, for at the sound the stooks had resumed their
original positions. They were like pieces on a board. He began to count them
again, his heart beating irregularly. Thirteen, where there had been twelve
before. Where had the thirteenth come from?
14.He couldn’t make out which was the alien one, and then counted them again
and again. Then he saw it, the thirteenth. It was moving towards him, it had
sharp teeth, it had thorny fingers. It was sighing inarticulately like an old
woman, or an old man, its sigh was despairing and deep. Far beyond on the road
he could sense that the boys were all gathered together, having got out of their
boxes. They were sighing, everyone was sighing like the wind. Straw was
peeling away from them as if on an invisible gale. And finally they were no
longer there, but had returned to their boxes again and pulled the roofs over
their heads.
15.He didn’t notice the lights of the house go out as he walked towards the
thirteenth stook, laid his head on its breast and fell asleep among the thorns.
Adapted from a short story by Iain Crichton Smith
7
National 5
Learning Intention:
The following assignments are designed to assess your skills in
Reading. You are expected to show that you can:
Understand, analyse and evaluate detailed written texts, by:
1.1 Identifying and explaining the purpose and audience as appropriate to genre
1.2 Identifying and explaining the main ideas and supporting details
1.3 Applying knowledge and understanding of language to explain meaning and
effect, using appropriate critical terminology
The assignments will also provide the opportunity for you to
demonstrate your skills in Literacy, covering the Reading
outcome. You are expected to show that you can:
Read and understand complex word-based texts by:
1.1 Selecting and Using Information
1.2 Explaining a range of aspects
1.3 Evaluating effectiveness
Success Criteria:
You will be asked questions to allow you to demonstrate that you
can:
 identify the purpose and audience of the text you are reading and
justify this by quoting or referring to its content;
 show clear understanding of the most relevant points of the text;
 infer from the text, drawing on appropriate evidence/quotations to
support your thinking;
 identify and analyse various features of a writer’s use of language and
its effect;
 use appropriate textual reference or quotation to support statements;
 evaluate the effectiveness of the writing.
8
What you have to do:
1. Read the whole of the passage very carefully. It might help to
read it more than once.
2. If the passage is fictional, think about the genre you are reading:
poetry/prose/drama have different features.
3. Answer the questions using your own words as far as
possible. You do not have to answer in sentences.
4. Pay attention to the number of marks awarded to each
question: this gives you a guide of how many pieces of
information/evidence are required in the answer.
5. The codes listed in the right hand column refer to the
assessment standards at the top of this page.
9
Task 1a
Approaching a passage
 As with all areas of Close Reading, it is a good idea to annotate the text
as you read through it.
 This not only helps you to identify good examples of the writer’s
language and use of structure, but it will also help you to recognise the
writer’s main points (in non-fiction). Furthermore, it will help you to
anticipate the questions you might be asked.
 As you read, you should underline interesting examples of word choice,
imagery and sentence structure.
 If the passage is non-fiction, you should also try to identify the writer’s
main points as you read. Each paragraph will make one main point
with supporting detail so underline the point that is being made in
each main paragraph as you read. (This is the topic sentence.)
1. Read Passage 1 following the above approach.
2. Read Passage 2 following the above approach.
10
Task 1b
Remember: Use your own words as far as possible in your answers.
It is acceptable to ‘quote and explain’ but quotation alone will gain no
marks unless you are specifically asked to do so.
Purpose
1.1 Identifying and explaining the purpose and audience as appropriate to
genre
Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh
Mrk
Code
Eng
Lit
10a. What do you think is the writer’s purpose in writing
this article? With reference to the passage as a whole,
justify your response.
3
1.1
1.2
10b. Explain how effective you think the writer has been in
achieving his aims. Justify your answer with reference to
evidence from the passage as a whole.
3
1.1
1.3
Read Passage 2: Into the Silence
6. The writer focuses on atmosphere in paragraphs 6 to 11.
Explain what you think is the purpose of concentrating
on the atmosphere in so much detail in this section. You
might refer to plot or character in your answer.
Mrk
3
Code
Eng
1.1
11
Task 2
Audience
1.1 Identifying and explaining the purpose and audience as appropriate to
genre
Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh
9a. Who would be likely to read this article? Think about:
 Age and/or
 Interests and/or
 Nationality and/or
 Another audience you can identify
9b. Referring to evidence from the passage, explain how you
reached this conclusion.
Read Passage 2: Into the Silence
11a. Who would be likely to read this article? Think about:
 Age and/or
 Interests and/or
 Nationality and/or
 Another audience you can identify
11b. Referring to evidence from the passage, explain how you
reached this conclusion.
Mrk
Code
Eng
Lit
1
1.1
1.2
2
1.1
1.2
Mrk
Code
Eng
Lit
1
1.1
1.2
2
1.1
1.2
12
Task 3
Non-Fiction: Understanding main ideas
1.2 Identifying and explaining the main ideas and supporting details
Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh
Mrk
1. Read carefully paragraphs 5 – 6.
In this section, Nick Moorcroft explains how he came
upon the idea for his film about Burke and Hare. Explain
clearly where this idea came from.
2
1.2
1.1
2. Explain clearly the reasons why Burke and Hare came to
Edinburgh at that time.
3
1.2
1.1
2
1.2
1.1
3
1.2
1.1
3a. Read carefully paragraphs 11 – 14.
In these paragraphs, Moorcroft discusses what Burke and
Hare were like. Summarise the main point he makes
about them.
3b. Provide three pieces of supporting evidence for this
point.
5a. Read carefully paragraphs 15 - 19.
Explain why Edinburgh’s Old Town is a good choice of
location for the film.
5b. Provide three pieces of supporting evidence for this line
of thought.
Code
Eng
Lit
2
1.2
1.1
3
1.2
1.1
13
Task 4
Fiction: Understanding main features of plot,
character and setting
1.2 Identifying and explaining the main ideas and supporting details
Read Passage 2: Into the Silence
Mrk
Code
Eng
Lit
3a. “He was alone.” (Paragraph 1)
Explain why this is an important moment in the story.
10. Iain is presented as a character who is both imaginative
and young. From your reading of the whole passage, justify
both aspects of his character.
1
1.2
4
1.2
14
The following tasks focus on the ‘writer’s use of
language’. This term refers to the writer’s word choice,
imagery, sentence structure and tone.
Task 5
Tone
1.2 Identifying and explaining the main ideas and supporting details
Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh
Mrk
Code
Lit
Mrk Eng Code
Eng
Lit
4a. Look carefully at the end of paragraph 11.
Identify the writer’s tone here.
4b. Quote an example of this tone and explain why it is
appropriate.
1
1.2
1.2
2
1.2
1.2
15
Task 6
Word Choice
1.3 Applying knowledge and understanding of language to explain meaning
and effect, using appropriate critical terminology
Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh
Mrk
Code
Eng
Lit
6. Read carefully paragraphs 1 – 2.
Explain clearly why the word-choice in these paragraphs
helps to create a creepy atmosphere. You should choose
three examples and explain their effect.
3
1.3
1.2
Read Passage 2: Into the Silence
4. How does the writer use word-choice to create a creepy
atmosphere in these paragraphs?
3
1.3
5. Two qualities of the cat are identified in Paragraph 5.
Explain what these are with close reference to wordchoice.
4
1.3
2
1.3
9. How does the writer use word-choice to convey Iain’s
feeling that the stooks are threatening him?
16
Task 7
Imagery
Just as... So too...
1.3 Applying knowledge and understanding of language to explain meaning
and effect, using appropriate critical terminology
Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh
Mrk
Code
Eng
Lit
8. “who looks like a little toy soldier” (paragraph 15)
Identify the figure of speech used here and explain why it is
an effective way of describing Ronnie Corbett.
3
1.3
2. The writer uses imagery to describe the boys’ voices.
Identify and quote a suitable example. Go on to explain
clearly why this is an effective way to describe the boys’
voices.
2
1.3
7. “The laden enchanted night” (Paragraph 10)
With close reference to the writer’s language, show how
this idea is continued in this paragraph.
2
1.3
8. “He seemed to hear them talking” (Paragraph 12)
Identify and comment on the effectiveness of one technique
used by the writer to describe the stooks’ language.
2
1.3
1.2
Read Passage 2: Into the Silence
17
Task 8
Sentence Structure
1.3 Applying knowledge and understanding of language to explain meaning
and effect, using appropriate critical terminology
Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh
Mrk
Code
Eng
Lit
7. Read the sentence “I immediately rang… story.” (paragraph 5)
Explain why the writer has used the brackets in this
sentence.
2
1.3
1.2
Read Passage 2: Into the Silence
3b. “He was alone.” (Paragraph 1)
How does the writer emphasise that this is an important
moment?
9. How does the writer use sentence structure to convey
Iain’s feeling that the stooks are threatening him?
1
1.2
2
1.3
Task 9
Summary
1.2 Identifying and explaining the main ideas and supporting details
Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh
 Referring to the whole article, in your own words list
the key points the writer
Mrk
4
Code
Eng
Lit
1.2
18
1.2
19